Japan Horror

 

 (imdb)

CURE-1997-Eerie, if overlong, J-horror about a series of gruesome murders all committed by seemingly random people who then mutilate the bodies with an X. While the murderers fully admit they did the killings, they have no reason why. Investigations by police detective Takabe (Anna Nakagawa) and psychiatrist Sakuma (Tsuyoshi Ujiki) lead to weird guy named Mamiya (Masako Hagiwara). 

Intense psychological horror with a semi-ambiguous ending written and directed by Kiyoshi Kurosawa (BRIGHT FUTURE (2002)).

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Andy's Not Dandy

CARNAGE-1984-A newlywed couple, Carol (Leslie Den Dooven) and Jonathan (Michael Chiodo) move into their new house where three years before a husband killed his bride and himself on their wedding night. Weird things happen. A gas stove goes on by itself, kitchen utensils move around and a phone hangs itself up. There's useless scenes of a mother and daughter talking about marriage and pregnancy. Then Rose (Lola Ross), the new housekeeper is terrorized by the laughing ghost of the dead bride. She tells Rose to leave and begins to strangle her. Rose winds up comatose but wakes long enough to cut her own throat. 

After more useless talk about marriage, two would he burglars break into the basement and are confronted by the insane laughing blood smeared bride ghost. 

One burglar has his hand cut off (typical Andy Milligan cheesy sfx) and the other is strangled and disemboweled,although there's little blood. The next day (?) two couples come for a housewarming party. While one guy can't seem to take a shower, his wife is visited by the ghost bride. Later at the party a rug mysteriously moves causing one woman to fall and get glass in her arms. Then a guy is electrocuted in a bathtub and the next scene is his church funeral. When Jonathan's secretary stops by, her head is chopped off. Then a priest tries to help but gets a neat cleaver in his head. In the end the ghost couple make Carol and Jonathan commit murder/suicide the way they did. 

I don't mind low budget horror movies with bad acting and cheesy sfx but this movie has so much talk unrelated to the plot that it’s ridiculous and boring! Filmed in Staten Island by writer/ director Milligan.

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I Spit On Your Remake

I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE-2010-A novelist (Sarah Butler) goes to a secluded cabin to write her new novel. She jogs, smokes pot and drops her cell phone in the toilet bowl. Some white trash rednecks spy on her and eventually break in, humiliate her, beat her, gang rape her and film it. She escapes the assholes before they can kill her. Unlike the original (which I'm not a fan of), her revenge it more detailed and exacting. The director of this (and it's useless sequel) Steven R. Monroe went on to making movies for the Hallmark and Lifetime cable channels and this:

 https://moviemeltdown.blogspot.com/2013/11/when-will-it-end-bad-movie-making-i-mean.html

 There was a part 3 that also starred Butler by a different director.

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Chicago Nut Job

CHICAGO MASSACRE: RICHARD SPECK-2007-Based on the true story of mass murderer/nut job Richard Speck who murdered 8 nurses in cold blood in 1967, this is really just an excuse to show and exploit death, blood and gore at the expense of it being based on a true story. It shows how he was a nut from the beginning after being abused as a child and how he could have been taken off the streets earlier but wasn't. He abuses, tortures and kills several other women (and given the look and demeanor of the Speck character and the portrayal of these victims as being fairly normal the movie almost seems to say it was their fault they were killed). Two detectives track him down.

It's very brutal and graphic and Corin Nemec (also a serial killer in the same director's TED BUNDY: AN AMERICAN ICON) gives a good scumbag performance but recently these types of roles are all the rage in Hollywood. Some real footage of Speck in jail is also used but since the director Michael Feifer when on to make similar “opuses” about Ed Gein, Henry Lee Lucas and others that were not exactly fact based this may not be all that accurate either.  

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Exorsnore

EXORCISMUS-2010-In England Emma (Sophie Vavasseur from RESIDENT EVIL: APOCALYPSE), a teenage girl acts weirdly. She cuts herself, almost drowns her little brother and levitates in front of her mom and dad. When she goes to a psychiatrist he dies of a heart attack. She seems to be possessed so they bring in their uncle, a priest (Stephen Billington; also in RESIDENT EVIL) to perform an exorcism. He's haunted by flashbacks of botched one he once did. While tied to a chair she curses a lot (“fuckin' priest”), has spasms, her eyes turn white and she tries to strangle dad (with her legs). Her pin cushioned faced boyfriend tells her she's just being manipulated but she causes a car crash that nearly kills him (she sees his face covered with cockroaches). 

Later after killing her brother and driving mom crazy, she learns that things might not be what they seem. Despite it's twists in the finale (which goes on too long) this is just another EXORCIST take-off. This English language Spanish production filmed in England was directed by Manuel Carballo and written by David Munoz (THE DEVIL'S BACKBONE). 

