Yôkai hantâ: Hiruko

I decided to purchase the film before seeing it. It was a "blind buy". was it worth it? Yes. That's not to say that the film isn't without it's faults however.

The story (like many people have already said) is somewhat confusing. I'm not going to go into the basic plot of the film, because you can look that up yourself...lol. I'll tell you that the plot IS interesting though, if maybe a tad to complex for it's own good.

I'm just going to point out what i liked and didn't like, so that you'll be able to make a decision on whether or not the film would be worth your time.

The effects were OK. This is obviously a low budget flick. That being said, there were only a couple really cheesy effects. Of course, the main gimmick is the whole "heads with spider legs" thing, and that's pulled off pretty well for the most part. I gotta say, they do look pretty creepy and some of them shoot large tongues out their mouths (reminded me of Uzumaki to a certain degree).

The film doesn't really know if it's serious or slapstick. Now by slapstick, i don't mean there's scenes like you'd see in "the naked gun" or movies of that type however. One of the main characters runs around with quirky inventions made of household items. he carries a can of aerosol spray that evidently the goblins don't like. There's a lot of tongue in cheek events and scenes in this one...but there's some good horror elements as well.

in fact, there's actually quite a few scenes that gave me goosebumps. there was also 2 or 3 moments where i actually jumped a little bit. it's just too bad that it seems like the last 3/4's of the film loses the "horror edge" and makes the film seem like a bad Japanese Indiana Jones ripoff in comparison to what we see earlier in the film.

Oh yeah, there's some pretty violent scenes in this as well. so if you aren't a fan of gore and blood...then this might turn you off. however, the violence isn't "shocking" or anything that would upset the squeamish.

The premise is interesting, but i honestly think this would have been a much better flick if it was straight horror...and dropped the goofy comedic tone found in many scenes. Overall though, it's a pretty fun ride...and there's really not much out there that has the feel the film has. I'm a big time horror fan, and it floats my boat and was worth the blind purchase.

RATING: 7/10

HIRUKO: THE GOBLIN (1990) Surprisingly fluffy supernatural adventure film from the director of the TETSUO movies, Shinya Tsukamoto, perhaps done to prove he could apply a mainstream touch to lighter material. As such, it's still got his trademark bodily aberrations and spurting blood. An archaeologist uncovers an burial mound he believes to be some sort of an appeasement to ancient gods, but he and a student are killed by the critters within.

Meanwhile, his colleague (Kenji Sawada), now conveniently a goblin hunter, teams with the man's son to seal off the tomb under the mound before more deaths are caused by the free-roaming goblin, which looks like a human head with spider legs and hypnotizes its victims into a state of tranquil bliss that makes it much easier for them to saw off their own heads. Speedy fun, played with just enough tongue in cheek. Based on a book by Daijirao Moroboshi. I watched the R2 British edition of this. I give it an 8.

Arriving in a small village, an archeologist tries to find the colleague who summoned him only instead to find his son hanging around a local school trying to find out where his crush has disappeared to, only to find that the reasoning for his summoning is a local goblin released by a classmate and must stop it together.

There was quite a lot to like with this effort. Among its brighter points is the exceptionally fun setup at play here that provides a lot of local folklore and background into the creatures' appearance. The initial guise of the group arriving at the village on an archeological expedition to uncover a series of ruins discovered in the woods surrounding the area gives this a solid backdrop to introduce the legend of the giant mound and the myths surrounding it. With plenty of evidence that there are superstitions about the mound and how dangerous it is to be around the area, aspects of a family curse that are brought up, and a series of secrets that have to be revealed about the way the locals treat the creature, the setup to this one is engaging and has a lot to like about it. On top of this incredibly fun setup, the film itself features plenty of exciting and enjoyable creature action which starts from the very beginning. The camera-work to display the creature scuttling through underground tunnels or down school hallways chasing after victims is immensely terrifying with the inhuman speed and low stature to the ground we see it zooming along, and given the beastly growling accompanying the sequences brings about a really impressive tactic. With the later scenes showing the creatures' true form and how it moves around as a human head with spider-like appendages sticking out from all sides allowing it to move about with the speed and accuracy it does and the eerie song it sings to tempt and distract victims, there's a lot to like here. That all gives the attack scenes plenty to like about it. The attack on the kids at the school manages to be both incredibly eerie with the unknown assailant flying around the room scattering objects in front of the terrified victim and manages to kill him without us seeing who it is after several distractions, while the creature chasing both the student and the professor around the campus contains several close calls and frenetic escapes on top of the impressive effects on the kills the finale, taking place in the creatures' underground hideout containing an army of similar beings about to be released, goes for more of a fantasy feel with the spells and incantations to stop them but fits in with the rest of the film and gives this a rousing, triumphant finish to raise the film quite nicely. There isn't much to dislike but it does have some slight issues. The main drawback factor to be had here is the strange treatment of the professor when he arrives at the village, which is seemingly quite comical and dismissive despite being the nominal action hero of the piece. The slapstick clumsiness, predilection for strange gadgets, and mockery by his peers all point to the comic relief role rather than the tack-charge man-of-action he really is throughout the rest of the film and leaves this one feeling somewhat discordant at the start. The other slight issue here is the films' low-budget effects work, for as good as the creature design and make-up look there are instances where it looks like cheap constructions which aren't detrimental but rather distracting. These are what hold the film down slightly.

Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Violence and Language.

Mix a typical creature movie with Tsukamoto madness and add cheesy characters and you have Hiruko the Goblin.

Don't watch this movie expecting anything serious like Tetsuo or Tokyo Fist. This Tsukamoto movie was an offbeat comedy with some strange horror effects. The soundtrack seemed as though it doesn't fit with parts of the movie either, and the characters needed more development.

However, the craziness was still there, and Tsukamoto's camera angles, lighting, and color were all there. I'm glad I have this DVD in my collection since I am a big Tsukamoto Shinya fan.

I give it 6.5/10

Unlike every other Tsukamoto film I've been able to hunt down (the two TETSUOs, GEMINI, and ROD BOY,) this film seems to be nothing more than a silly popcorn film. Nothing wrong with that, certainly, although it does raise some interesting questions about Tsukamoto's style as a director. The sped up POV running towards a character thing he did in both TETSUOs, for example, looks like an EVIL DEAD rip off here, despite the device having a completely different effect in the Tetsuo films.

This feels less like a Tsukamoto work than anything else he's done, even the slowly paced art film GEMINI. Beyond that, it's basically a straight horror flick: characters find themselves in a bad situation, and spend the entire film's running time trying to get out of it and/or fix it. The elements aren't original by any stretch of the imagination (there's even a crusty, crazy old man who knows more than he's telling,) but Tsukamoto's handling of them still feels new. When someone is attacked by a goblin, the victim flashes to a peaceful, serene, but nonetheless threatening dreamworld, which (as we discover) more often than not leads to suicide.

Much, much fluffier than anything else the man's done, and curious for his fans, although the uninitiated will just see a straight horror flick, albeit one better done than most. Fun stuff.