Wishing Stairs

Title - Wishing Stairs (Ghost School 3, Whispering Corridors 3)
Language - Korean
Genre - Ghost, horror

Wishing Stairs is the third film in the ghost school.  This time around it focuses on the pupils of a ballet class. The film follows 3 students:

So-Hee, who is the top dancer but who has been pushed into dancing by her mother who is, it is hinted, living through her.  

Jin-Sung is So-Hee’s close friend, possibly her girlfriend, her dancing is not seen as being as good as So-Hee’s but she is more driven.  

Hae-Ju is the class misfit, she is overweight  and clumsy which leads to her being mocked by most of the class, she spends most of her time in the old art room.

The film really starts with So-hee going to the art room where she finds Hae-Ju. The two girls talk and So-Hee is kind to Hae-Ju, this is something Hae-ju is not used to  and she starts to develop a crush on So-Hee.  Hae-Ju starts to become fed up with the insults and wants So-Hee to pay her more attention, desperate she decides to see if the urban legend is true.  The legend states that, if you climb the  old stairs that lead up to the dormitories and you have a strong enough desire in your heart a new step will appear, if you stand on the step it will grant your wish.

After standing on the 29th step Hae-Ju wishes to be thin and, over the next few days she begins to lose weight although her appetite seems to increase.  Whilst this is going on as a side story the main part of the film concentrates on So-Hee and Jin-Sung.  During the class it is announced that there is to be a dance contest where each school can enter students and the winner will be granted a place at a high ranking Russian Ballet school.  The school can only afford to enter one student and so has it’s own competition to see who will be sent altho all the teachers and students know that it will be So-Hee.  So-Hee is not interested in the competition but she is being pushed into it  by the teachers and her mom.

jin-Sung on the other hand wants to win but she is also of the assumption that So-Hee is going to get the prize, this assumption is made worse when she overhears one of the teachers talking to So-Hee and telling her that shes all but won.

After seeing that the Wishing step had worked for Hae-Ju, Jin-Sung use’s it, wishing that she will be the one to go to Russia.  The day of the school competition Jin-Sung puts glass in So-Hee’s shoes but So-Hee still wins the competition.  Jin-Sung and So-Hee get into an argument which ends when So-Hee accidentally gets knocked down a  flight of stairs, injuring her and opening up her pace in the  main competition for Jin-Sung.  Soo-Hee dies in hospital but Jin-Sung is interested in winning the competition to pay much attention, this turns the rest of the class against her as they blame her for So-Hee’s death.

By this time Hae-Ju’s infatuation with So-Hee has reached a high level due to the students still mocking her about the amount she eats. Hae-Ju returns to the   wishing step and asks for So-Hee to be returned to her.  So-Hee’s spirit returns and uses Hae-Ju to help her get back at Jin-Sung.

The main focus of ‘Wishing Step’ is ambition and the effect it has on the people around you.  although it’s only mentioned So-Hee’s life is being pushed in a direction she really doesn’t want to go firstly by her mother who is trying to achieve her life's goals by living through So-hee’s success and then by her teachers who are pushing her towards the competition and the Russian school when So-Hee is not really that interested a point that is pushed forward when she tells Jin-Sung that the thing she wants more than anything is just to be with her.

Jin-Sung is the one with all the ambition, her skill in the dancing may not be quite as good as So-Hee’s but she has the drive.  Her drive is further pushed by the treatment So-Hee gets by the teachers who seem to giver her special treatment and this blinds Jin-Sung to So-Hee’s true feelings both towards the dancing ad to Jin-Sung.  The blindness leads to jealousy which leads to Jin-Sung not only try to cheat by putting glass in So-Hee’s shoes but to also make the wish which resulted in So-Hee’s death.

Hae-Ju’s ambition is  not academic.  She wants to be accepted even if it is only by one person and this is why she becomes fixated on So-Hee once she has been kind to her once.  It is not that there was any fixation or attraction to So-Hee before any of this started  but the one act of kindness played on Hae-Ju’s mind and developed into something a lot stronger.  When everyone believed that Jin-Sung had killed So-Hee to get her place in the competition Hae-Ju saw it as even more of a problem, So-Hee had shown Jin-Sung the attention that Hae-Ju had wanted and had rejected it which had then pushed Hae-Ju over the edge.

