Shiryo No Wana, or Evil Dead Trap as it's more commonly known amongst Western audiences, starts at a Japanese cable TV station called Network 3 where extreme reality TV hostess Nami Tsuchiya (Miyuki Ono) receives a videotape in a parcel from a viewer. Nami plays the tape & discovers that it shows the brutal assault & murder of a young woman, thinking she may be onto a big story Nami gets permission from her boss (Shinsuke Shimada) to investigate the origins of the tape. The tape helpfully contained footage of how to get to the location it was shot in so with a few volunteers, a sound engineer Masako Abe (Aya Katsuragi), make-up artist Rei Sugiura (Hitomi Kobayashi), script writer Rya Kawamura (Eriko Nakagawa) & assistant director Akio Kondou (Masahiko Abe) Nami sets out to find her story. The location turns out to be an abandoned military facility, as they split up & search for clues Rei is brutally murdered. It's not long before the rest of the group discover Rei's fate & realise they are next! A sicko game playing killer stalks the dark damp corridors...
This Japanese production was directed by Toshiharu Ikeda & is a bit uneven. The script by Takashi Ishii starts brilliantly, the opening mystery surrounding the snuff tape, the location & who's behind it is very effective & gripping as it builds. Unfortunately it cannot maintain this as Shiryo No Wana descends into complete lunacy with one of the silliest, lamest & most unsatisfying climax's ever. I was hoping for more but the last thirty minutes really let all of it's good work to that point down. It's also one of those films that never knows when to quit, just when you think that's it something else totally ridiculous happens. The character's are OK except for Nami, I mean there is some unidentified psycho running around an old abandoned military base & this smartly dressed mysterious guy (Yuji Honma) just happens to be there without any sort of reasonable explanation, seems to turn up just after a murder occurs & seems very relaxed when he finds a severed head. Would you not be even a little bit suspicious of him? I think I would. The film rapidly goes downhill as it progresses. Shiryo No Wana drags a little in places but there are some nice ideas here & it's certainly watchable especially when compared to the unoriginal teenage American stuff being churned out on a conveyor belt.
Director Ikeda likes nice long shots which I do too, no ultra fast quick blink & you'll miss it editing here. He likes to place his camera above people looking down on them & their surroundings as well, the tension & atmosphere through the first two thirds of the film is excellent but that stupid ending really kills everything dead. The gore scenes are spread out but are very effective & quite brutal, the opening murder of the victim in the snuff tape is nasty with her eyeball being pierced with a knife in extreme close-up & from varying angles as liquid oozes out, ouch is all I can say! Someone is impaled on metal spikes, various stabbings, a severed head & another nasty bit when someone gets a huge blade implanted in the side of their head. There is also a fairly graphic & wholly unnecessary rape sequence.
Technically Shiryo No Wana is OK if basic & somewhat economical. Did anyone else think the music ripped off Day of the Dead (1985)? I haven't got a clue about the acting as I can't speak Japanese but it seems alright, the UK DVD which I have has a few dumb grammatical errors in the subtitling including spelling mistakes, duh!
Shiryo No Wana is a decent watch, it plays like a Japanese Friday the 13th (1980) type slasher that tries to be clever with it's ending. I liked it & it's memorable but not entirely satisfying, however it's still worth a watch.
This Japanese production was directed by Toshiharu Ikeda & is a bit uneven. The script by Takashi Ishii starts brilliantly, the opening mystery surrounding the snuff tape, the location & who's behind it is very effective & gripping as it builds. Unfortunately it cannot maintain this as Shiryo No Wana descends into complete lunacy with one of the silliest, lamest & most unsatisfying climax's ever. I was hoping for more but the last thirty minutes really let all of it's good work to that point down. It's also one of those films that never knows when to quit, just when you think that's it something else totally ridiculous happens. The character's are OK except for Nami, I mean there is some unidentified psycho running around an old abandoned military base & this smartly dressed mysterious guy (Yuji Honma) just happens to be there without any sort of reasonable explanation, seems to turn up just after a murder occurs & seems very relaxed when he finds a severed head. Would you not be even a little bit suspicious of him? I think I would. The film rapidly goes downhill as it progresses. Shiryo No Wana drags a little in places but there are some nice ideas here & it's certainly watchable especially when compared to the unoriginal teenage American stuff being churned out on a conveyor belt.
Director Ikeda likes nice long shots which I do too, no ultra fast quick blink & you'll miss it editing here. He likes to place his camera above people looking down on them & their surroundings as well, the tension & atmosphere through the first two thirds of the film is excellent but that stupid ending really kills everything dead. The gore scenes are spread out but are very effective & quite brutal, the opening murder of the victim in the snuff tape is nasty with her eyeball being pierced with a knife in extreme close-up & from varying angles as liquid oozes out, ouch is all I can say! Someone is impaled on metal spikes, various stabbings, a severed head & another nasty bit when someone gets a huge blade implanted in the side of their head. There is also a fairly graphic & wholly unnecessary rape sequence.
Technically Shiryo No Wana is OK if basic & somewhat economical. Did anyone else think the music ripped off Day of the Dead (1985)? I haven't got a clue about the acting as I can't speak Japanese but it seems alright, the UK DVD which I have has a few dumb grammatical errors in the subtitling including spelling mistakes, duh!
Shiryo No Wana is a decent watch, it plays like a Japanese Friday the 13th (1980) type slasher that tries to be clever with it's ending. I liked it & it's memorable but not entirely satisfying, however it's still worth a watch.