Rape Zombie: Lust of the Dead 4 (2014) by Naoyuki Tomomatsu

Director: Naoyuki Tomomatsu
Year: 2014
Country: Japan
Alternate Titles: Reipu zonbi: Lust of the dead - kurôn miko taisen
Genre: Zombie, Exploitation

Plot:
As the virus rages across Japan, the group of women trying to fight off the rampaging hordes of raping male zombies learn that a robotic protector has found a manner of stopping the virus altogether by traveling to the past in order to prevent it from being unleashed to begin with.

Review:

This was another wildly fun if somewhat flawed entry in the series. Most of what makes this one so much fun is the continuation of the wild exploitation excess usually featured so far in the franchise. This one wastes no time in extrapolating nudity here which is ably supplied by the performers here, with the opening sword-fight between the clones and the evil robot involving the two combatants slicing each other's clothing to the point of exposing themselves while one of the clones manages to get disrobed for the entire fight. As well, there are numerous scenes of them stripping down or disrobing for inspections or rub-downs from everyone else, and the continuous softcore groping that pops up throughout here is both insanely sensual as well as significantly enhances the sleaze aspect of the story. That's before it takes into account the scenes of the women being raped where they get disrobed and touched all over as the very nature of these scenes adds more to the sleaze.

Also rather enjoyable here are the exceptionally fun action scenes showcasing the battles with the zombies, which provide this one with some rather enjoyable action and some solid gore. The opening fight with the clones is rather fun, and the later scenes showing the two friends in the abandoned building overrun by the creatures have several stellar confrontations throughout the building and out onto the roof to provide some thrilling battles. The other solid plus here is the continuation of the strong storyline present throughout the series, which manages to include the method of unleashing the virus in the first place and managing to carry on from the events established before.

Still, even with these positives, there are a couple issues with this one. The biggest problem apparent here is the film's pacing, which is exceptionally troublesome with some segments coming together seemingly only to pad out the running time. The scenes with the talking head in particular are rather problematic, taking up a large part of the beginning here to detail nothing more than the history of perversion in their society that caused the whole epidemic. There's little reason we need to be stuck here as long as we are looking at a talking head with tubes sticking out of its neck describing this when it could've made the whole point in a fraction of the time. This lengthy series of cutbacks to get the whole point across eats up the flow and pace of the film which slows it down somewhat.

As well, there are always the same general forces involved with this one in that the film is rife with scenes of rape and extreme exploitation of women which causes the subject matter to be quite problematic for some. The film attempts to support the theory that women are there simply to have men have sex with them, as the chemical only affects men. Turning them into sex-crazed maniacs rather than flesh-eating hordes who will attack any woman they want, wherever they want, sends quite a strong message, and the continuous sequences showing multiple men abusing and raping women in incredibly explicit and sexual means don't come off in the best light. They often blur the line between exploitation and outright misogyny, showing girls getting raped in full-on close-up simply for the sake of the nudity, and it leaves a much more brutal and ugly tone in this one than there really should be. Simply having that kind of material present isn't something some would like, and the presence of it might not appeal to all.

The other flaw here is the low-budget effects which range from laughable CGI to hilariously cheap make-up that pops up to ruin several scenes here. The work done here is below the acceptable levels, which makes the film look cheap. The artificial lightning bolts and gun-barrel flashes look fine, but it's the background plates of characters walking through the burnt-out cities that seem obviously bad and out-of-place in the rest of the film, and they aren't as necessary as they should've been. Otherwise, this one was another rather fun franchise entry.

Overview: ***/5

Much like the other entries in the series, this one goes for a series of stellar exploitation-based offerings that manage to provide all the expected sleaze and splatter thrills as before. If you've seen the others, there's no real reason to avoid dipping into this entry provided you're not burnt out on the subject matter, while those not interested in any more have nothing to blame for skipping this effort.

This review was originally published on Asian Movie Pulse and is gratefully reprinted with their cooperation.