Eko eko azaraku

I had seen this first 'Eko Eko Azarak' movie at a festival when it came out at the time. I remember being enthusiastic about it. I planned on re-visiting it together with the next 3 installments of this series. Only watched the first two so far. And re-watching this one, was a bit disappointing, sadly. I remembered it to be a bit better. Or maybe that first-time-viewing impact that many movies have, was simply gone now. There's a few moments were the story just doesn't seem to move on. But other than that, it's still a fun flick. High school kids trapped in the school building overnight. Satanic rituals going on. Someone out to inherit all evil powers of Lucifer. A good teenage witch out to stop her. Lots of magic. Possession. A handful of nice gore and very bloody killings. A couple of really hot lesbian scenes. And all-in-all it's not even some trashy Japanese exploit-effort, so the production values are pretty decent. A fun enough watch, worth seeking out.

Here's a sexy and bloody by-the-numbers supernatural teen horror film that somehow manages to be fresh and exciting. The tight and intelligent script is matched by high production values, interesting characters, slick special effects, and a haunting musical score. The direction is smart and generates a tense atmosphere of ever-increasing dread without dipping into cheap thrill exploitation. Highly recommended as a late night scare-fest - particularly if you enjoy watching girls dabble in the black arts.

I have never read the 70's manga by Shinichi Koga, so I cannot say how well the film follows its source.

I first saw this a decade ago on a Japanese grocery store rental tape without subtitles, but this first film had such a straightforward minimal plot that a full translation wasn't really necessary to follow the story. After seeing it subtitled, I feel the same way I felt back then: It's a decent low budget splatter film with witchcraft elements which seems to have spent the bulk of its budget in about 3 minutes of CG SFX scenes at the end of the film. Almost the entire film takes place in the school, but the limited setting doesn't hurt the film.

It's a pretty decent low budget film, but as the director stated is basically more of a relationship film with a horror backdrop than a typical horror film. I liked Kimika Yoshino in the lead role and thought she wasn't bad for a gravure model turned first time actress. Miho Kanno plays her new friend who shows her around school. You may recognize her from her role a few years later as the first Tomie. Prolific actress/voice actress Ryouka Yuzuki (aka Kanori Kadomatsu / Ayumi Nagashii) plays a schoolgirl who is having a lesbian affair with the teacher played by Mio Takaki (an actress from a few Ultraman films). The lesbian affair and its resulting nudity seems to be an idea of the producers to appeal to the exploitation audience and really doesn't add anything to the film.

STORY: Misa Kuroi is a witch who battle the forces of darkness and tries to protect the innocent, not that she has too good a track record for saving her friends, as she readily admits. Unfortunately for her, the trail of deaths left in her path makes some see her as an evil occult murderer, when in fact she just goes where the danger happens to be. She's somewhat of a victim of circumstance in this regard. She transfers in to a new school where five local murders have made a pentagram of blood and now an evil cult plans to kill off 13 more hapless victims to bring Lucifer into the world to obtain his powers. A group of students has to stay after school to retake a test and is trapped inside, trying to escape what seems to be a certain and rather messy death at the hands of an unknown enemy. The resident 'goth' kid has read some books about magic and decides Misa's knowledge makes her the number one suspect.

Sadly, the subtitlers at Tokyo Shock have an issue with consistency as they use at least 2 or 3 noticeably different spellings for the 3rd line of the Eko Eko Azarak chant. Luckily, the DVD is packed with extras.

Misa Kuroi (Kimika Yoshino) comes to a new school and is challenged by kids dabbling in magic. Her skills in the dark art don't fail to impress the others, but a much more dangerous master seems to be around. Misa can't find out who it is. Soon after, a lot of the kids are trapped at school. All doors are locked, and then mysterious killings begin... Unfortunately, the first movie of the series contains a few blunt scenes of lesbian sex and molestation that should better be left to the tentacle monster flicks. The 3 sequels have hardly anything of this way of exploitation. Apart from that one little complaint, we have an effective teen horror movie here, cheaply shot in the narrow spaces of a few corridors and classrooms, but with vicious shocks and the bizarre surrealism of a nightmare. Voted 7/8/5/6 for part 1-4.

Of the only two Japanese horror films I've seen, Eko Eko Azaraku (Wizard of Darkness) and Ringu, I enjoyed Wizard of Darkness far more. I didn't find myself watching the clock as I did with Ringu and it seemed to be just the right length for this type of movie.

Kimika Yoshino did a fine job in the leading role and is a fine actress. She grew on me more as I got further into the movie. Ryôka Yuzuki was another actress I enjoyed watching, as she was probably the best looking female in the movie. She didn't have a very big part but the part she had was fine with me.

Overall, no one stood out as a bad actor or actress, which is rare, but it was in Japanese so what do I know? I looked all right from my perspective.

And finally, the plot wasn't too terribly original, but the movie did have it's own unique feel to it. I really couldn't find much wrong with the movie as a whole. I gave it an 8 of 10.