Stacy

Part millennium movie, part post modern 'Evil Dead', this bloody tale of the wonder and terror of schoolgirls aged 15 - 17 is surely uniquely Japanese, and yet is also able to trigger a more basic response.

It's literary origins give it a seriousness, that it's cartoon like visuals of young girls ripping into the flesh and innards of their victims seems at odds with and yet…..

From the first day of 2001, we are told, girls of these ages are first dropping dead and then returning as zombies that twitch and turn till they are sliced into 165 pieces and all search to be killed by their lover.

Extreme, odd and colourful!

Its got zombies...its got chainsaws....its got Japanese Schoolgirls!!! What more could you possibly need?

My only regret is that my copy only has German and Dutch sub-titles, but who needs to know whats being said when you have the fore-mentioned ingredients???

There are enough horror film references here to keep the average fan entertained even if Japanese schoolgirls covered in blood and coming back as the undead is not your 'thing'...everything from Romero to Raimi

Gory fun.

I watched this film thinking I was going to see another terrific, no holds barred, Japanese gore fest. Japan seems to have no problem starring 15-17 year old children in extreme horror films. I was ready for anything.

I wasn't ready for the spectacular performance by Natsuki Kato. She slips easily through extreme emotional states . I wasn't ready for the wildly off beat humour thrown in by the Drew Ilegal Repeat Kill Group. I was also quite touched by the heavy handed lecture on how society has failed its children. I don't know, maybe I'm getting old.

The viewer should make no mistake, this is a B-movie. It's over the top in its execution, but flows nicely...well except for the 5 minute puppet show! There is a lot of blood. Sadly, much of it looks like dried paint. There were some great scenes of gore. Not all of them realistic, but effective nontheless.

And I really like the bunny outfit. What a great touch. This is a film that doesn't take itself too seriously, but has a rather serious social comment. I loved it.

Naoyuki Tomomatsu's "Stacy" of 2001 is a messy and confusing, but highly entertaining and amusing humorous gore flick like it will only be made in the Land Of The Rising Sun.

In the near future (beginning of the 21st century), girls between 15 and 17 suddenly fall victims to a mysterious epidemic plague. After a period of gratuitous "Near Death Happiness" ("NDH") , the cheerful girls die, only to rise from the dead as flesh eating zombie-schoolgirls, commonly referred to as Stacies. These Stacies infest the streets with their desire for flesh, until they are "repeat-killed". In order to repeat-kill a Stacy, she must be cut in 165 pieces, a task which is performed mainly by the "Romero Repeat-Kill Troops", Swat teams in trucks specialized on Stacy-disposal...

When watching "Stacy", I couldn't help but laugh my ass off almost throughout the entire film. The plot es absolute nonsense, and there is no suspense at all, but it is (besides the excessive gore) exactly the absurd story that makes this movie such a joy to watch. "Stacy" is furthermore a tribute to Zombie-Classics, as the whole movie is full of references to movies like "The Evil Dead" or George A. Romero's 'Dead' films ("Romero Repeat-Kill Troops", a popular chainsaw called "Bruce Campbell's Right Hand, etc.).

The performances range from bearable to awful, but since this is a movie with a twinkle in the eye, that has to be seen with a certain sense of humor, the terrible acting is not really bothersome. As mentioned above, the gore is extreme, which is the movie's main purpose, and which should serve as a recommendation to my fellow gore-fans. "Stacy" may be pure nonsense, the plot is unbelievably odd and confusing at times and the acting is terrible, but the movie is certainly quite amusing for a fan of splatter flicks. Recommended for a good, gory laugh.

There is something endearing about a film that wears its influences as openly as Stacy does. There are several nods to George A. Romero, a very cool homage to the Evil Dead franchise with a running gag about a "Bruce Campbell" chainsaw and even a random shout out to Drew Barrymore with a Charlie's Angel-esquire kill squad who name Drew as their idol. The director is obviously well schooled in the horror genre, providing an entertaining mix of pop culture references, black humour and bloody carnage.

The film's basic premise is that girls between the ages of 15 and 17 begin dropping dead, only to arise as flesh hungry zombies - known as "stacies". There is no explanation or mythology behind this unusual turn of events, although I assume it is simply an excuse to fill the screen with perky Japanese girls in school uniforms. There is something a bit twisted about a film that basically involves the slaying of school girls but I'm not complaining. In order to eradicate the "stacies", death squads roam the streets. Some of the funniest moments come from TV advertisements for the death squads, my favourites include the "Join the Squad and kill your own daughter!" advertisement and the Bruce Campbell chainsaw infomercial with the crazy bunny woman.

The film follows two distinct plots; one involves a medical student who has joined a death squad with the goal of saving his "pen pal" Momo, while the other is a slightly disturbing romance between a middle aged puppeteer, Shibu-san, and Eiko, a girl in the final days of her pre-zombie state. The first mentioned storyline is responsible for the film's gore content. There are sufficient acts of dismemberment, flesh eating and general carnage to please horror fans. Unfortunately, while the quantity of the gore is impressive, the quality of the gore effects is uneven at best. The decapitations are very unrealistic and one axe victim is quite clearly a mannequin. The film manages to overcome these shortcomings with injections of black humour, from the awesome "Drew" death squad to our hero declaring the zombified Momo as "my lover".

The other plot line is less entertaining but far more innovative. The scene in which Shibu-san uses puppetry to tell Eiko a story about a toy cat is mesmerising. There is also a wide underbelly of black humour derived from Eiko's manic pleas to be "repeat killed" and her most thoughtful chainsaw gift. Natsuki Kato does a great job as Eiko, making her a very sympathetic prospective zombie. The film attempts to tie these two story lines together with a cheesy conclusion but personally, I could have done without the sappy epilogue.

Stacy is an enjoyable zombie film from a promising director. Genre fans familiar with the quirks of Asian cinema will not be disappointed.