Evil Dead Trap

Ever wanted to see a Japanese horror film which is an homage to the '70's and early '80's Italian slashers and giallos? I thought so. This movie is as close to a Western horror film as I've ever seen come out of the East. It is a novel idea and you can tell, all the way down to the music, that the filmmakers truly love the giallos of Italy and the Slashers of North America.

Director Toshiharu Ikeda starts this flick off with a scene of graphic violence which harkens back to Lucio Fulci and his love of "eye" horror with a videotape which has been sent to a journalist that depicts a woman being brutally tortured and killed. Included on the tape is footage of the killer(?) driving to an abandoned factory which is presumed to be where the girl met her untimely fate. This is just the first minute of the movie. Ikeda wastes no time in the setup. Character development be damned!

She assembles a small crew to accompany her and they embark on their last assignment. I don't want to give anymore of the plot away, but I assure you that it includes some of the most inventive deaths and bizarre imagery that you've ever seen in an '80's flick. Writer Takashi Ishii pays homage to Argento, Fulci, Cronenberg, and Raimi in his off the wall; never know where it's going to go storyline.

This movie has got it all for a horror buff such as myself. Great atmosphere, "Goblin-esque" music, costumed killer, amazing death scenes, a fucked up ending, and a dash of cheesy nudity. The first time I saw this, I thought I had died and gone to horror heaven. Synapse released this movie 10 years ago, and you can still pick it up just about anywhere. I got it in their "Asian Extreme Horror" boxset, which includes three other great Japanese horror flicks "Entrails of a Virgin", "Entrails of a Beautiful Woman", and "Organ". I seriously recommend this movie to any Italian horror fan, Asian horror fan, and Slasher fan... which should included just about everyone under the sun as far as I'm concerned.

As an endnote, Unearthed Films released the sequel "Hideki" which is greatly inferior to this true horror classic. I won't suggest avoiding it, but I don't recommend it either.

Last House on Dead End Street

Sound familiar? Last House on... well get that thought out of your head right now. This baby was filmed in the winter/spring of '72-'73 for about $1,500 by Roger Watkins. The name is a "cash-in" title given to the film years later by the distribution company who finally put it out in the late '70's. There is no house; there is no dead end street, but there is insane nihilism, and scenes which leave you in awe of the films brilliance. Unfortunately the distribution company also decided to hack up the director's cut of the film, which Watkins admits may have been self-indulgent at roughly 3 hours long. That version of the film, under the title "The Cuckoo Clocks of Hell" has yet to be found, but is believed to be somewhere in a film lab in New York.

This movie has been hacked up, there's scenes which don't make much sense, voice overs which seem so out of place, and piss poor dubbing. But, even with all of these strikes against the film being good, it manages to bring to the screen a new level of gritty violence, surreal atmosphere, and a soundtrack that really gets into your head with the use of heart-beats and over-driven organ/choir music. The film is haunting, to say the least.

The story consists of Terry Hawkins, played by Watkins himself, who has just been released from prison. He sets out to gather a group of like-minded individuals who set out to make movies the likes of which have never been seen before. They don't think sex sells anymore, people want something new. Terry decides that in order to make the killings on film realistic, there's nothing better than the real thing. I don't want to give too much away here, but from this point on your about to get mindfucked.

The killings, according to Watkins, were virtually left alone by the distributors of the film. They did happen to cut out one of the murders apparently.. which we only see a flash cut of, in a completely different scene. The power of the film is still there to be seen on your screen. It really is an amazing film. If you have ever seen "Flower of Flesh and Blood", you will notice something very similar, hint hint.

Roger Watkins never ended up with the career that he deserved in the film world. After this movie, he made one more horror film "Shadows of the Mind", and several hard-core pornography titles. In a way, Watkins predicted his own life in "Last House", the seedy underbelly of the movie business, pornography, and an appropriately downbeat attitude are all present.

Barrel Entertainment released this film in a stellar 2-disc edition, and seeing how they dropped off the face of the Earth some time ago I doubt that this baby will ever see a new Region 1 release. I've seen this film go for quite a chunk of change on the web, and I can safely say that it would be worth every penny to pick up. This film is the starting point to an entire sub-genre of films. Just look at the first two Guinea Pig films, the August Underground series, and Tumbling Doll of Flesh to see the influence.

I cannot recommend this movie any more highly. It really is one of the most powerful exploitation/underground films that I have ever seen. If you're like me and you have a taste for off-beat cinema, you owe it to yourself to check this out.