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why so serious
A double feature of a Japanese urban legend and a tale of illegal human experiments
What They Say
Slit-Mouth Woman
As a brutal serial killer terrorizes Japan, an aspiring young journalism student makes a horrifying discovery. Could the murderer be related to a missing women, a singer whose nightmarish mutilation ended a promising career? The trail leads to an artist whose best work always ends up on the cutting room floor! Blood will flow and the music of the night will play as the ultimate hack slashes her way through the critics in Slit-Mouth Woman!
Zombie Dead
A female cop wakes up from a coma only to discover herself in a bizarre hospital where flesh-eating zombies stalk the halls and all the remaining humans have had their memories wiped clean! Is this a bizarre scientific experiment? Or a small part of a greater holocaust? All she knows is that in order to stay alive, she has to find a way to stop the women-eating monsters from doing what they do unnaturally! But how can you stop something that's already died? Dead men walking take on the living in Zombie Dead.
The Review!
Audio:
It is a most standard 2.0 mix with Japanese being the only language available. There is one point where some distortions can be heard, but other than spot the audio is clear of dropouts and distortions though some dialogue seems a tad soft at times but given where it happens it may be a fault of the original source material.
Video:
The features are presented in anamorphic widescreen which is a plus but there is a good deal of noise and some aliasing as well. There is also a bit of softness to the video but it isn't terribly distracting and details are not heavily washed out even in the dark environments which are common on both features.
Packaging:
The packaging presents an up close shot of the titular slit-mouth woman character which is a bit surprising given how long the feature itself goes without revealing that particular effect. Only a splash in the bottom right corner indicates that the disc has a second feature on it on the front. The picture is then surrounded by Switchblade's typical reddish boarder. The back is split into halves with the top half having a picture of the slit-mouth woman wearing a surgical mask and four stills from the feature while the bottom has the main female from Zombie Dead in an action crouch holding a gun (which she never has in the film) and four stills from its respective feature.
Menu:
The menu has a close up shot of the Slit-mouth woman on the left and the main character from Zombie Dead on the right. The selecting options are separated by a black line and the choices are indicated by a bright yellow icon in roughly a blood splatter shape. The menu is quick to show changes in the selecting options though there is a bit of a delay in the load time.
Extras:
This release contains no extras.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
Slit-mouth woman
The feature opens with a man who appears to be drunk walking on a deserted street late at night when he hears the song Moonlight Shadow. From where he stands he can only see the silhouette of the singer but as he approaches closer the details that she is dressed in rags and wearing a surgical mask become apparent. As he gets right up to her he notices too late the large kitchen knife in her hand which she then plunges into him repeatedly with glee. As she leaves the body all emotion seems to drain out of her and she moves almost as if in a trance. The scene shifts and a young woman (Shiori Ayakawa) in a school uniform is asking a male acquaintance (Akimoto) if he knows the lyrics to a song. It turns out the murder is the tenth in a line of serial killings. Shiori did some investigating of the latest case on her own and found a homeless man who heard a woman singing lyrics from a song but she doesn't know which one. Shiori wants to be a journalist and has approached Akimoto as he is the king of trivial knowledge at the school to pick his brain to find the song's title to see if it leads her anywhere. Akimoto recalls that the song had been released four years previously by an idol hopeful named Mika Shiratori but the song didn't catch on and she vanished though she had been known for her beauty.
Shiori and Akimoto track down Shiratori's former manager Yonemurato and discover he has yakuza problems but claims that he has no knowledge of Shiratori's whereabouts. The way he words it makes Akimoto even more suspicious that the manager also thinks Shiratori is the one behind the murders. Akimoto suggests that Shiori leaves further digging to him and gives her a copy of Mika Shiratori's debut DVD he swiped from Yonemurato's apartment for her to watch to look for clues. As Akimoto is returning to Yonemurato's apartment the yakuza member has managed to get in and discovered a hidden door that leads to a secret basement room where Shiratori has been living. The danger grows as Shiori starts to recognize some of the people on the DVD from the concert as victims and tries to call Akimoto to warn him though she may be too late as he has discovered the secret basement room and the yakuza body as a female form stalks up behind him. Will Shiori's investigation lead to the truth behind the slit-mouth woman's existence or an increase in her body count?