It is also not obvious if the step has any actual power.  Hae-Ju does lose wait but we see that she is carrying pills around with her  and her attempts to hide them show that they may be diet pills and it may be these coupled with Hae-Ju being sick after eating that may have led to the weight loss.

Jin-Sung only gets through to the main competition because So-Hee fell down the stairs and she got the place in Russia because she is a good dancer, So-Hee fell down the stairs as an accident brought on by Jin-Sung’s jealousy and all of this would probably have happened even if Jin-Sung had not made the wish.

this leaves the ghost, So-Hee’s ghost was around before Hae-Ju made the wish, we know this because she visited Jin-Sung the night she died.  For most of the ghost’s interaction with Hae-Ju we don’t see So-Hee and when we do only Hae-Ju sees it.  what we do see is the ghost in the mirror talking Hae-Ju into making herself look more like So-Hee (a process that may already have started when Hae-Ju had started to lose weight) and then we see Hae-Ju switch between being Hae-Ju and So-Hee.  This could be down to either So-Hee possessing Hae-Ju which is what Hae-Ju believes or it could be that Hae-Ju is having a break down.  Whatever the case it is evident that So-Hee is still not interested in Hae-Ju as her actions are all directed at getting Jin-Sung to stay with her.

Out of the three ‘ghost School’ films that gone so far Wishing Stairs is the one that most (western) people would recognize as a ghost film, whispering corridor has more of a slasher feel to it and Memento Mori is more of a psychological film. the film plays on this fact most people who see it will know it’s a ghost film and may be waiting for the jumps.  In one scene So-Hee climbs in through Jin-Sungs window unexpectedly and the set shows her as many J-Horror ghosts are shown, only to see that So-Hee is alive and well.  This scene is mimicked later in the film when So- Hee is dead.

Wishing Stairs, like the other films in the series takes it’s time into building up to the ghost and the horror, spending a lot of time on  developing the characters and, like the previous two films it’s worth staying with as it seems to be the best so far.  It does not have the confusion of Memento Mori and is more of a ghost film than whispering corridor.

Memento Mori

Title - Memento Mori (Ghost school 2 or Whispering Corridors 2)
Language -  Korean
Genre - Horror, ghost

Memento Mori is the second film in the ghost school series of films, the first being Whispering Corridors but, like all the films in the series, it is not a sequel.  It has the same setting of an all girls school, it focuses on the relationships between some of the students  and teachers and there’s a ghost but it is a different tale with new characters.

Memento Mori was a hard film film to follow as it it is not linear, the story follows events that happen in the present but is also interspersed with flashbacks.  The main problem with this is that it was hard to tell when it switch from one to the other.

The film starts with Min-Ah, one of the students at the school who seems to be obsessed with a diary she is reading.  The diary was written by two other students, Hyo-shin and Shi-Eun and most of the film follows their relationship both through flashbacks of Min-Ah (and later Shi-Eun) reading the diary and of what is happening in the present.

Memento Mori starts by setting what the school life is like, the classes are chaotic and the girls all have their own groups of friends, the teachers have trouble keeping the classes under control.  Min-ah has a group of friends but she seems to be drawn to the diary and after Hyo-Shin’’s death she seems to  become increasingly obsessed with Shi-Eun.

While Min-Ah has the diary we follow Shi-Eun & Hyo-Shin’s from their getting together through their coming out and touching on the events that lead to them breaking up and when Shi-Eun is reading the diary we see more about their breakup and the events leading to Hyo-Shin’s death.  It is during the time Hyo-Shin is reading the diary that the ghost is most active and Min-Ah’s obsession seems at it’s strongest.

I found the flow of Memento Mori hard going, half the story is told through flashbacks but there didn’t seem much to say when it was a flashback of the present.  The film not only jumps from past to present without any warning but the flashbacks are not in order for example the scenes in the hospital is split up over a couple of flashbacks which are between other flashbacks.  I think it is done to slowly reveal the past events of the main two characters but, at times it just makes the film a bit of a jumble.

A small part of the film does make sense and that is when the ghost first starts to manifest.  The ghost starts to haunt Min-Ah and even tells her that she wants the return of her diary but by the end of the film the diary is not mentioned.  The ghost does go away at the same time as the diary goes missing but it is never shown that this is why the ghost leaves.

