Guinea Pig: Mermaid in the Manhole

I saw this in the middle of the night, and it wasn't subtitled. Still, I figured out what it was about, despite the fact that I don't speak it's language. It's about what appears to be a painter who rescues an injured woman who begins to rot and spew pus. As she dies, he uses her goop as paint. The film's ending is depressing as it appears that he wasn't playing with a full deck.

The overall tone of the film is bad enough without the bizarre situation, but the fact that the film literally doesn't race makes the outcome more of an effective idea that could be better implemented with a little less patience. Still, when the screen isn't drenched with guts and pus, it's pretty to look at. This is, i guess, a part of some strange series of films in Japan that deal with special effects gore and realism. This works in both areas, but also happens to have a little more to offer.

A painter named Hayashi(Shigeru Saiki)finds a wounded mermaid(Mari Somei)and saves her.He takes her home and puts her into his bathtub where she keeps decomposing,the spreading disease spurting blood and pus.Hideshi Hino's "Guinea Pig 4:Mermaid in the Manhole" is easily one of the most disgusting horror movies I have ever seen.The make-up effects made by Nobuaki Koga are incredibly revolting.The character of Hayashi is pretty sympathetic and the film has a mood of a very sad romance.The mermaid represents painter's wife and "all the beautiful things" he has lost,so she is bound to rot and vanish too."Mermaid in the Manhole" works as a piece of extreme art,so anyone who loves Japanese horror should give it a look.However if you're easily offended avoid this one like the plague.

Mermaid in a Manhole is the fourth entry in the more than infamous Japanese Guinea Pig series which tries to be as shocking as a film can be. This kind of trash can be made only in Japan. Mermaid is directed by Hideshi Hino, a man behind the most infamous part of the series, Guinea Pig 2: Flowers of Flesh and Blood. Mermaid is not as sick as the first two entries in the series, but Mermaid is still very very disgusting and "shocking" as the young painter finds a wounded and beautiful mermaid from a sewer and takes her home and places into tub. He begins to paint her as she is unconscious in the tub, but soon she begins to have some very severe symptoms of "melting" as pus filled and exploding vesicles appear on her skin and soon she is FILLED with crawling worms and disgusting excretions and secretions as her slow death comes more and more near..So this doesn't make much sense and all the film has to offer are shocks and a need for barf bag.

The scenes of wet and pus spurting mayhem are disgusting enough, but what I really had difficulties to sit through were the scenes of thousands of slithery worms which are definitely real and plenty, and the girl has them in her mouth, too! What kind of an actress would agree to act in such a role? I'm not actually scared of worms or don't hate them, but there are so many hundreds of them and they are filled with blood and pus and they appear ANYWHERE from the girl's body and they are very lively and active so I simply couldn't watch the film without some disgust reactions, even though I watched the whole thing and didn't use any fast forward. So I definitely can recommend this, if you're looking for something very disgusting and despisable!

There are no cinematic merits in this film (or other Guinea Pig films), although the scene in the sewer is pretty haunting, so that is perhaps the only cinematic merit of the film! Either horror fans like these or then not. Others will puke trying to watch these, that's for sure! Try to show Mermaid to your girlfriend or sister and count seconds how much she can take! It is impossible to give stars for these films, because there are nothing but scenes of disgust and loathing. If you're a fan of Japanese extreme horror and sicko cinema, then Guinea Pigs are worth tracking down as a curiosity, but they are by no means great or noteworthy films, no matter how hard core horror fan one thinks he is. I watched this film (and most of the whole series) as a curiosity and 'cause I'm interested in Orient cinema in its all forms, excluding s/m cinema and other of its kind. As a marginal cinema fanatic, I give Mermaid 5 stars out of ten even though it is pretty useless to give stars for these. At least this is the most disgusting film I've ever seen!

It is hard to describe the viewing experience for this movie. Even if you have seen the other Guinea Pig series movies, this one is on another level of disturbing. Where the first three are gory, they are also just straightforward dismemberment stories. They are simple and shocking, but no really new ground from hundreds of other horror movies. Mermaid in a Manhole is a different story. It focuses on disease and decay. It captures the lead character's descent into insanity. Then, once the viewer has gone through all this for the first two-thirds of the movie, we move to the dismemberment.

I like the psychological angle of this story and I think it makes this installment much better than the first two, but it is hard to watch and appreciate. To some degree, it reminds me of Nekromantik in that the story is intriguing and pushes the viewer to think about what is happening, but the images are so terrible that it is hard to want to.

This is a rather strange entry in the Guinea Pig franchise but one that is a must see after a while because in the beginning it looks rather childish and stupid but slowly it turns into a squirmfest to end in a gorefest.

When a painter wants to return to a sewer were he has been before entering the manhole to go into the sewer he comes across a girl laying in the filthy water. Coming closer he notices that it is a mermaid. Somehwo he has seen her before but by getting closer he sees that she has some kind of infection. He picks her up and takes her home to place her in a bath. She do ask to be painted by him and to use the colored puss coming out of her infection. Until then it's a bit ridiculous but the painter gets addicted to her and when the infection gets worse and she almost dies the worms come in.

It's from that point that this horror flick turns into a gruesome flick. First out of the puss do come the worms but if that's not enough she starts vomiting worms being alive and it's not faked. Naturally the mermaid do dies and the painter can't take it anymore and starts to cut her up. At the end we do have a twist and this gory flick is over.

It's a rather good entry into the franchise because it do has it flows. The worms can make viewers decide to turn it off but for people into Japanese stuff this is your thing.

Gore 3/5 Nudity 1/5 Effects 3/5 Story 3/5 Comedy 0/5