Movie Review: Uzumaki (2000) October Horror Fest (21)

I've seen some weird movies and this one is right there on the top.
One of the most interesting things I've enjoy anime and Japanese movies is the contemplation of something totally different from the European and USA made... There are other reasons... Sometimes it's weird good and sometimes is plain weird. But not everything is to my liking of course.

This movie is the life adaption of a manga. But there are some differences, which I explain later.

Basically the movie consists in four parts. First is "A Premonition"; "Erosion"; "Visitation" and " Transmigration".  But before I say anything, I will say that this horror story is not pure horror. It's a mix of cosmic Lovecraftian characters that are struggling against a force incomprehensible to them. It has deep meaning in symbols that in Japan are thought to be positive and twist them around.

In this story we follow Kirie and Shuichi who have been childhood friends. They are bound to be more than friends, probably lovers but they are young. I must say from the start that I dislike Shuichi. He is a strange boy, walking strangely and talk strangely. He is very very odd looking guy (...as a person not a character)

Basically some people have been behaving strangely, focusing on Uzumaki (Spirals) patterns, like snails, spinning wheels, washing machines and so on... They are really obsessed with them and they must have it. When they don't have them they make one with their eyes spinning them. Meanwhile other people are transforming... walking slowly, drinking dozens upon dozen litters of water and even growing things on their backs - transforming into like snails.

After a while it gets the news and we see some strange videos of human-snails and such... Oh Shuichi's dad dies and his wife becomes obsessed with ridding the world of Uzumakis... She even cut her fingertips off.  The boy wants to leave but the girl doesn't want because of her father (who also have show some symptoms of falling to Uzumaki. When they go to Kirie's house we learn that her father died and Shuichi begs Kirie to go away because he too is being killed (his body is twisting in odd angles) but she pays him no heed and grabs him. He then dies and he come back to her telling her to fall into the Uzumaki. The movie then ends...

One of the things I know is that the manga is different. The manga most things happened as in the movie. They did leave the town but the tunnel where they are leaving lead them back to the town where several years have passed and the town transformed into a spiral. They then go to Kirie's house where they learn they cannot leave and embrace one another and die entangled one another.

This movie is good, mark my words - IF, you are into japanese culture and anime and weird fiction. If you don't enjoy any of this things, you will feel boredom and many "wtf" moments. I read some reviews on imdb of people who didn't enjoy the movie and the main complains were the total weirdness and it's not a regular horror movie. I can't even say this is horror - okay, there are some parts that I could say it's horror...








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