Evil Dead Trap 2: Hideki (1992)

Good story, Not enough for a whole film

This is a tender, generous movie that likes its characters and presents them as real people, full of flaws and strengths.

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

True to its essence, the characters remain on the same line and manage to entertain the viewer, each highlighting their own distinctive qualities or touches.

I went into this film expecting an exploitation-style otaku-for-her and was pleasantly surprised by way of the contrary. For as admittedly ghastly as are much of the acts of violence, the filmmakers succeeded wonderfully in somehow making it look somehow beautiful. I'm thinking specifically here of the fight scene between the two female leads with the white "curtains" providing wonderful contrast to the bloodshed. I can't think of a comparable genre in my country to compare with this. It is no mean feat to successfully inject a psycho killer / gore film with enough symbolism and outstanding camera-work and choreography to leave the viewer with the feeling that he or she just experienced some wonderfully violent art film wrought with psychological complexity and morally ambiguous characterization. The film succeeds on many levels but stands highest as an unexpected achievement in genre subversion.

Evil Dead Trap 2, the film, is many things. It is a brilliantly crafted series of ultra-violent sequences. It is an engaging story of a fat female projectionist in a sick sick world. It is a mind-blowing statement for the wide range of violent acts that it covers. It is a deceptively abstract story centering on perhaps the some of the most meaningless terrors in all of moviedom. Behind all that, Evil Dead Trap 2 is the apex Japanese new-wave cinema. There is not a major director today who has not been influenced by the genius Izô Hashimoto put forth in this blisteringly important contemporary masterpiece. The filmacts as a spring-board centering around a group of weirdos instigating several serial murders, guts/entrails, freely yanked from the victims vaginal cavities, dangle like bleeding wet noodles on a hot summer's day, and goes from there.From there on, the viewer is thrown into a gloriously chaotic world of violent acts upon violent acts, in which the viewer slowly learns just about everything about young Aki's enthralling depravities. From her trying childhood to her inexplicable visions of the child-like Christ/Antichrist figure, Hideki; to her difficulties relating to others, the story of fat babe Aki is presented for the viewer in a way that few other movies can offer, in a word: magically. Evil Dead Trap 2, undeniably, is THE triumph of World Cinema, and as such thus exceeds by far -- one of the greatest films every created -- it's predecessor.

"Shiryo No Wana 2: Hideki" is a vile and repulsive movie which tries in vain to emulate the success of the first "Evil Dead Trap" but ultimately ends up as a vastly inferior sequel(in name only). While "Hideki" is visually quite intriguing, the story is a contrived mess filled with unlikable characters, an inane plot and cheap gross out effects that are more laughable than terrifying. Unlike genuinely creepy Japanese Horror films like the recent "Ringu", "Uzumaki", "Ju-On" and "Spiral", "Hideki" has less to do with atmospheric horror and more to do with over-the-top splatter similar to late 80's and early 90's films like "Hellraiser", "Re-Animator" and "Naked Lunch". Director Izo Hashimoto (who directed episodes of the campy Japanese TV show "Sukeban Deka" [Juvenile Cop]) tries too hard to go for the cheap thrills and scares. This is a real disappointment as I liked his "Sukeban Deka" TV work. To be avoided.

Stylish lighting, Camara angles from Hell and some genuine creepiness makes this sequel a decent surprise to the series. Worth the cash. Very good climactic battle at the end of the film. It takes an eerie quality and turns into nightmare cinema by the end.