Shiryô no wana 2: Hideki

The best part of this movie is the choice of the protagonist. It's not often you see a female in the role of serial killer and Aki is not a supersexy villain type either. She's a very average, plain woman in a boring job. The fact that she's also a twisted killer is that much more of a contrast than your average Hollywood production. That this all may stem from abortion trauma gives this film an unusual spin.

The crew who made this film of a murderous love triangle set in a wasteland of urban Japanese anomie (revolving around an overweight movie projectionist, her spiffy TV- correspondent friend, and the man they both share, more or less) needed to decide what the heck was happening here before they went ahead into production. Sure, maybe the result would have been no less weirded out and non-linear than the mishmash fema-slasher-post-abortion-psycho-angst-fest they ended up with--but they would have made conscious decisions about how the weirdness did or did not fit together as a plot. Deliberately chosen incoherence might have jelled into a more compelling and less aimless flick. Personally, I enjoyed the film's unconventional post-Bergman moodiness: but the evident lack of storyboarded logic emphasizes budget and production shorftalls, dragging down the project.

A sequel in name only, this second entry in the EDT-series is easily the most satisfying one. It's as gory as one might expect from an Asian horror film -I've seen this film round eight times, but still have to look away when the breaking-the-arm-over-the-radiator bit comes along- but this one has an ingenious plot and decent acting to boot.

Far less derivative than the original, EDT 2 involves a young, timid girl who goes on a killing spree, her self-loathing fueling the fire. There's also a sub-plot of an abortion gone awry, and the re-appearance of Hideki, probably the scariest child in movie history. Dream-logic, most of it, but it works.

The photography is perversely stylish, the pacing hypnotic. Some images, like a wounded victim staggering forward against a full-neon backdrop, or the twisted ballet of protagonist and antagonist battling in a mesh of white sheets, will stay with you for a very long time. The soundtrack, a Goblin-inspired celesta-theme, is breath-taking, and extremely well used troughout the film.

EDT 2 is top-notch film-making all the way, and will have you looking under the bed for nights to come. Argento would be proud. ........

"Evil Dead Trap 2" has very little in common with its predecessor apart from, perhaps, some industrial settings, impressive gore and a small element of body-morphing horror.

A somewhat confusing tale which contains a myriad of ideas, "Evil Dead Trap 2" bravely has an unconventional lead, Shoko Nakajima. Nakajima is not the usual beauty that we'd expect to see in a film of this nature. Her character, although initially sympathetic, soon takes a turn into classic horror territory. Rie Kondoh plays the beautiful reporter whose character is also not as it initially appears.

Beautifully shot, and directed by Izô Hashimoto, this Asian horror film may be confusing but it's very watchable and atmospheric.

7 out of 10.

Sequel in name only to the Japanese torture/splatter pic Evil Dead Trap (1988) (so, again, not in any way connected with Sam Raimi's Evil Dead movies). Like the first, this plays out like a combination of slasher, giallo, and body-horror.

Aki works as a theatre projectionist. She's overweight, not 'conventionally attractive', suffers from low self-esteem, and pretty much withdraws from the world when she's not working. Her only friend is Emi; she's an attractive former pop idol, now working as a TV news reporter. Emi has been covering a series of brutal ripper-style murders of young women. Our sympathies for Aki fade when she suddenly realises that she herself is the killer; some evenings she dresses fashionably - even seductively, and stalks and kills young women, mutilating then in a manner similar to Jack the Ripper. That's all I can say with any certainty, because from then on it's by no means clear how much - if any - of what we see is real... Aki is encouraged by Emi to get out more, and they get into a bizarre love-triangle with Emi's (married) supervisor. Emi gets sexually aroused by the sight of the women's mutilated bodies as she arrives at crime scenes. Aki is haunted by the ghost of a young boy (kind of a forerunner of 'Toshio' from the Ju-On movies), and that same little boy also appears to Emi's supervisor and his wife as the spirit of a child they longed for but never had (???). Gradually, jealousies and rivalries begin to alter Aki and Emi's relationship, leading to an even more bizarre - and incredibly bloody - turn of events.

The movie has been called 'hallucinatory', which is a perfect description. What's certain is that the cinematography is terrific, the performances are all very good, the effects are excellent, and the blood and gore rivals that of the Terrifier movies. Like the first one, visually and musically it's got a very Argento feel to it, with a bit of Cronenberg thrown in. There are two big drawbacks. One is that the whole thing is just so damn confusing; it's hard to get invested in what's happening to the characters when you don't know how much of it is 'real'. The other is that the first half of the movie is painfully slow - thankfully, things pick up. In fact, where I found the first EDT great APART from the climax, with EDT2 it's the other way around; the climax (which lasts about 20 minutes) is a jaw-dropping bloodbath and easily the best part of the movie.

What's great is great, but overall, 6.5/10.