Sûîto hômu

'Sweet Home' also known as 'The Mamiya House' is a fun, weird and relentless Japanese supernatural horror film that blends J-Horror roots with Western gothic flair, and despite lacking a consistent flow throughout due to its flimsy and bizarre tonal shifts, it's still an entertaining haunted house movie with a fun plot, gory sequences and awesome special effects. Directed by Kiyoshi Kurosawa, the movie is a true hidden gem amongst the J-Horror cannon and acts as a fascinating precursor to the survival horror genre.

The Plot = A TV production crew visits the old, abandoned mansion of famous artist Ichiro Mamiya, who left several precious frescos inside. The team wants to restore and publish the paintings, but when they start filming, they come under attack from the ghost of the painter's wife.

While the movie lacks the intellect and innovation of Kiyoshi Kurosawa's more famous films such as 'Cure' and 'Pulse', but nonetheless its still a fast moving and sharply edited rollercoaster ride from start to finish brimming with manic energy, possessions, deaths, tension and supernatural thrills. The most prominent aspect of the production is the special effects provided by the legendary Dick Smith which are inventive, gruesome and wonderfully over the top providing the film with many memorable moments. The direction by Kiyoshi Kurosawa is incredibly strong as he gives the production a kinetic and surreal atmosphere with solid camerawork and engaging sequences creating an ample amount of suspense and dread. The movie may not be terribly original, and the tonal shifts does hurt the film somewhat, but the characters are engaging enough for you to become invested in and the script is well written, providing an interesting variation on the traditional Japanese vengeful female spirit concept.

The performances here are solid with many interesting character dynamics. Shingo Yamashiro and Nokko provide strong performances as the father and daughter duo and gives the film a strong emotional anchor. Nobuko Miyamoto gives a standout performance as the confident producer Akiko. Ichiro Furutachi and Fukumi Kuroda round out the cast nicely with their memorable performances.

Overall 'Sweet Home' is a fun and stylish J-Horror hidden gem that deserves far more love and recognition.

This Japanese film, loosely inspired by POLTERGEIST, has some great scenes of eye-popping horror action, rendered by Dick Smith (of THE EXORCIST fame). The bulk of the film, however, seems to drag tremendously in comparison to these scenes; maybe I'm poisoned by Hollywood pacing, but I don't think so. Worthwhile viewing for fans of Japanese horror, but not a masterpiece.

After I played the original Famicom game recently, dubbed the 'father of survival horror', and after being suitably impressed by the game itself I began my long and difficult search for this movie title. Although it remains unknown to anyone that I've consulted whether the movie was based on the game or vice-versa, either way both are excellent.

I was impressed most of all by the consistently-excellent acting of Miyamoto Nobuko, whose appearances in film almost always guarantee at least one enjoyable character. However, all the acting in this was exceptional, especially NOKKO's, whom I had not seen in any film before this one. I am still unsure as to who played Kazuo, the main male lead, but he was of course excellent, although it was of course Akiko (Miyamoto) who demonstrated her personal strength throughout.

How this film manages to convey a touching message about the bond between a mother and her child in the midst of terror and horrific special effects is beyond me, but it somehow manages to do it quite well, and it also stays very faithful in many ways to the game, which impressed me; it shows how well a story can be translated into both game and movie medium. Especially since this also seems to point out the weakness of similar Hollywood efforts, which almost always are disastrous.

All in all, this movie was very well-paced, terrifying, and tense, but somehow remained touching as well. The scares weren't too graphic or obvious, but by the time the 'big guns' were pulled out on the effects, you were fully drawn in. A true classic and a great film.

This is a fun movie directed by Kiyoshi Kurosawa and produced by Juzo Itami, who also appears in his last acting role as an Early Times whiskey-swilling mysterious good 'ol boy alongside wife and frequent star Nobuko Miyamoto. In the doc Building the Inferno from Criterion's 'Jigoku' disc, Kiyoshi Kurosawa mentions that he tried to get Jigoku's production designer Haruyasu Kurosawa to work on Sweet Home.

It's a shame that didn't happen, however it still has fx by Dick Smith and Kazuhiro Tsuji. But don't let those names fool you, it is not an art-house film for the international market but an atmospheric pop flick. They manipulate shadows and use practical fx in a manner that suggests an appreciation for Bava, particularly in one sequence involving a medieval poleaxe and a wheelchair.

The movie was made concurrent to the Famicom game of the same name by Resident Evil/Biohazard game designer Shinji Mikami. This is a key film in the development of the survival horror genre, so why is it only available on unsubbed VHS or crappy DVD-Rs of the old VSoM tape? There were major cuts and reshoots by Itami following the release of Kurosawa's theatrical cut, shaping it into a more commercially viable film. So Toho has that cut locked away, and following Itami's suicide and Kurosawa's relative success as a very different sort of storyteller there is probably little economic motive to release either cut in a restored version.

This film was made into a game by Capcom for the Japanese Nintendo system in 1989. This game was also called Suito Homu (Sweet Home in English). This led to another game in 1996 called RESIDENT EVIL! So, a whole genre of video games (called Survival Horror) traces back to this movie and its game! That's the main reason I give it a 10.

Almost everything about the Resident Evil games was drawn from "Sweet Home!" There are monsters, it's set in a mansion, you are fighting for the lives of your team members while trying to solve a mystery, and you are collecting keys, weapons and other items are you investigate the place.

For more info on this, check WIKIPEDIA.ORG under "Sweet Home" and my books,"The Sweet Home of Resident Evil" and "Resident Evil is Snapping at your Heels" on LULU.COM.