Another thing that can make the film hard to follow, especially at the end is the telepathy that is first shared between Hyo-Shin & Shi-Eun and then later between Shi-Eun and Min-Ah.  I think part of the problem I had with this was due to me using subtitles, there is a lot going on at the end of the film  so when two characters are talking without a lot of the normal visual cues and time taken from looking at the action to read the text it can cause extra problems.  The telepathy itself is an interesting plot device, I've read a few different views on what it means but, at least on a basic leave it seems to symbolize the state of the relationship between Shi-Eun & Hyo-Shin and then later Shi-Eun & Min-Ah.  The telepathic link is strongest between the couple(s) at the beginning of the relationship but, as Hyo-Shin and Shi-Eun drift apart the link is used less and less and then is used again between Shi-Eun and Min-Ah at the end of the film as their relationship starts.

The one thing Memento Mori does do right (in my opinion) is how it handles the romantic relationships.  There are a couple of times that Memento Mori could have fall back on using sex scenes either to help move the plot along or just because there is an opportunity there to do it but it doesn’t.  The fact that we see any kind of sex helps keep the story more emotional and, for one part of the plot helps to keep a bit of the mystery, we never know if Hyo-shin is pregnant.

There are a couple of plot line that seems to go nowhere.  At the start of the film there is a scene with two girls tied up by the leg in the swimming pool but this is never mentioned.  In the film  At the beginning of the film  and part way through it is mentioned that there may be a curse on the school and that five people have already died and that one more person (after Hyo-Shin) needs to die to lift the curse but nothing is made of this, we do not find out about any other deaths.  We do see one other character dead and there are some theories that Shi-Eun died at the end but none of this is ever linked back to the curse.  I do think that the theory about Shi-Eun being dead at the end is not true, if any of the girls are dead then it would most likely be Min-Ah because of the dream like sequence we see whilst the school is locked upped, but this doesn't make any sense to any of the relationships in the film so I don’t believe she died.

For all its faults Memento Mori has a good story and is an interesting film but it isn't an easy watch you need time and patience to work out what is happening when and you probably need to see it more than once.

Whispering corridors

Title - Whispering Corridor (Ghost School 1)

Language - Korean

Genre - Horror, J horror, Ghost

Whispering Corridors is the first of (at the time of writing) 5 films in the ‘Ghost school’ series.  The films are only connected by their themes and settings, the stories are do not follow on.  

Whispering corridors starts with  Mrs  Park, a  teacher in a girls school looking for something in the old school yearbooks, she then phones someone to tell them  Jin-Ju (who is dead) is there and has always been there.  The next day Mrs Park is found hanging from a bridge.

The film then follows two sets of interlocking story lines,, the main one being two students, Jae-Yi and Ji-Oh and how they react to the death of Mrs Park and the activities around them a second but equally as important story, told in flashbacks of what happened to Jin-Ju.

The main story starts when Jae-Yi and Ji-Oh discover the body of Mrs park whilst being on cleaning duty.  All of the students that were in Mrs Park’s class are instructed to keep her death a secret by Mr Oh, the head of the school.  As the film progresses it becomes apparent that there is more to Mrs Park’s death than just suicide and Miss Hur, an ex pupil and now new teacher starts to investigate what happened.  It was Miss Hur that Mrs Park had phoned and she is trying to find out why Mrs Park seems to think that a dead student is involved.  

The students are not upset when Mrs Park is gone as she is not a well liked teacher, although we do not find out why she is so disliked until later in the film.  The students are upset when Mr Oh (also known as mad dog ) takes over the classes.  Mr Oh is abusive to some of the students and flirting with others, with most of his abuse taken out on Ji-Oh.  when Mr Oh disappears Miss Hur starts to look at Ji-Oh to see if there is a connection.

As the film unfolds we find that Miss Hur was a classmate and friend of Jin-Ju and may have had some connection to her death.

Although Whispering corridor is a ghost film/horror it also focuses on the relationships and emotions of the characters  the main idea of the film is about conforming and is it worth sacrificing friendship to get along in life.  There are two characters in the who do not match what is supposed to be the norm and both of these are victimised, when she was alive Jin-Ju was picked on  because her mother was a witchdoctor and the pressure that was put on her only friend to leave her was what ultimately lead to her death.  In the same was some of the teachers try to isolate Ji-Oh making her life run parallel in many ways to Jin-Ju and this is what leads Ji-Oh to think she may be possessed by the spirit.