Zombie Dead
After the film rolls some stylish credits that introduce us to the cast and some scenes from the film the story kicks off as a young woman (Satomi) wearing a hospital gown wakes up on the floor of an abandoned and run down building. As she struggles to come fully to terms with consciousness and looks to be fighting off the effects of some sort of drugs she sets out to examine her surroundings and see if anyone else is around. Suddenly a man (Kusuki) appears before also wearing a hospital gown her asking if she is one of the 'taken' which he is. He tells her they are in a hospital but he has never seen any staff. He then suggests they move on to his friend's place. As they travel Satomi notices that the security cameras are plentiful which makes her suspicious. Satomi does some exploring on the way and finds a room with lockers which after raiding she finds some clothing for both to wear. As they are dressing a scream is heard and Kusuki tells Satomi to stay in the room and Kusuki runs off worried for his friend.
The scene shifts to find a young woman (Chisato) who hides herself in a toilet stall as some feet shift past, then returns. The door comes under sudden assault and a roar is heard before the being tires and moves away. Kusuki arrives on the floor but is ambushed and bitten by a deformed looking human. The creature then takes the elevator down and tries to get into the room where Satomi is waiting-only to have disappeared when she opens the door. As Chisato finds one of the creatures has tracked her down Satomi finds one as well though it is initially lethargic. Satomi also discovers that there are men in white environmental suits keeping her from escaping the hospital. As she turns back the creature that was following her suddenly rushes forward. It pursues her, eventually trapping her behind a desk. Satomi runs from the room after knocking the creature down with a pipe she found and she encounters Chisato, who knocks the pursuer down after it had gotten up and pursued Satome. They go to the room Chisato was holed up in to find Kusuki and discover Kusuki bite has spread an infection into him and he is dying in a pattern Chisato has seen before. As the two women take his body down to a storage room where bodies of those infected like Kusuki are being kept, Chisato asks Satomi if she remembers anything and Satomi finds that her memory is returning.
Satomi remembers that she is a detective who snuck into the hospital after hearing about some illegal research and remembers the environmental suited men injecting her with something. The rediscovery is not fortuitous as Chisato seems quite uncomfortable that Satome can remember and turns out not to be as stable an ally as one could hope for. What will be Satomi's fate when surrounded by no allies and creatures out for her blood?
Neither film stretches the horror genera in a new direction though the effects in Slit-mouth woman are better than Zombie Dead. The films are both entertaining enough for someone looking for a tale of tragedy with the first feature and a promising (but flawed) second feature. While Slit-mouth woman is a decent example of a light weight horror film the real gem on this disc is the second feature. While it has a number of flaws to it (including makeup for the creatures) the director and staff did a good job of setting tone atmosphere on what looks to be a rather limited budget. There is also some nice camera positioning that helps build up a level of scene that helps to draw the viewer in. After watching this feature I wonder what might be produced from the same creative team with a co-writer to help develop some ideas and a larger budget to see if this is a 'look at their potential' film or if this was already a demonstration of the best they have to offer.
In Summary:
Slit-Mouth Woman and Zombie Dead are not features that will make anyone forget some of the best horror films out there. They do work in that the first feature establishes the 'why' horror movies can gloss over for the antagonist's actions while Zombie Dead does a very good job of showing what can be done even with budget limitations by a talented team working on a project.
Features
Japanese 2.0 Language, English Subtitles
Review Equipment
Samsung 50" Plasma HDTV, Denon AVR-790 Receiver with 5.1 Sony Surround Sound Speakers, JVC DVD player XV-FA95GD
Hahahahahahahahahahahahaha! That sh*t was funny at the end.
Seriously, what's the point of adding the preview if most people don't speak Japanese?
WTF????