Bloodsucking Doll

Keiko (Kayo Matsuo) and her friend try to find her missing brother after he disappeared on a trip to visit his girlfriend Yuko (Yukiko Kobayashi). They don't get very far as Yuko's mother claims the brother ran away after finding out Yuko had been killed in a car wreck the week before his visit. But Keiko finds signs that she might be being lied to - namely, a doll that her brother had purchased and, oh yeah, she sees Yuko's corpse walking around at night. This Toho production is a unique Japanese take on vampires. Fans of suave vampire types will be disappointed as this film's count is very different. The film does benefit from some great scary and atmospheric bits though. I also wonder if Tobe Hooper ever saw this as several things remind me of his later SALEM'S LOT (1979), most notably the design of the vampire (pale blue face with gold glowing eyes) and the rotting depiction of the vampire's lair. Toho produced two more vampire films after this in LAKE OF Dracula (1971) and EVIL OF Dracula (1974).

Fascinating attempt by Toho to capitalize on recent Western vampire movies like the Hammer flicks. This movie has all the gothic trappings one would expect from its Western counterparts, but folds in a dose of the kind of wacky storytelling the characterizes other Japanese horror movies. The Vampire Doll seems pretty conventional (not in a bad way), until out of nowhere we get a bunch of exposition that tells the strangest, out of left field backstory, which,we learn, led up to the events of the movie.

Stylistically, the biggest mistake here is the overuse of day for night shooting, which also happens to be a failing of a lot of the Hammer movies. Nonetheless, between the fog and the excellent soundtrack with very creepy wailings and wind, this one is well worth seeing for fans of Gothic supernatural horror. Lots of fun.

After a strong success on European market from Hammer horror pictures, Toho decides to make their own Vampires movies, conceived as trilogy this very first enterprise "Yûrei yashiki no kyôfu: Chi wo sû ningyô" wasn't properly a Hammer production alike, it was adapted on Japanese folklore, the Vampire doesn't bite their victims, actually they living from black birds's blood, a girl from a cursed family, falling in love for a man, however she dies afterwards for an unknown reason, she becomes a vampire, his boyfriend looking for her and disappears without a trace, the his sister worried for his sudden disappearance asking helping for his boyfriend, at this point they find the place where an old and cold woman as a mother of the dead girl, they suspicious that woman didn't say the whole truth and starting making a investigation, too much valuable tale, surprisingly good!!

Resume:

First watch: 2019 / How many: 1 / Source: DVD / Rating: 7.

Despite its vampire titling, I would place this film more in the ghost-story genre (featuring that famous figure of Japanese horror cinema: the creepy, and ever-silent, female, child-like waif).

My short summary is that, in the end, the film does not quite capitalize on the wonderfully eerie mood it builds, but that it is well worth a watch and has some great (and occasionally scary) cinematic moments. (My main complaint is that the film ends up using what I will call the "Scooby Doo" reveal at several points, in that it employs both peripheral and central characters to tell us, in narrative format, the backstory: the who, what, where, when and why. It's a strange choice for a movie that relies so heavily on images and subtle expressions for the first 75% of the running time.)

While some have compared the film to the Hammer offerings, the moral universe here is not quite as "modern" in its themes, as its chief concerns are with familial loss, personal revenge and the ripples of social violence. (Even Hammer's historically oriented offerings-- say, the Witchfinder General or the Karnstein Trilogy-- tend to be preoccupied with much more contemporary themes.)

In terms of aesthetics, my own comparison would be to something like "Carnival of Souls" and, as a result of the really fine cinematography of Kazutami Hara, to something a Hitchcock understudy might have made. (My understanding is that the producers did want something like a Hammer-style vampire movie, but that the director was definitely looking for something in the Hitchcock vein. That might explain the somewhat disjointed style at points.)

Anyway, worth a watch, particularly as there are some really memorably unsettling episodes involving Yuko dispersed throughout the firlm. (The likes of Wei-Hao Cheng and Takashi Shimizu must have studied this film for inspiration.)

A side note: It's never developed enough to warrant extended consideration, but I could not help but notice the role that "the foreign" plays in this film (it's even more pronounced in "Lake of Dracula," the second installment in the trilogy). There are many instances where we learn that various male characters in movie have traveled beyond their homes / overseas as diplomats, to the US on business, in service for the war, etc., and that this contact or travel has unsettled the world in which they live. In at least two instances, this impact of foreign culture / foreign contact becomes very important to the narrative. It's easy to miss, but does some plot-work nonetheless.

Very well shot and creepy tale that seems to be somewhat unoriginal at first, albeit, still able to induce a few jumps by me, which is a bit unusual. Gradually, though, this becomes less familiar and whilst occasionally verging on the silly, still enough solid horror element to hold one pretty spellbound in its grip. The most unusual and intermittent soundtrack helped keep up the unease and indeed, ramp up the scares. The final denouement almost degenerates into farce but once again the direction is so sharp that we are still persuaded. Good performances all round and a particularly energetic one by the guy playing the mute servant. Lovely old western style house too, which, I assume is why we had none of the usual shoe removing. Effects were simple yet effective and the dead girl always very good indeed. Well worth catching and I must watch out for the other two in the series.