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To be fair, this isn't as "random" as my other movie reviews because normally I pick a movie I haven't seen out of a rental store. Yet I felt it has been long enough since I've seen this film and when I gave it a rewatch, my opinion of it was surprisingly different, so I thought I'd give it a review.
Uzumaki is a film based off of a manga of the same name by Japanese writer Junji Ito, also known for the "Tomie" series. The manga Uzumaki was decent, but it never really lived up to its potential - the first volume was too tame, whereas the second and third volume were too bizarre. The first volume was unique in that it focused mainly on Lovecraftian horror along with strange tricks of the eye. The artwork was surprisingly "realistic" compared to most manga artwork, which only made it stranger to look it when the bizarre spiral shaped mutations of reality made their appearance. Yet it played it safe, whereas the later volumes went a little too far, dropping the slow psychological pace for a more "Gross out" feel, it was hard to take the thing seriously when you had a story about babies growing evil mushrooms on their umbilical cords. The film, made in 1999, was released a little hastily. The author hadn't had any time to wrap up the story, yet it was popular enough that the film still came.
One of the first things that makes Uzumaki the film feel "Unique" is that knowing it was based off a manga, one might be surprised to find out that it is a live action film. This means that the film certainly can't show off as many strange optical illusions as the manga, but that's not to say it doesn't show some strange things. The visuals are easily the best part of the film, they are stylish and really lend a hand to making this one of the weirdest and most utterly surreal flicks I've ever seen. The film always looks realistic, so the way the subtle - and the much less subtle - effects pierce and alter reality is almost unnerving. Even the death scenes, save for one early one and one later on, look a little too realistic for comfort. The films plot is relatively basic: There's a girl who is living in a particularly strange town where people are starting to mutate and do strange things, her boyfriend tells her that the town is cursed by spirals, and sure enough things get stranger and stranger as people continue to mutate, act weird, and eventually die - all in a manner relating to said spirals. The plot is confusing, and as I mentioned before, the film was made before the graphic novel was finished, which only makes the film even more confusing seeing as it has no true ending, and at the same time when a character ventures out to figure out whats causing the curse the film hits a brick wall and simply drops that particular thread of plot. The story is a mess, simply put.
The film isn't really what you'd call a horror, save for the aforementioned gore scenes looking a little freaky, I can't see how this movie can scare anyone and I've both laughed and cried at the fact that there are people who consider this movie extremely scary. In my mind, its more of a bizarre dark comedy. The scene where the boyfriends father loosens his eyes from his socket and spins them around independent of each other, and then gets a freaky ass grin that has me convinced the actor is Satan, is absolutely hysterical. The end scene is also pretty laugh worthy, but I'm not going to spoil it. The only scene that I can truly say is in any way creepy or truly disturbing, is when the boyfriends father and mother are cremated, and the ashes form a shape shifting cloud. The way this two scenes are done are truly creepy, and the effect does get under your skin - but you'd have to see it to get why. The film tries to be psychological, when you look at the premise and think of how hypnotizing and fascinating spirals are to our brain, its certainly ripe for psychological horror yet the films poor plot and acting really dampen it. While most of the special effects are good, there are times where the films low budget show, it even kills a scene that would otherwise be relatively disturbing. The scene in question focuses on the boyfriends mother. After his father died (By twisting his body inside of a washing machine, however that works) his mother went insane, fearing both her husbands ghost and the spiral, as shes well aware that it was the spiral that consumed him and ultimately killed him. She tries to get rid of all the spirals on her body, even going so far as to clip the skin off of her fingers and toes. She doesn't know that the cochlea in our ear is spiral shaped, and her son tries his hardest to hide that fact, but she wakes up one night to find a gigantic centipede trying to crawl into her ear, but she knocks it off and it vanishes under her bed and when she tries to look underneath her bed, she sees the centipede now has her dead husbands face and she hears his voice telling her that the spiral is in her ear. What ruins this scene is the horrendous effect of seeing her husband on the centipede, maybe it would've worked as an animated effect, but its enough to ruin what might've otherwise been a disturbing concept. It worked in the manga, but it didn't work here.
However, after seeing this film again, I can't help but feel that its too polarized and shoddily made to be recognized as a horror movie or a dark comedy. The film constantly juggles tones, one minute its serious, the next its funny, another scene will try and be dramatic, and when you combine the inconsistent tone shifts with a poor plotline, what you ultimately get is a really bad movie. For awhile, I was obsessed with this film, but as my tastes have matured and changed, I now really see the films flaws and problems. While I'll still say its worth seeing, at least on a rental (I doubt it would come on cable here in the US seeing as its in Japanese, although the US DVD does have subtitles if you do not speak Japanese) to laugh at the few funny scenes and take in the truly surreal and oddly mesmerizing visuals. However, I can no longer give this movie a free ride based on visuals alone. For those who want to see something strange, Uzumaki will definitely tickle that fancy, but on reflection it simply isn't a very good movie. It has plenty of potential, sure, but it never truly does anything with it. See it at least once just to say that you have seen one of the most curious films ever made, but don't take it too seriously.
