⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2
Buying a used car for their trip to a majestic waterfall out in the middle of nowhere, a likable couple and their friends are detoured by some paranormal bullshit. Said bullshit is the tragic death of the car’s former owner and the fact that the restless spirit now resides in the automobile, going so far as to possess the vehicle. Unfortunately for our youthful heroes, this ghost is pissed off and as Japanese youths have discovered for decades: a pissed-off ghost usually equals an untimely death. There may be a chance to escape with their lives if they can somehow manage to find this spectral gal’s murderer and put her spirit to rest... or maybe something else is in the works. The opening slaying is a deviant bit of disgust involving a trusted beau fingering a knife wound, growing more and more sexually excited and widening the wound until he climaxes. It’s not at all what I was prepared for when it came to a cheapjack Japanese horror film shot in digital video about a possessed car. So, bad taste firmly coating my mouth, we switch over to the carefree group of attractive dopes road tripping. When they pass over a trail of blood on the road, the car comes to a halt and a nausea hits them like a slap to the face. A feral-lookin’ gal is seen by the driver but nobody else. Not letting a good time be spoiled, on they travel, behaving like idiots throughout. While this is going on there’s some injured dude wandering around the woods, breathing heavily and bleeding everywhere. Two of the youths sneak off to do what horny youths in nature enjoy most and the car starts bleeding. A vagrant shows up to unsettle some people, the one friend in a wheelchair has a camera with him and likes to point it at the breasts and thighs of the girls in the group and the ghost girl starts showing up to look all menacingly in the background while tense music plays. The bleeding guy stumbles across our heroes and the couple offer to drive him to the nearest hospital which is nowhere close to them. He’s thankful but also creepy and slightly threatening. A closed road puts a damper on their quest for help and the absence of cell service makes it impossible to call anyone. They decide to go back to camp when driving the opposite direction brings them right back to the closed road they were driving away from… oh no. The stranger seems happy he’ll be spending the night with the campers… double oh no. My keen detective skills are telling me this guy is up to no good. The ghost finally makes her violent introduction to one of the ladies and the discovery of her badly injured self bleeding by the car puts everyone on high alert. Back they go to the hospital and a road that won’t let them leave. This time they come across a creepy cabin in the woods (too late to help whatever her name was that succumbs to her wounds whilst driving) owned by that vagrant we met earlier, who is able to shed a light on the nefarious acts going on in the area. Low-budget spookiness features some stomach-churning perversion before settling into its standard ghostly revenge tale, which may not be my cup of tea (I’m not a Japanese pervert or anything, just your standard American one) but at least makes it memorable. There’s more effort put into the script than necessary for the style of film it is and that makes it way better than it has any right to be. It also keeps the deviant behavior at least pulsing under the main plot, as death doesn’t stop the wheelchair kid from fondling his secret crush and chewing on her hair… don’t worry, he gets dragged into the car to meet his maker before getting his rocks off… it also leads to a hilarious decapitation. It’s sicker than it should be but that just makes it better than expected. Call this one a begrudging recommendation from me but just don’t tell my mother you heard about it from me, I’d rather she not know what I do with my free time.
No comments:
Post a Comment