An archeologist and a high school kid must track down a "goblin" that has been awakened and is going around causing people to cut their own heads off. Can they solve the mystery and put a stop to the madness?
There's a lot to like about this movie, directed by Shinya Tsukamoto of TETSUO fame. It's a more mainstream effort by Tsukamoto, though there are definitely traces of his earlier work. Unlike TETSUO, which is pure cinema with basically no story, HIRUKO was adapted from a comic and has a conventional plot. To be honest, there's not much to it; maybe it worked better in the comic, but in this movie it's basically an excuse to move us from one crazy scene to another. But what a bunch of crazy scenes! There's gore galore, cool puppet and stop-motion monsters, and it's just a ton of fun all around. It's a bit like a gory version of THE GOONIES.
In some respects, it's actually an excellent Lovecraftian movie - actually, the best I've seen. Our heroes are regular Joes confronted with the mind-blasting truth of reality, but instead of running away in terror decide to do what they can to keep those forces at bay with their understanding of ancient magic and ritual.
The effects, even now (maybe even especially now) are a lot of fun. Hiruko running through the hallways of the school is a bit reminiscent of the evil force chasing Ash and his friend through the cabin in THE EVIL DEAD and EVIL DEAD II.
Overall, an absolutely fantastic movie. Highly recommended!
There's a lot to like about this movie, directed by Shinya Tsukamoto of TETSUO fame. It's a more mainstream effort by Tsukamoto, though there are definitely traces of his earlier work. Unlike TETSUO, which is pure cinema with basically no story, HIRUKO was adapted from a comic and has a conventional plot. To be honest, there's not much to it; maybe it worked better in the comic, but in this movie it's basically an excuse to move us from one crazy scene to another. But what a bunch of crazy scenes! There's gore galore, cool puppet and stop-motion monsters, and it's just a ton of fun all around. It's a bit like a gory version of THE GOONIES.
In some respects, it's actually an excellent Lovecraftian movie - actually, the best I've seen. Our heroes are regular Joes confronted with the mind-blasting truth of reality, but instead of running away in terror decide to do what they can to keep those forces at bay with their understanding of ancient magic and ritual.
The effects, even now (maybe even especially now) are a lot of fun. Hiruko running through the hallways of the school is a bit reminiscent of the evil force chasing Ash and his friend through the cabin in THE EVIL DEAD and EVIL DEAD II.
Overall, an absolutely fantastic movie. Highly recommended!
statistics: Posted by kyouki — 5:03 PM - 1 day ago — Replies 0 — Views 149