悪魔がはらわたでいけにえで私 「Akuma ga Harawata de Watashi」
Release Date: February 23rd, 2024
Duration: 61 mins.
Director: Kenichi Ugana
Writer: Takao Nakano (Screenplay),
Starring: Shiho, Ryuta Endo, Saki Hirai, Keisuke Nomura, Kento Miura, Lloyd Kaufman, Haruki Itabashi,
Visitors is a medium-length horror film made by Kenichi Ugana that originally started out as a short that popped up in festivals in 2021. In the original film, a trio of bandmates, Haruka, Nana, and Takanori, visit the house of fellow band member Souta after he drops off the radar only to find and disturb some kind of charm that blocks a portal to another world. The removal of the charm invites demons into our world.
The hows and whys of this invasion are never explored, all that a viewer needs to know is that demonic visitors are here. That was enough for the original 17-minute short to launch into its horror comedy where a chainsaw and beheadings prove to be the highlights. For the expanded 61 minute “complete edition,” additional vignettes, tied together by the recurring character of Haruka and friends, show how the demons want to establish a place for themselves in society.
Those initial 17 minutes are impressive, though, as the film acts as a special effects showcase and a love letter to splatter cinema that should impress gore hounds especially.
Once the supernatural action starts, the practical effects are plenty and involve gristly gore, vomit that is gross-out green, and sight gags involving dismemberment. This is soundtracked by squelchy sound effects of blood spatter, shrill demon screams and chainsaw roars. The action also acts as visual references to beloved cult horror-comedy classics, particularly the chainsaw and the make-up that remind one of Ash and the Deaddites of the Evil Dead franchise. This heady brew certainly works to horrify but also draws laughter. The appearance of Troma founder Lloyd Kaufman should tell the more horror-hardened audience members of the base humour in operation as the abundance of vomit, limb lopping, and pratfalls are delivered with a deadpan absurdism.
Gore and references alone can be slight material but there is a little more going on under the surface as, amidst the interspecies interactions, there is a story of people of different types learning to get along in the mundane locations in more rural areas of Chiba Prefecture. This is spotted in how various characters from across the divide go through everyday activities like house visits and picnics, small-hold farming and driving around in Kei a truck, albeit all made absurd since this is given a demon culture inflection. A little poignancy is built up but Ugana cannot resist flippancy as conflict comes back and once the punchline ending of multiple sets of visitors ruining the party cuts off the nascent attempt at humanism, it leads to an ambivalent ending but that is fine because the ride is fun, a feeling conveyed by the actors who seem to be enjoying themselves participating in an insane scenario.
Ultimately, this is a treat of an entertainment film for a general audience but for horror fans, this is the excellent catnip. That’s the constituency this film will appeal to the most as Ugana shows his horror bonafides with a reference rich and potent practical effects experience. It runs at a trim 69 minutes which means that the joke doesn’t outstay its welcome. It is also not that common in contemporary Japanese cinema to see horror material done as well as this. Indeed, Visitors feels of a much higher quality than the entire splatter film output of Sushi Typhoon from the early 2000s and a longer version of Visitors, one less episodic and closer to the manic mayhem energy of its 80s antecedents might be worth viewing.
Visitors – Complete Edition played at Nippon Connection 2024 on May 28th.
The festival ran from May 28 to June 02. You can read more about the festival’s programme in an early preview and a fuller overview.
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