orig Sûîto Homu
Director: Kiyoshi Kurosawa
Writer: Kiyoshi Kurosawa
Cast: Juzo Itami, Nobuko Miyamoto, Nokko, Shingo Yamashiro
'A small spook hunting task force including a TV crew set out to find the secret of Mamiya mansion. It's a strange abandoned house formerly owned by an old eccentric artist. As the film slowly rolls by we learn from cleaned up painted murals about the tale of a young girl dying in a fire, later we find a coffin containing her charred corpse and learn her mothers spirit still haunts the household angered at what happened to her child. Though the plot is clearly influenced by other films most notably Robert Wise's The Haunting and Tobe hooper’s ‘Poltergeist ‘it manages to convey enough of its own identity to remain a treat and rare for an fx film it even manages to include a few poignant moments, largely due to K. Kurosawa’s remarkable blend of pace and sombre atmosphere. Even though it was filmed in the late 90s it looks old and retro feeling like it’s based in the 50s or 60s. The FX work is by none other than make-up legend Dick Smith who's best known for his work on classics like 'Exorcist' and 'Scanners' also of note is the fact it had a simultaneously release alongside its very own NES game making it the first ever survival horror game. I must be honest its very slow at times which means it wouldn’t be suited to everyone, I adored it though and always take something good away from Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s horror output. A real neglected gem.'
(8 out of 10)
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