42nd Street Cinema



Entrails of a Virgin (1986)


Kazuo 'Gaira' Komizu's splattery pinku eiga, Entrails of a Virgin/Shojo no harawata.
You can read a review for this film's spiritual successor here, Entrails of a Beautiful Woman (1986).

Starring: Saeko Kizuki, Naomi Hagio, Megumi Kawashima, Osamu Tsuruoka, Daiki Katô, Hideki Takahashi and Kazuhiko Goda.

On the surface, Entrails of a Virgin is heady mix of straight forward splatter-horror and Japanese softcore, but, if you're always up for a laugh and have a little bit of a sick sense of humour, it actually works a black comedy.

The wafer thin plot is essentially about a group of photographers and glamour/softcore models, who go on a shoot in a forest. They spend the night in an abandoned house, get stalked, killed, and in some instances penetrated by a mud-covered demon's unnatural penis. At times it is somewhat reminiscent of Sam Raimi's The Evil Dead (1981), with the brooding supernatural horror aesthetics. There's multiple lengthly 'dream-like' flashback sequences, in which the lead photographer bonks the female models on the shoot. The sex scenes are 'fogged', a thing that is typical of Japanese censorship, though I'd argue that sometimes less is more, and what is hinted at can be far more captivating than what is explicitly shown. Though these scenes aren't really that erotic, or stimulating.



There's an onslaught of over-the-top slayings; including one unfortunate bloke's eyeball popping out after he's bludgeoned over the head, and a woman who's guts are ripped out through her vagina. The kills are inventive and the methods are unexpected, sadly they are just few and far between. I find director Komizu's analogy of this film interesting. He compares the film to that of a candy company's motto: 'One candy, twice the fun'. In as much as, you pay to see a horror film and get gratuitous sex too. Little more needs to be written about the taboo allure of sex and violence, less by an unlearned sod such as myself.

Entrails of a Virgin is a great 3 star movie. It possesses some great horror elements; including the previously mentioned kill scenes, along with an uneasy and oppressive atmosphere inhabited by host of unpleasant characters engaging in sordid activities. Komizu's stylish method of direction and beautiful framing of shots are definitely among the film's strong points, as well as the use of lighting during foggy external shots, they look sublime and really add to the isolated atmosphere. The only thing that bogs the film down is the uneven pacing, on a couple of occasions I found my finger hovering over the fast-forward button, but take it as a positive that I never pressed it.

3 comments:

CiNEZiLLA said...

Good one! Always felt that these ones didn't live up to their reputation!

R.S. Sterling said...

I generally avoid anything Japanese(movie wise) newer than the late 1990s. 60s, 70s, and 80s, I really enjoy though. Add something about this time period in particular really appeals to me. I might search for this one.

price per head software said...

If I watch this the number of Japanese horror movies I've seen will double. While it sounds like this won't hold a candle to the violence of "Audition", I might have to watch.

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