Uzumaki

A town in Japan is being taken over by a horribly brutal abstract shape: the spiral. It's becoming a theme in everything from animals to clouds to people and twisting them, mentally and literally. This film shows it happening to several groups of people. Some demonic possession is implied, but nothing is entirely sure except that the best bet is to get the heck out of dodge. The film progresses really well from normal life to abnormal phenomena (giant snails and crazy people) to the truly supernatural (walking dead).

As a jaded American horror movie fan, this was just what I needed. Maybe it was just the novelty of a different culture's film, but it seemed to have a very original progression, set of characters, and the premise was definitely new. The Japanese may think "horror shapes" (uzumaki means "spiral," I'm told) are old by now, but it was nice for me because I'm used to monster/alien/virus/disaster/undead films. In an American movie, you know who's going to die (the annoying/nasty/lascivious/racist characters) and who will live (the children/heroine/dogs/cats/nice guy). That's not true in Japanese horror. It was not predictable how they would fight the evil or how it would end up. Also, it had this really new (but probably typically Japanese) color leached Pacific Northwest style cloudy day thing going, which was a fresh visual effect for me. The horrific moments were seriously creepy, relying on a little gore but mainly just impossibly overdone facial expressions (think The Ring) and body manipulations. This should be one of the greats, up there with once-original ideas like the first Nightmare on Elm Street or Night of the Living Dead.

First of all - don't expect horror movie. I did and I was quite disappointed - not even by the lack of actual "horror" - much more by poor CG and lack of any sensible explanation(s). I could live with that, but what really bothers me - it looks like creators of Uzumaki themselves had no idea how to explain events (or at least develop a story). The movie IS twisted, like - well - home of a snail. Some people compare it to creations of David Lynch. There is one resemblance - Lynch also often has no idea how to clarify his story. Strange - or rather weird - things happen all the time but often without any particular reason. After the movie ended I felt like after watching "Twilight Zone" mixed with a pinch of "Tales from the Crypt" and all that shoot in "Ringu" style. Such blend sounds promising, but Uzumaki doesn't keep its promise - it's simply too uneven. In addition all actual action concentrates on scenes with CG effects, which are often so poor that they will make you laugh. Everything between them (while quite stylish) may bore you to death - especially if you're not a Ringu fan. A pity.

But there are two things that I actually "won" by watching this movie. The first one is end credits song (fortunately credited not with Japanese Kana, but Latin characters) - "Raven" by "Do As Infinity". I've found the video for it - and it basically contains all the action and special effects of the movie. If you will watch it before the movie - chances are that it will spare you the disappointment. And the song is really great!

Second great thing about Uzumaki is its origin - the comic book. After finding out it's based on a comic I understood why it recalls "Tales from the Crypt" so noticeably... But Uzumaki comic is simply great! The story is very well developed and everything makes *much* more sense than in the movie - and that's quite strange because the movie is quite heavily based on the comic! Unfortunately all threads are mixed and twisted (pun intended), and the final effect is much worse than its origin.

My final grade for Uzumaki is 5/10 - it doesn't mean that the movie is average. It's simple an average of what I want and would like to give it (i.e. 3/10 - 7/10).

UZUMAKI (aka: SPIRAL) is a bizarre film, in a good way. It's about a high school girl named Kirie (Erico Hatsune), who lives in a small town in Japan. Right from the outset, things begin changing around her, leading to a sort of madness and death among those in her life. There's an odd obsession with spirals that appears to enter and take total control of the mind. This is presented in a truly disturbing way.

Is it a curse? Mass insanity? Something in the atmosphere?

There are several spiral shapes, like a snail shell, a beauty salon sign, a piece of pottery, etcetera. However, as you watch, you will notice spirals where there really shouldn't be any. This messes with the viewer's head, and really ups the creep factor. While there are some gruesome parts, it's the unsettling nature of the film that makes it scary.

Having watched this, it's hard to believe that Director Higuchinsky only made one other horror movie...

I think it was an interesting movie that you give a lot of thought to afterwards, but it was a little overwhelming and confusing. I loved the eeriness of the film though, the whole time it felt like I was watching somebody's nightmare. It's so all over the place. That's the only way I can describe the movie. It perfectly captures a feeling of disturbance in a dream and not understanding what it is because you're dreaming, and as you're dreaming that feeling grows more until it manifests into or as something in your dream. I hope someone understands what I'm talking about. The story is unsettling and intriguing at the same time and I wish this movie would be more popular despite it being a little terrible. There will definitely be better adaptations though lol.

This movie is actually pretty good at first. Stylishly directed with interesting visual ideas and an intriguing start. In spite of some spotty acting it feels pretty professional and well made. But the complete absence of any sort of explanation for the film's rather absurd concept is increasingly bothersome. At first I thought, perhaps it's a symbolic movie shot like a horror movie, but by the last third it had made it pretty clear that it was just a bad horror movie with a dumb premise and no interest in explaining it's seemingly random slew of events. One is left with nothing but loose ends and some last scenes that are utterly laughable. Still, parts of it are really cool and I did enjoy most of it, so I give it 6/10.