Tomio

Your head could be left hanging, literally, so try keeping it still. If needed, use your hands. As once that head completely comes off, there's no coming back. The creative mind behind the popular Japanese manga series "TOMIE" and "UZUMAKI", Junji Ito, writes, but also directs for the first time one of his own stories. At just under an hour in length, this shot-on-video production follows that of a morbid little tale consisting of infidelity, black magic, neck/head fetishes, shrunken heads and a severe gushing neck problem.

The story begins backwards, a young man (Yuki Furkukawa) holding his head, scuffling through the streets, his white turtleneck drenched in blood, searching for help. He can't remove his hands, or his head will fall off. That's when he tells his disturbing story to some doctors, of being cursed by an alluring fortune teller (nailed by Aka Kiguchi) with a real creepy and dangerous fixation. Once she's marked her man, a scar around their neck, there's no escaping, she'll get her head.

The narrative opens mysteriously, as the more it reveals the darker and cynical it becomes. The body horror gets you cringing, before ending on an off-the-wall note. Doesn't make much sense, but that's just the twisted absurdity of it all. The man behind the low-rent practical gore effects, Yoshihiro Nishamurs (TOKYO GORE POLICE, MACHINE GIRL), does a lot with very minimal, providing moments of oozing blood and flinching wounds to great effect. Truly a low-budget oddity, where the stakes are high and the consequences could see a head roll.