Evil Dead Trap

This cult favorite B horror flick from Japan stars Miyuki Ono as Nami, the host of a late night TV program. One day, she receives in the mail a tape that contains footage of what appears to be an honest-to-God snuff film. Repulsed but fascinated, Nami assembles a camera crew (mostly female) and heads for the deserted factory where it is believed the footage was shot. Soon, Nami and company are subjected to repeated terrors, for there is indeed a killer on the premises.

At first, the set-up and the story (by Takashi Ishii) would seem to be on the routine side, but director Toshiharu Ikeda handles all of it in style, and delivers tons of potent doom-and-gloom atmosphere. The production design is truly first-rate, the gore by Shin'ichi Wakasa is first-rate ("Evil Dead Trap" can boast two great murder set pieces), the music (reminiscent of the Goblin score for "Suspiria", just one thing that "Evil Dead Trap" references) is good, and the performances (by a cast of Japanese porn stars) are capable. What elevates "Evil Dead Trap" is the big reveal at around the 82 minute mark, and the entire final act. It truly places poor Nami - who is put through the wringer over and over - into a vision of Hell. What's more, the disturbed antagonist is one that the audience can feel some pity for, as they just want their untenable situation to end.

Generally good fun, this does tend to be slowly paced, and a viewer could also see it as being repetitive, but it really does deliver a fair bit of genuine horror before those end credits start rolling. The splatter-riffic ending is truly one that is worth the wait.

Followed by two sequels.

Seven out of 10.

Sitting down and watching my newly bought EVIL DEAD TRAP DVD I was blown away at the scenes that unfolded before my eyes. This movie has gained a huge status over the years and now that it is available on DVD we won't need those crappy bootlegs anymore. I had heard much about the film's reputation and can say I was really impressed. The story is intelligent and well-thought out while the execution was played just perfectly. Evil Dead Trap contains an especially delicious array of gory delights including sliced hands, gouged eyeball torture, impalement by spear contraption, cranium cracking, and neck breaking. This is quite the twisted film and this is ONLY the beginning! The first half is your basic stalk-n-slash story (Japanese style) with one freaky looking killer dressed in a black raincoat. Later, the movie progresses into something a bit more complex, some would say silly, but I enjoyed the move the film made. Let's just say it's something you wouldn't have seen coming. I loved the final showdown between Nami, and...wait I won't tell you, but in my opinion it's one of the best scenes in horror history. Trust me, you will not be disappointed. After all, like most have already said, the director takes a strong influence from veteran Italian horror-meisters like Argento and Fulci and even has some Evil Dead-like camera angles thrown in there. You could even say there's a bit of Cronenberg's genius in here as well ;-) How can you go wrong?

SPOILERS

Nami Tsuchiya is an ambitious young reporter who hosts a late night public access show. One day she returns to her office to find a mysterious tape sitting on her desk. She watches it only to see the directions to an abandoned factory where someone kills a young woman. Nami recruits several friends to go to the factory in effort to finally get the news story she's been needing to become famous. Once they arrive at the factory someone, or something, systematically picks off all of Nami's friends without mercy in a game of cat and mouse. Nami then meets a mysterious stranger that claims to be looking for his brother and knows the way out of the maze-like factory.

The first half of this film is outstanding. The gore is great, the plot is great and the pacing is great, but then after all of Nami's friends are killed and she meets the stranger the pacing just sort of dies up until the climax. It goes from being one of the best horror movies I've ever seen into a film that becomes, well, boring. There are several long sequences, of like three or four consecutive minutes, where we just have Nami walking around in a field sulking over her dead friends. I rarely say this, but The Evil Dead Trap would have really benefited by cutting about ten minutes off the runtime. Then it picks back up at the end for a rather twisted ending very reminiscent of the work of Larry Cohen, in sort of a mix between It's Alive and God Told Me To.

As I mentioned, the gore in this film is excellent. The opening murder scene features an example of eyeball violence and brutal close-ups that rival even the best of Fulci. As soon as the television crew arrives to the factory you get the feeling of a great 1980s slasher film, containing both spine chilling suspense and good gore once the killer makes his move.

Overall this was a great film surrounded by a decent amount of material that didn't need to be there. Had the pacing of the whole film been what it was in the first half then this would go down among my all time favorites, however it gets too dull and pointless to earn that honor. Instead, in my opinion it goes down as a good slasher film that I am glad I purchased but didn't live up to my expectations.

MY GRADE: B

Take a dash of atmospheric horror, add a huge helping of giallo, an equal amount of slasher films and a sprinkle of sci-fi horror. Filter through Dario Argento's 'Suspiria'-like soundtrack and use of primary colors and Shi'nya Tsukamoto's 'Tetsuo: Iron Man's frenetic black and white images and industrial soundtrack and you've got Evil Dead Trap. Throw in a pinch of B-movie horror ala Frank Henenlotter and Alain Roback to spice things up further. The English translation is top-notch and over all the movie is easy to follow. The lead actress comes across well and the deaths are inventive for the most part. The gore is fairly graphic, with squirting blood foreshadowing the Tokyo Shock films to come almost two decades later. Sure, it's not Oscar material, but cinephiles will enjoy picking out the various influences and the average viewer will get an over-the-top cult film. My only bone with the film is that the director didn't have to use EVERY influence, perhaps picking one or two themes only, but I guess that's one of the things that makes it over-the-top.

Although MERMAID LEGEND is my all-time favorite Ikeda film, EVIL DEAD TRAP, a derivative but fierce and violent shocker, is deserving of distinction.

It's a catalog of gory set pieces inspired by Dario Argento, Tobe Hooper, Sam Raimi (of course), John Carpenter and Jess Franco.

Long before THE RING kick-started the "haunted videotape" craze, there was EVIL DEAD TRAP.

What distinguishes a lot of Japanese horror from American horror is brutality and explicitness. It's not that American horror hasn't been brutal (Texas CHAINSAW, LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT and FORCED ENTRY all tip the brutality scales), it's just that there's been a cultural shift against movies of this type (read: political correctness) in the West whereas the Japanese film industry hasn't caught that particular cancer.

EVIL DEAD TRAP is confused by itself at times and its ending is beyond silly, but you do get several gleefully gruesome deaths, a rape/strangulation highly deserving of an encore, several ingenious methods of murder and a cloying, brain sick atmosphere.

The electronic score serves the material nicely and the film's primary location, an abandoned government facility, has a great Texas CHAINSAW stink.

Nice, juicy effects, too.

Avoid the wretched EVIL DEAD TRAP 2.