High Noon Ripper (1984) (Japan)

aka Darkroom Fantasies

⭐️⭐️1/2

Sick little puppy of a film places a heavy focus on the sexual appetites of its characters and keeps the sexual demented slashing in the background... that is until the climax kicks in. Kaijii, a freelance photographer, and a magazine journalist named Noriko begin covering the slaughter of young women by an assailant dubbed the Ripper. Magazines are selling, so they continue on with their rocky relationship. They come across a weird young photographer who is always in the area when the young women are butchered. The suspicious photographer begins to suspect the young man may be the killer and Noriko begins to receive threats. Masturbation, oral sex, more masturbation and then some more masturbation take the focus off the main plot and even at the minuscule runtime of an hour it begins to drag. It’s sleazy enough but it just feels like it’s missing that extra nudge to be blissful trash gold. Oddly minor for its subject matter, High Noon Ripper still manages to leave a little bit of a bad taste in the viewer’s mouth and that makes it alright in my book.