6.4/10
Uzumaki is a film based off of a manga of the same name by Japanese writer Junji Ito, also known for the "Tomie" series. The manga Uzumaki was decent, but it never really lived up to its potential - the first volume was too tame, whereas the second and third volume were too bizarre. The first volume was unique in that it focused mainly on Lovecraftian horror along with strange tricks of the eye. The artwork was surprisingly "realistic" compared to most manga artwork, which only made it stranger to look it when the bizarre spiral shaped mutations of reality made their appearance. Yet it played it safe, whereas the later volumes went a little too far, dropping the slow psychological pace for a more "Gross out" feel, it was hard to take the thing seriously when you had a story about babies growing evil mushrooms on their umbilical cords. The film, made in 1999, was released a little hastily. The author hadn't had any time to wrap up the story, yet it was popular enough that the film still came.
One of the first things that makes Uzumaki the film feel "Unique" is that knowing it was based off a manga, one might be surprised to find out that it is a live action film. This means that the film certainly can't show off as many strange optical illusions as the manga, but that's not to say it doesn't show some strange things. The visuals are easily the best part of the film, they are stylish and really lend a hand to making this one of the weirdest and most utterly surreal flicks I've ever seen. The film always looks realistic, so the way the subtle - and the much less subtle - effects pierce and alter reality is almost unnerving. Even the death scenes, save for one early one and one later on, look a little too realistic for comfort. The films plot is relatively basic: There's a girl who is living in a particularly strange town where people are starting to mutate and do strange things, her boyfriend tells her that the town is cursed by spirals, and sure enough things get stranger and stranger as people continue to mutate, act weird, and eventually die - all in a manner relating to said spirals. The plot is confusing, and as I mentioned before, the film was made before the graphic novel was finished, which only makes the film even more confusing seeing as it has no true ending, and at the same time when a character ventures out to figure out whats causing the curse the film hits a brick wall and simply drops that particular thread of plot. The story is a mess, simply put.
The film isn't really what you'd call a horror, save for the aforementioned gore scenes looking a little freaky, I can't see how this movie can scare anyone and I've both laughed and cried at the fact that there are people who consider this movie extremely scary. In my mind, its more of a bizarre dark comedy. The scene where the boyfriends father loosens his eyes from his socket and spins them around independent of each other, and then gets a freaky ass grin that has me convinced the actor is Satan, is absolutely hysterical. The end scene is also pretty laugh worthy, but I'm not going to spoil it. The only scene that I can truly say is in any way creepy or truly disturbing, is when the boyfriends father and mother are cremated, and the ashes form a shape shifting cloud. The way this two scenes are done are truly creepy, and the effect does get under your skin - but you'd have to see it to get why. The film tries to be psychological, when you look at the premise and think of how hypnotizing and fascinating spirals are to our brain, its certainly ripe for psychological horror yet the films poor plot and acting really dampen it. While most of the special effects are good, there are times where the films low budget show, it even kills a scene that would otherwise be relatively disturbing. The scene in question focuses on the boyfriends mother. After his father died (By twisting his body inside of a washing machine, however that works) his mother went insane, fearing both her husbands ghost and the spiral, as shes well aware that it was the spiral that consumed him and ultimately killed him. She tries to get rid of all the spirals on her body, even going so far as to clip the skin off of her fingers and toes. She doesn't know that the cochlea in our ear is spiral shaped, and her son tries his hardest to hide that fact, but she wakes up one night to find a gigantic centipede trying to crawl into her ear, but she knocks it off and it vanishes under her bed and when she tries to look underneath her bed, she sees the centipede now has her dead husbands face and she hears his voice telling her that the spiral is in her ear. What ruins this scene is the horrendous effect of seeing her husband on the centipede, maybe it would've worked as an animated effect, but its enough to ruin what might've otherwise been a disturbing concept. It worked in the manga, but it didn't work here.
However, after seeing this film again, I can't help but feel that its too polarized and shoddily made to be recognized as a horror movie or a dark comedy. The film constantly juggles tones, one minute its serious, the next its funny, another scene will try and be dramatic, and when you combine the inconsistent tone shifts with a poor plotline, what you ultimately get is a really bad movie. For awhile, I was obsessed with this film, but as my tastes have matured and changed, I now really see the films flaws and problems. While I'll still say its worth seeing, at least on a rental (I doubt it would come on cable here in the US seeing as its in Japanese, although the US DVD does have subtitles if you do not speak Japanese) to laugh at the few funny scenes and take in the truly surreal and oddly mesmerizing visuals. However, I can no longer give this movie a free ride based on visuals alone. For those who want to see something strange, Uzumaki will definitely tickle that fancy, but on reflection it simply isn't a very good movie. It has plenty of potential, sure, but it never truly does anything with it. See it at least once just to say that you have seen one of the most curious films ever made, but don't take it too seriously.
6.4/10