The film show the conflict that can be felt if a person is made to conform but it also show how things don’t really change over time, this is mainly shown in the parallels between Ji-oh and Jin-Ju, even when the cause of the problem, in this case Mrs Park, is removed it is just replaced by another, somewhat worst one in the form of Mr Oh.  Mrs Park, for all her faults was looking out for Miss Hur even if it was at the detriment of Jin-Ju whereas Mr Oh is just abusive.

The question is, is Jin-Ju right, will it take a big, almost supernatural force to change things or can one person make a enough of a difference like Miss Hur says.

Bubba Ho-Tep

Title - Bubba Ho-Tep
Language - English
Genre - Horror, comedy

*This contains spoilers*

Elvis Presley (played by Bruce Campbell) is not dead, he traded his life with the best Elvis impersonator of the time, Sebastian Haff.  Unfortunately due to Sebastian dieing and Elvis losing the contract proving who is in a barbecue accident Elvis was forced to lead the life of an Elvis impersonator.  That is until he slipped off stage  breaking his hip and putting himself into a coma for 20 years.

Now Elvis is residing in the ‘Mud Creek Shady Rest Convalescent home’ and a something is stalking the hallways killing off the elderly residents.  Elvis has to team up with a black man claiming to be JFK (they dyed him so no one would find him) and a man in a lone ranger mask to find out what is killing the residents and stop it.

The idea that Elvis switched places with one of his impersonators is one of the more sensible urban legends surrounding the  real man and the fact that the film added in the chain of events that made it impossible for him to prove that he really was Elvis was a nice touch.  The Idea that JFK wasn’t dead and had been turned into a black man is just silly.

Bubba Ho-tep is an interesting film it is a dark comedy with characters who you may expect just to be exaggerations of the real people and when you throw an Egyptian mummy into the mix the film should be a farce but it’s not.  Bubba Ho-Tep mixes a dark humor with characters that you can't help but liking and in some sense feeling sorry for.  The home is a drab building and the environment is bleak with most of the residents having to share a room and we see that Elvis’ room mate is the only real company he has.  at the start of the film we see that life just passes by, the staff move in and out with the only contact being when they need to administer medicine or get the patients to do something.  We also see that death is an expected event in the home, no one pays much attention when Elvis’ room mate dies, even Elvis doesn't seem surprised. Elvis and JFK have a conversation about how the mummy has picked a safe feeding ground, the souls of the elderly may not be as nutritious as those of younger people but it will have limitless supply of food as no one will notice the deaths of the elderly and, when one dies another person will put in their place.

At the start of the film (old) Elvis is part of the bleakness, no one will believe who he clams to be, for the most part they call him Sebastian (the name of the impersonator he swapped lives with) and when they do call him Elvis it is just to humour him and is normally treated as a joke. When we meet him Elvis has become used to the monotony of the home and spends most of the in his bed regretting missing time with his daughter.  He regrets the time he spent on drugs, alcohol and women when he was Elvis but also regrets the time lost after he swapped lives with Sebastian, looking at both lives with regret.

The feel of the film changes with the introduction of JFK one of the only two residents that Elvis feels is a friend.  The character of JFK (Played by Ossie Davis) is the mirror of Elvis.  Where the story of Elvis could be believable and, if true is all brought on by himself JFK’s story is pure madness.  We have a Black man who claims to be John F Kennedy who has had part of his brain removed (where the bullet hit) and has had a battery put in which keeps him alive but which could be turned off by anyone in the white house at any time.  His explanation for the change in skin color is that he has been dyed so that no one will believe who he is and he has been put in the home to hide him.  Unlike Elvis JFK has family that visit him, he refers to a daughter but he claims that it is an actress who is posing as his relative to aid in hiding him.  Where as all of Elvis’ problems have been brought on by himself, making him sad and full of regret JFK, if he is to be believed has been forced into his situation but he is relatively happy where he is.

as the film progresses the character of Elvis changes.  In stopping the mummy he finds a reason to live, he becomes more active, demonstrated by using the toilet instead of the bedpan and, with some help from JFK he starts to find some joy, not only in what he is doing now but in what he did in his past.  He still keeps the regret of not seeing his daughter more but uses that to help in the fight against the mummy.

One of the interesting parts of Bubba Ho-tep is that you never really know if the main characters are who they claim to be or if they are delusional.  Elvis’ story is believable but he conveniently has no way of proving it, he has one picture that he clams is of his daughter but it is blurry and distant.  We also never see any other proof even though we see numerous flashbacks of concerts and parts of his life as (young) Elvis we have to remember that he would be putting on shows if he were really Sebastian and some parts may just be the delusion. One of the flashbacks we see is of Elvis visiting Sebastian and, in the context of the scene we assume that this is where Elvis and Sebastian switch places but even here we never know who actually leaves the room as Elvis.

