MY SOUL IS SLASHED
The Japanese video market of the 1990s produced some pretty amazing films, among them this highly audacious take on vampires, an exhausted subject this film treats with considerable freshness and ingenuity
MIKADROID: ROBOKILL BENEATH DISCO CLUB LAYLA
This 1991 Japanese thriller, whose plot is neatly summed up by its subtitle, has amassed a minor cult following, even though it isn’t all that good
METAMORPHOSIS (HENGE)
Clocking in at just 54 minutes, this film is gory, audacious and romantic, and can’t be faulted for being too long
MATANGO
This classic of Japanese horror, from the creator of the GODZILLA flicks, was a groundbreaker in its day and remains an effective piece of work
MARRONIER
This shot on video J-Horror fest sucks, but does contain some arrestingly weird imagery
MAREBITO
One of the more interesting products of the early-00’s J-Horror boom, a twisted and consistently unpredictable depiction of psychosis, vampirism and Lovecraftian dread
THE MANSTER
An American-Japanese co-production that apparently horrified an entire generation of sixties-era youngsters
BLIND WOMAN’S CURSE
From Japan, a diverting exercise in genre-mixing by madman director Teruo Ishii. Containing elements of the horror and Yakuza genres, the film, released in 1970, was quite a trailblazer
BLIND BEAST VS. KILLER DWARF
The unfortunate final feature of Japan’s Teruo Ishii. A shot on video no-budgeter, it’s an uninspired and amateurish product not befitting one of Japan’s most prominent cult auteurs
THE BLIND BEAST (Film)
A wildly fetishistic, claustrophobic Japanese production made in 1968, THE BLIND BEAST (a.k.a. MOJU) is profoundly bizarre