orig Gakidama
aka Gaki Damashii
Director: Masayoshi Sukita
Writers: Atsushi Yamatoya, Baku Yumemakura
Cast: Kazuyo Matsui, Kyozo Nagatsuka, Ichirô Ogura, Yôsuke Saitô
'The films original title is Gakidama which means Baby Goblin. It starts with two photographers heading out on a camping trip, while fast asleep in a forest one is woken by a strange glowing ball supposedly the spirit of a goblin demon. He ends up being infected by a strange seed it leaves that mutates into a caterpillar type larva bug. Not knowing what has happened he returns home feeling sick from his journey. While back with his wife enjoying a meal we briefly see the larva pop out of his nose. Over the space of the next few days it incubates inside his stomach then in true over the top FX style of John Carpenters 'The Thing' it rips itself out of his mouth. All this is witnessed by his now uncontrollable screaming wife. The nightmare though isn’t over because no sooner is the goblin born and running round the house, a sinister hat wearing man walks from out of the shadows and captures the goblin baby in a little cage. While his wife notices the torn flesh around the man’s mouth, the stranger tells us how he was himself a victim and gave birth to a goblin. Then with the caged goblin he walks outside only the goblin attacks him and manages to bounce its way free. The following day, and oddly the man who’s just given birth has managed to escape face scars, only he’s got a curious urge to find someone else who's impregnated with a goblin. It's at this point the sinister earlier victim returns and tells him he’s become addicted to eating them as it was the tastiest flesh he'd ever ate. After the chat he reveals that he's managed to save some goblin flesh and they both agree to sit down and eat it. This isn’t the end of the tale though as in a 'It's Alive' fashion we get to follow his own slurping noised goblin offspring as it attacks his wife in a nasty bathroom/bedroom moment then we get one final shock ending. It must be said it’s a little messy round the edges plot-wise, but it’s so wonderfully bizarre and OTT. Like only Asian films can be. I could only really imagine Cronenberg attempting anything like this in the west. I'm sure he'd relish a story of man giving birth then getting the urge to eat it. It's only short running in at 55 minutes but there’s plenty to keep your interest the make-up FX are grade-a for its period slightly let down by the creature FX which are of the Ghoulies variety meaning more cute than chilling, but hey I guess even a monster baby is still a baby. Well worth tracking down for gore hounds, Asian horror nuts and fans of bad or odd cinema.'
(7 out of 10)
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