In contrast JFK has no flash backs and no real evidence that he was ever anything other than a normal man but he does have the scar where he (JFK) would have been shot and his room is a stark contrast to any of the others we see.  He has no room mate and the room is is nicely decorated, he has dioramas of the JFK assassination and a supply of books.  it is obvious that the staff play up to him being JFK more than they do with Elvis.  All of this may just be that JFK’s family have more money.

The final end of the spectrum is kemosabe, this is Elvis’ other friend.  We never hear him speak and every time we see him he is dressed as the lone ranger.  when he is attacked by the mummy he is almost happy in his delusion as his last action is shooting it down with his fake guns.

There is also a consideration that the mummy is also a delusion representing death.  The only people who see it end up dead and, in fighting it Elvis and JFK they are also fighting for their souls.  They both want to to die on their own terms and not shut away in the old home.

With a story that could seem so focused on old age and death Bubba Ho-Tep could have turned into a depressing film but it’s not, the main characters are enjoyable and their friendship is believable.  The interaction between all characters helps provide a good humor which   counters the darkness that is present throughout the film.

as I mentioned earlier it is never certain if either of the main characters are who they say they are but, in away it doesn't matter.  The fact that they are claiming to be Elvis Presley and JFK adds to the fun of the film but they could just have easily been any two old people who were friends and worried about death.

Doghouse

Title - Doghouse
Language - English
Genre - Horror, comedy, Zombie

Vince is about to get divorced so his friends decide to to take him out for a lads weekend away.  They arrange to go to the  to the small village of Moodley where the women are supposed to outnumber the  men 4 to 1.  When they reach Moodley it’s surprisingly quiet, all the shops are closed except for the pub so the group split up, Mikey goes to get the key to his nan's house, where they are planning on staying and Matt is sent to get the mini bus driver, who is the only female of the group.

As Mikey walks through the village we see how empty it is, there are hand prints on some of the windows and a couple of bloody hand prints on some walls.  On his way back from getting the key Mikey passes a garden where he hears a strange noise and, when he looks he sees a woman in a wedding dress eating a dog.  

As the only sign of life in the pub is someone in the toilet who is being sick the rest of the guys go to see if they can find out what is taking Matt so long.  They find him looking in the window of a magic shop when a homeless looking woman walks around the corner. As the group are checking the pockets for any change to give her a man dressed in army combats runs around the corner and attacks her.  The group try to get the man off her but her hood falls down revealing a dead looking face, she attacks Neil putting a knife through his hand but she is stopped by Mikey, who arrives on the scene after running away from the bride, he hits the homeless woman over the head with a garden gnome, knocking her to the ground.  As they back away and try to assess the situation the bride comes round the corner and is quickly joined by by other female zombies from the local shops.  The group of friends make it back to Mikey’s Nan's house but now they have to make out of Moodley alive.

Doghouse is a good horror comedy and is surprisingly different.  Vince and his friends are a regular group of ‘blokes’ with a slightly misogynistic outlook on life (Neil is always saying that women find him irresistible) and a lot of the time they come off looking stupid.  The all female zombie cast aren't your normal brain eating zombies, in fact there is a conversation at the beginning of the film before the cast get to Moodley which could be used to argue that they are not zombies but some other type of  ghoul drawing parallels to the deadites from the Evil Dead films.  Although the Zombies do eat their victims it is not all they are interested in, one captures Neil and, although she is slowly trying to eat him she also wants his company.  They are also more intelligent than alot of other movie Zombies and many use weapons with one even using an axe chop down a post that supports the hiding place of one of the group.

Dog house is a film which, at points looks like it is going to make it’s male protagonists realise that they are wrong in their views of women, even making some of them get in touch with the female side by having to dress (drag) up to get past the zombies, but instead of them changing their views it just becomes another reason to joke around.

The Costumes and style of doghouse are quite striking partly thanks to Dan Schaffer’s  influence (writer of the comic Dogwitch).

Dog house is an entertaining film with a good amount of laughs gore. 

