Director: Shinichi Fukuzawa
Year: 1995
Country: Japan
Alternate Titles: Jigoku No Chimidoro Muscle Builder; The Japanese Evil Dead
Genre: Supernatural
Plot:
After learning he's inherited a house, a man and his girlfriend invite a psychic to the house to help her with a story she's writing that details the unique history of the house, but when the ghost of his dad's jilted girlfriend possesses the psychic to kill him sets out to stop it from happening.
Review:
There's quite a lot to like with this shot-on-video effort. Among the better qualities here come from the enjoyable and overwhelmingly cheesy setup featured here. The initial introduction here that explains how the house is haunted works nicely enough to provide the reasoning as well as the action showcasing everything. As well, the reasoning to get him and his friends to the house by looking through the place in order to investigate the location as well as get information for the article his girlfriends' writing comes off quite nicely. These scenes are all rather chilling with the remark about being watched and the walk-through shortly afterward providing some chilling moments.
That gives the film some rather decent and enjoyable shock scenes of the haunted house coming to life and affecting their trip. The first seance attempts that spell the beginning of the danger as the ghostly limbs are shown behind people unknowingly or manipulate objects to injure those in the room is a rather fun sequence with some chilling imagery. A later attack by the ghost on the medium where she possesses his body to attack him and his girlfriend is even better as it kicks off the frantic final half where the possessed bodies come to life for a series of brutal, high-energy confrontations. Getting to see the cheesy effects work and creative ideas here seeing the way the two battle the disembodied body parts continually attacking them gives everything a great touch and has plenty to like about it.
There isn't much to dislike here. One of the few drawbacks here comes from the rather obvious amount of homage and ripoffs this one goes through during the film. The overall setup and approach here are so clearly and plainly taken on from one of the genre's classic entries which carry into some of the other sequences later on. How sequences play out wholesale as well as camera angles and even lines straight from the film come which doesn't hide the influences taken and become somewhat detrimental here. As well, there's also the overall cheap and low-budget look here which comes from the generally obvious effects work that looks cheap and can potentially put some off on the film.
Overview: ***.5/5
A generally fun and over-the-top genre effort that is let down only by several rather small factors, these all come together for a largely entertaining entry. Those who gravitate to this kind of shot-on-video effort, are intrigued due to the reputation, or fans of Asian Horror will generally enjoy this one while most others who don't appreciate those factors should heed caution.
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