Evil Dead Trap (1988)

directed by Toshiharu Ikeda

Japan

102 minutes

4 stars out of 5

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So this has been somewhat of a cult classic (on these shores - not sure what the popular opinion of it is in Japan) that recently got a very nice DVD reissue so all us weirdos can watch it in hi-def. I had expected it to be much grosser and rougher around the edges than it was, and ended up being surprised by its quality. I was prepared for something like the Guinea Pig series or any other clandestine shot-on-video Japanese torture film you can think of, but instead, this almost feels like John Carpenter. It's even got a Carpenterian absurdly catchy theme song. I can't speak for the sequels because I didn't even know they existed until just now, but this, at least, is an excellent piece of obscure horror. You will absolutely not be able to guess where it ends up from where it starts.

This movie goes off in so many strange and different directions that it's impossible to get a sense of where it'll go from where it begins. A newscaster on a late-night news show receives a tape in the mail of a woman being tortured who either looks just like her or is her. With a van and some colleagues, she investigates the location until she finds the derelict warehouse where the tape was filmed. It's downhill from there, of course, but you can't guess in what ways. At first it seems like it's following slasher rules: The first to get killed are the first couple who have sex onscreen, and the others are picked off in very creative ways, but then when the killer's focus turns toward the main character, the killings just stop, and the plot changes completely. But the aesthetic remains the same throughout the film, even during the weirder parts, which is why I enjoyed this so much - it feels restrained when it has to be, yet it still manages to be super gory and include the memorable practical effects that I was expecting. It's all a perfect balance between story and gory, although the story may get a little rambling at times.

There is a vibe to this that is similar to those directors who were knocking it out of the park in Western horror during the '80s, and it even goes back a little earlier, using some visual cues lifted from giallo. It's got a perfect mixture of realism and curated aestheticism that makes its atmosphere feel really pleasing to watch. The style, not the subject matter but the overall style, reminds me weirdly of The People Under the Stairs - that film is a little newer than this one, and Evil Dead Trap doesn't involve a social issue, but the two feel similar in how they both look like a convincing depiction of a real physical location and yet somehow still look staged. Both films - although Evil Dead Trap is different in that it does take place in a real building, while TPUtS was presumably shot on set - don't look like real life but like an amped-up version of real life where your attention is drawn to specific areas that the film wants you to look at. Evil Dead Trap is full of foreboding, disorienting, a cold and inhuman backdrop of weirdness and confusion. And all this is before the killing even starts. I always appreciate a slasher that can make the non-slashing parts as nice to watch as the action scenes. I also always appreciate movies that make what was undoubtedly just a normal building in real life look like a hellish labyrinth; the super grimy industrial slab of a building Evil Dead Trap takes place in looks like it's made of mazes and hallways that lead nowhere, and there's even some The Shining hallway-extension tricks used to reinforce this feeling.

The characters aren't annoying but they do feel really dispassionate - I kept almost getting distracted because the main character in particular speaks so softly and evenly that it feels like she's sharing a tender moment, even when she's talking to some weird guy in sandals she just met. Even the sex scenes, which slashers typically crank up to be sleazy and titillating, just feel like people going through the motions. My emphasis on how unpredictable and strange this movie is might lead you to believe otherwise, but parts of this are extremely mellow and low-key. It's a very unique tone that makes this stick out from pretty much any other film I've seen.

I think what makes this movie so good is that it can manage to be so genuinely original and do things that slasher directors (not that this is really a slasher movie, but it's definitely inspired) would usually not do, breaking cardinal rules that at the time had only recently started to emerge as a trend, but also never feel "out of control". There's fun in that, of course - that's why I adore shot-on-video gross-out films made with very little budget. I like the stuff that feels like it was made up as it went along. But Evil Dead Trap is like a fusion of more mature, carefully-plotted horror and shot-on-video nastiness. It's a marriage of many different styles that makes the end product a treat to watch.