Allan C
I saw an article titled “Insane Horror Movies You Have To See” and I liked almost all the movies on the list (MANDY, POSSESSION, HOUSE, NIGHTBREED, SOCIETY, etc.) but this film and TITANE were the only two I hadn’t seen. I’d heard of TITANE since it won the Palme d'Or, but I’d never heard of this early 90s Japanese horror film. Don’t associate this one with the late 90s J-Horror batch of films (RINGU, JU-ON, DARK WATER, etc.). This film shares a spirit much closer to Sam Raimi’s EVIL DEAD, mixing outlandish creatures, wild camera movements, and a general level of craziness that gets wilder and wilder as the film goes along. For the first hour or so, the film is a pretty transitional Asian horror film, featuring an evil spirit (a goblin) that’s killing students at a private high school, but once a severed head with spider legs begins terrorizing students at around the 45-minute mark, that’s when the film starts getting really good, building to a climax that to SOOOOO bonkers, I awarded the film another star. I was laughing out loud it was so outrageous! For fans of 70s and 80s Japanese horror films along the lines of 1977’s HOUSE (not the William Katt film), seek this one out!
Rated 3.5/5 Stars •
Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars
08/04/24
Full Review
Audience Member
Shinya Tsukamoto made this after Tetsuo and instead of the monochromatic cyrber punk madness of that movie, he's somehow taken a manga by Daijiro Morohoshi and made a movie that is at once horrifying and charming, as if Spielberg wanted to make a Fulci movie and decided that it should be as cartoony as possible while having nightmare fuel embedded insie every frame.
Archaelogist Reijiro Hieda (Kenji Sawada, the only Japanese person other than Yoko Ono to be on the cover of Rolling Stone) has some out there supernatural ideas that get him almost disbarred. Yet his brother-in-law Takashi Yabe (Naoto Takenaka) has discovered an ancient tomb built to seal in a yokai behind the school that he teaches at, but has disappeared along with a student named Reiko Tsukishima (Megumi Ueno).
Tabe's son Masao (Masaki Kudou) is searching for his father when he sees Reiko at the school, but several people he knows get murdered and each of their faces appear on his back as smoke rises off it. The culprit? Her singing head, floating around the building.
Yeah, Hiruko the Goblin has just started and it's already beyond wild.
It turns out the Masao's grandfather had the same faces on his body sixty years ago and he had promised to keep the school sealed, as it contains a demon named Hiruko, who has turned all of her victims into spiders with human heads that chase our heroes through a system of caves as monstrous mouths come out of the ground and scream for them.
Monster hunting homemade technology, fighting demons with bug spray, demons that crawl on the floor and come shooting at your throat, incantations and rituals, plus slapstick? Man, they don't make movies like this ever. Get this now -- it's really and truly unique and wonderful.
Rated 3.5/5 Stars •
Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars
02/06/23
Full Review
Audience Member
Strange, campy and almost incoherent Japanese demon film that works most of the time although the "wacky" acting rather pushes it to its breaking point.
Still a nice change of pace after Tsukamoto's
previous film the even more confusing Tetsuo.
Rated 3/5 Stars •
Rated 3 out of 5 stars
01/26/23
Full Review
Audience Member
Fantastically bizarre and creepy creature feature from the director of "Tetsuo: The Iron Man". Inventive use of stop motion, puppets, practical effects, and makeup effects. Fun stuff.
Rated 4.5/5 Stars •
Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars
02/24/23
Full Review
Audience Member
"This will provide us with the information we need." Yep, that won't actually happen in this movie, not as good as "House" but still sure as hell entertaining. Fitting ending too.
Rated 3.5/5 Stars •
Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars
02/02/23
Full Review
Audience Member
B-movie madness, reminds me of EVIL DEAD's energy.
Rated 4.5/5 Stars •
Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars
02/17/23
Full Review
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