Evil Dead Trap II

[dwatts]

It’s a reasonably strange film. Reminded me of Audition in many ways. Especially how the majority of the film goes by at a slow pace, only to explode at the end.

The film has some great camera work, and some interesting shots. Music is used sparingly, and often as counterpoint to the action.

The plot revolves around an overweight projectionist and her visions. Haunted by a young boy, and appearing at murder scenes where female victims have their bodies mutilated. You’re never quite sure what is going on, since most of the time she is perfectly normal. Her life is anything but strange (this is explained at the end of the film by a dying medium).

It is also about the descent into madness. Here we have perfectly normal people, with good jobs and apparently normal dispositions, break down and collapse. The film leaves you wondering who some of these people are, as adults turn into children, and children haunt the adults, leading them to doubt their sanity. Asian cinema seems to like to take time to construct a vision of normality, and to then deconstruct it at the end in horrific ways. Audition is like that too – here we have a lot more “action” at the conclusion, though.

For the gorehounds there is plenty to see. People laying in the road with their entrails hanging out, a bit of cannibalism, close ups of arms snapping and bones sticking out, a woman giving birth to a full grown man, and a fight between two people – one armed with a knife and the other with a pair of scissors. And that isn’t all!

I found this film to be both compelling and exciting. One to watch more than once, without a doubt. The copy I have is put out by “Japan Shock Video” from the Netherlands. I paid 13 Euro. (www.japan-shock.demon.nl). It runs 93 minutes PAL, and it claims to be “Strong Uncut”. Given what they left in, it’s hard to imagine what they would have taken out. I felt the transfer was very well done, better, for instance, than the UK Audition. The only extra is the trailer. The trailer sucks and ruins some key segments in the film – so beware.

Obviously there is a connection between this film and the last one, but as I have not seen the first, I cannot comment on that angle. I feel this film stands on its own very well. As Asian horror cinema goes, the best I can say is, they’ve done it again. No-one is doing films like this anymore, at least not with this quality. Why the heck doesn’t Argento move to Japan and make films? He’d love it!