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AKA: Horror on Snape Island

TOWER OF EVIL-1972-A stodgy group of English paleontologists go to the mysterious Snape Island to investigate when a Phoenician sword is found after a woman seems to have gone insane and murdered her 3 friends there. A private investigator (Bryant Haliday) goes along too because he doesn’t believe the woman was really insane. Jill Haworth (also in the English made HORROR HOUSE and THE MUTATIONS) co-stars. There’s a lot of talk and bickering about sex and infidelity. The film features an unusual amount of nudity and gore for the time (including a severed head rolling across the floor).

Although star Haliday was a well known London stage actor at the time, he only made 6 movie appearances including DEVIL DOLL, CURSE OF THE VOODOO and THE PROJECTED MAN. He died in Paris in 1996.

Director Jim O'Connolly had made BERSERK (with Joan Crawford) and VALLEY OF THE GWANGI (with Ray Harryhausen SFX) previously.

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Even A Man Who Is Pure In Heart (even in a remake!)

THE WOLFMAN-2010-This big budget gory over acted horror story is actually a kind of homage to the 1941 Universal original. (It gives credit to being "based" on the motion picture screenplay by Curt Siodmak!)

Lawrence Talbott (Benicio Del Toro with a Moe Howard haircut) returns to his native England (after living in America for many years) to investigate the disappearance of his brother at the request of said brother's fiancée (Emily Blunt). He's haunted by the memory of seeing mother's bloody corpse right after she committed suicide. His father Sir Henry (Anthony Hopkins) seems like a nice bloke but may harbor s secret. Meanwhile a werewolf terrorizes the countryside and during an attack on a gypsy camp Lawrence is bitten and "cursed". He wastes no time changing into a wolf and graphically kills lots of people. Hugh Weaving is a Scotland Yard police officer tracking him down. Rick Baker did the special make-up effects and is a victim. Also with Art Malik, Anthony Sher and Geraldine Chaplin. Del Toro was also one of the producers and the score is by Danny Elfman.

Director Joe Johnston previously made HONEY I SHRUNK THE KIDS, THE ROCKETEER, JUMANJI and JURASSIC PARK 3.

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I Hope It's The Last Last House!

LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT-2009-This remake of the notorious ‘70’s exploitation is just an excuse to show graphic images of rape, murder and gore. I’m sure the director thought everyone would remember this for “the microwave finale” but it just shows that Hollywood has no new ideas and doesn’t know how expand the old ones. I loved the one end credit: “based on the movie written and directed by Wes Craven” (Craven, along with original producer Sean “Friday The 13^th” Cunningham, was one of the executive producers). No mention of Ingamar Bergman’s THE VIRGIN SPRING though.

The story is basically the same. Some scumbags rape and torture 2 girls. One is killed. One is left for dead. The scumbags take refugee at the home of the one of the girls. The parents find out and extract revenge. The best scene is death by garbage disposal. More horrifying than anything in the movie is that I’ve read director Dennis Iliadis (from Greece) is attached to a remake of THE BIRDS!

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Untold Till Now

THE UNTOLD STORY-1992-This is kind of like a Chinese IN COLD BLOOD but much more graphic, bloody and shocking. Because it’s supposedly based on a true story the film makers figured they could go all the way and show everything in gory detail.

Anthony Wong (from HARDBOILED and THE HEROIC TRIO) plays Wong, the new owner/butcher of The Eight Immortals Cafe. He’s a whacko guy who cheats at mah-jogg and is generally mean to everyone. He kills a guy who works for him and then chops him up and makes barbecued pork buns out of his flesh and guts. He later on rapes and kills his cashier and puts her through the grinder!

The Police (led by THE KILLER’s Danny Lee) suspect Wong might be responsible for the death of the previous owner and his family. The cops seem like a bunch of ignoramuses (they berate the one female officer for having small breasts) but they get it together and eventually arrest the suspected murderer. When he won’t confess they do everything in their power to make him talk. Interrogation, beatings, torture. They even put him in a prison cell with the brother of one of his victims. Eventually after much sadistic treatment he finally owes up and explains, in a blood spattered flashback, how he murdered the cafe owner, his wife and children and mother in law. This is one of the most bizarre and brutal scenes I’ve ever seen. He’s shown savagely killing all the kids. Then chopping up the bodies with a cleaver. Blood flies everywhere until there are piles of dripping limbs and heads! When he admits the ingredients of the meat pies the cops (who’d gouged themselves on free ones) all throw up. At the end he commits suicide.

THE UNTOLD STORY is a very strange film. Director Herman Yau seems to take sadistic pleasure in the pure and unadulterated scenes of shock and depravity. There seems no other reason for it’s viciousness. Few films have shown such graphic violence especially where children are concerned. His rape/killing (with chopsticks) of his cashier is hard to take.

The video box screams: “Based unfortunately, on real events” and “Horrifying because it’s true” but this is plain and simply a sick gore film trying to disguise itself as something more. Wong (who won 1993 equivalent of a Hong Kong Oscar for his performance) is very good though. He’s a pathetic, brutal psycho who’s treatment by the police almost has us feeling sorry for him (but not quite).

Unlike HENRY: PORTRAIT OF A SERIAL KILLER this movie is hard to recommend. AKA: HUMAN MEAT PIES and BUN: THE UNTOLD STORY.

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