Customer Review
A Customer from UK,
23rd June, 2008
It's late at night. The driver of an empty bus stops at a cemetery to pick up a single passenger, a lady in traditional Japanese dress. As he starts driving again she asks, "Do you want to hear a scary story?" He ignores her. She asks again: "Do you want to hear a scary story?" He realises he has no choice.
Dark Tales of Japan collects five short horror tales, with a few linking "gags". They seem to have been taken off a TV program, as the picture is often of video rather than film quality. But as long you don't expect anything too slick, and as long as you like Asian horror, you should find something to your taste.
In The Spiderwoman, a journalist working for a sensationalist magazine investigates the urban myth of a woman who turns into a monstrous spider at night, and of course gets a little closer to the truth than he wanted. This isn't the best of the tales on the disc, as the various versions of the urban myth confuse and diffuse the final horror.
Crevices is more minimal. A landlord calls in the friend of one of his tenants who has disappeared. Inside, the flat is plastered in thick red tape, covering up every crack and crevice. This one's too short to really build up a mood, but it doesn't outstay its welcome and is one of the most focused on the DVD. Enjoyable enough.
The Sacrifice has the best image in the collection: an enormous demonic head that suddenly appears in the corner of a room. The story itself is a little too confused for the short format, mixing two ideas (how a mother can sacrifice herself to save her daughter from a curse, and how a young woman is stalked by a black magic-obsessed loner) rather than concentrating on one.
Blonde Kwaidan is, I'd guess, the collection's attempt to win over the Western audience by being set in Hollywood. The title, of course, makes reference to another collection of Japanese filmic horror. It didn't really build up the mood it needed for the final horror to be really effective, but it wasn't too bad.
The final story, Presentiment, was the most original tale, and the most effective. I won't give away the plot, as the tale hinges on you finding out what's going on, but I'll just say that most of the drama takes place with the main character stuck in a lift with three rather odd characters.
None of the tales are masterpieces, but if you're a hardened B-movie watcher you'll know how to overlook the duff moments and get the most out of the bits that work.
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