Rape Zombie: Lust of the Dead

Rape Zombie: Lust Of The Dead 1-5.

When women are getting mass raped by a horde of Zombies, the movies have gotta be on some kinda list. Right? Unfortunately, trying to read the frenetically paced subtitles in the opening exposition of the first movie is nearly impossible and overwhelming. Then the movie takes a while before it lives up to it's name; but in the end, it does. It did manage to keep my attention, though. And you've really got to admit, getting raped by Zombies wouldn't be nearly as bad as being eaten alive by Zombies, so really, this is more of a win/win compromise in the whole world of Zombies thing; let's just be honest about that.

Now there has to be a reason they managed to get 5 movies financed, right? From the second movie and on, the producers seem to understand that if you're gonna make promises, don't dally around, just get to it. Seriously, nobody watched this movie hoping for shower scenes. (Or at least I didn't.)

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This movie is a Japanese gift that takes iconic elements of their culture and presents them in the most economical way possible. Although we have situations that stimulate the viewer, the story itself leaves a lot to be desired. It reminds me of the worst Andrea Bianchi. The film has many weaknesses: it does not disgust, it does not disturb, it barely entertains in a small portion of its short duration. In the hands of someone more capable this movie would have been wonderful. It was not the case.

This film begins with a woman by the name of "Kanae" (Asami) doing housework when her husband comes home and proceeds to physically assault and rape her. To that extent, in a moment of sheer panic, she grabs some scissors that have fallen on the floor and kills him. Meanwhile, news reports begin surfacing about multiple rapes occurring on the streets of Tokyo and the rest of Japan. The scene then shifts to a young woman named "Momoko" (Saya Kobayashi) being raped by a doctor while she had been hospitalized for an injury. Hearing her screams, a nurse by the name of "Nozomi" (Alice Ozawa) rushes in and kills the doctor before leading her to a place of refuge. To their surprise, when they finally arrive, they are immediately accosted by Kanae and another woman named "Tamae" (Yui Aikawa) who insist that, since Momoko had been raped, she must be killed before this virus has a chance to cause harm to them. Fortunately, Nozomi forcefully rejects that notion by threatening to kill one of them unless they put down their weapons. From that point on, the four of them remain in their secluded refuge until they can decide what to do next. Now, as one might expect from a movie of this type, this film consists of a number of graphic scenes filled with sex, violence and gore. That said, viewer discretion is strongly advised. I should also note that there is also a great amount of satire toward Japanese cultural issues as well. Be that as it may, although I wasn't generally impressed with this movie, I must say that I was extremely disappointed with the ending and I have rated this film accordingly. Below average.

Following a nuclear attack in Tokyo, a nurse and several other women find themselves as well as any woman in the city under attack by zombified men looking to rape any woman around them and must find a way of stopping their violent outbursts to get away alive.

This one wasn't that bad but did have its flaws. When it tried to, there was some rather fine work here where it manages to showcase the rather intense and explicit work involved in a rather ordinary manner. The cause of the outbreak and how it affects the population makes for a rather creepy premise and there's some rather chilling work here showcasing the rather ugly truth for all involved here, from the opening beatdown and her eventual revenge to the different flashbacks showing each of the girls getting their own run-ins with the crazed hordes from the hospital room massacre to the aborted job interview where her attacker turns on her and the situation with the housewife being used by her husband and her friends which are all rather dark action scenes against the theme of seeing the women being raped and having the others around them either save them or let it happen. That these generate into battles with zombies gives this the kind of graphic bloodletting usually required here with the method utilized for getting rid of the men, and the regular means of dispatch give this even more rather brutal scenes with the evisceration and bloodshed coming from some rather fun encounters here. Once it comes to showing the women fighting back and taking up arms supported by the military forces left, there's a nice amount of action to be had here as this one goes for the fun of the gunfighting and hand-to-hand tactics to stave off the swarms around them, letting the furious action take over again and brings about some great times here. Given that these result in some really brutal and bloody sequences with all the usual craziness expected here, this goes a long way to redeeming this one. While these did work, it does have some issues. The film's biggest problem is the fact that there's such a hard subject matter to take into account here as the film attempts to support the theory that women are there simply to have men have sex with them as the chemical only affects men. Turning them into sex-crazed maniacs rather than flesh-eating hordes who will attack any and all women as often as they want wherever they want sends quite a strong message and the continuous sequences showing multiple men abusing and raping women in incredibly explicit and sexual means doesn't come off in the best light. That often blurs the line between exploitation and outright misogyny at times, especially within the rape at the TV station which is left on showing the girls getting raped in full-on close-up simply for the sake of the nudity and it leaves a much more brutal and ugly tone in this one than there really should be. As well, once it leaves the exploitative subject matter there's a big flaw in how long that goes in between attacks as the mid-section of the film doesn't feature anything as the girls are stuck in their hideout watching the events of the world play out around them doesn't generate any kind of really interesting action to play out. It's somewhat dull in these sections, and that results in some serious pacing issues. With some really dodgy and lame CGI in places, these here really take this one down.

Rated Unrated/NC-17: Continuous Explicit Rape, Extreme Graphic Violence, Continuous Full Nudity and Graphic Language.

Within the last couple of years there has been a massive flood of these blood-drenched and gory movies to make it out of Japan. They are known (and loved) for their extreme violence, amounts of blood, absurdity and for just being downright campy. I will say that "Rape Zombie: Lust of the Dead" ("Reipu Zonbi: Lust of the Dead") was a rather stale and boring addition to this rather unique genre of Japanese movies.

Whereas most others are just blunt trauma to your face with the levels of violence, bloodshed and oddities, then "Rape Zombie: Lust of the Dead" was just one step away from being soft core porn. And yeah, of course, there is an audience for that as well. But enough is enough.

The story in "Rape Zombie: Lust of the Dead" is about a strange phenomena that turns men into rapists and after awhile they turn into zombie rapists. And women all over the world are in dire peril.

That was basically it, the entire movie wrapped up in a short summary. The storyline is entertaining enough in its oddity and absurdity. But it can only carry the movie so far, because there is little else to keep the movie afloat. That is, unless you are into soft core Japanese pornography and really awful zombie make-up.

The acting in the movie was as you'd expect from a movie with the title "Rape Zombie: Lust of the Dead". So don't get your hopes up here.

Personally I think that director Naoyuki Tomomatsu was spending a little too much time filming staged rape scenes with poor-looking zombies, instead of focusing on establishing a proper movie.

There are two sequels to "Rape Zombie: Lust of the Dead" that I am familiar with, as I found them on Amazon. But at the outrageous price they are set and after having seen the train wreck that is "Rape Zombie: Lust of the Dead", then I will call it quits here and not invest in further installments to this low budget sleaze-fest.