Evil Dead trap 2

Title - Evil dead trap 2
Language - Japanese
genre  - horror, slasher

this will have spoilers for the first and second film

Evil dead Trap 2 does not really follow on from the first film reviewed here and can easily be watched with no knowledge of the first film.

The main protagonist is Aki a female projectionist at the local cinema, she is a shy, quiet woman who keeps herself to herself most of the time.  Aki watches the film and the audience from the projection booth and, on the first night of the film she is surprised to see a young boy looking up at her.  After her shift Aki goes out to meet up with an old school friend, Eimi Kageyama who is a reporter for the local t.v. station and who is currently reporting an a series of murders that have occurred recently.  Eimi has invited a friend, Kurahashi to the meal and spends a lot of the time telling Aki that she should spend more time with men and try to get a boyfriend, hinting that Kurahashi may be interested.  She then gets a Phone call and leaves Kurahashi and Aki together.  Kurahashi tries to  it on Aki but she ‘s not interested and leaves which Kurahashi is not happy about.

next scene and we are in a carpark, there is a dead body on the floor and Aki is covered in blood holding a pair of sharp ended cutters of some kind.

The next night at the cinema Aki see’s Eimi and Kurahashi making out in the seats below her, a deliberate ploy by Eimi to make Aki jealous and to try to get together with Kurahashi.  Kurahashi then goes to speak to Aki but she rejects him again.  Kurahashi goes home and we see that he is married, his wife is in a child's bedroom and tells him that ‘Hideki hasn't come home

Aki goes out and spends some time at a restaurant that is a bus. Most of the the other customers are male and two of them follow Eimi out of the restaurant the both go to have sex with her but are scared off by a young boy. There is another murder.  Eimi Sleeps with Kurahashi & then tells him she’s pregnant.

Eimi throws a party but most of the guests leave early and Aki finally sleeps with Kurahashi.  Kurahashi goes home and finds that Hideki has come home, hes a the young boy from the cinema. Eimi is sent to a cult because no one believes her about the boy.  When she comes back she has a row with Eimi who tells her she made Kurahashi sleep with her.  Aki goes to see Kurahashi but he is not around and his house is trashed, she meet up with Aki who then tells her that her child is the one Aki had aborted.  And then things get weird.

So a lot happens in Evil dead trap 2 but the thing is the first hour is slow Each murder gets more gory but they are well spaced out.  The relationship between Aki, Eimi and Kurahashi is built up over time and events build up over time.  The problem is if up look away you could miss something especially if you are relying on subtitles.

After Aki visits kurahashi the film changes, Aki & Eimi have a very bloody fight, dead characters seem to come back to life and they fight again and the whole thing plays out as some kind of a dream jumping around.  The final scene has Aki against the wall of the mall they fought in with a giant doll approaching her but the set up, lighting and way she is sitting is reminiscent of a room in an insane asylum.

There is not much of a connection between this and the first film.  Hideki is the threat but not the killer and he is not the siamese twin of the first film.  Eimi could almost be Nami from the first film.  It is mentioned that she had been bigger in broadcasting and the reference to her having an abortion could almost be a reference the end of the first film but if that is the case I’m not sure why she has a different name.  The film also does not really explain the relationship between the child Hideki and Kurahashi, you get the impression that he was their child that disappeared but if that's the case how can the spirit be Aki’s unborn child.

The first film was about women trying to make their place in the workplace (it’s mentioned once) and this film is about the the after affects (psychological and social) of abortion.

Evil Dead trap 2 is a film that feels long and ends in and lot of blood and strangeness.  If you're expecting a slasher like the first film you may be disappointed but it still has plenty of blood you just need to stick with it.

Evil Dead Trap

Title - Evil Dead trap
Language - Japanese
Genre - slasher, Horror

As is often the case this may have a few spoilers

Nami is the host of a late night new T.V. show.  A video tape is delivered to her.  When she watches it she finds that most of the tape is a journey to an abandoned building but then things take a turn for the worst, the end of the tape is the torture and murder of a women followed by a picture of Nami.  Determined to find out whether the murder was real, Nami and her news crew follow the route shown in the part of the tape which leads them to an old industrial building.  The group split into three groups of two two’s and one to go and explore to see if they can find any evidence of the murder on the film.  As the party travels through the building they are picked off one by one by a mysterious figure and the deadly traps he has set.  Will any of the party remain alive long enough to find out why they were lured there.

In many ways ‘Evil Dead Trap’ is a standard 80’s slasher (it was made in 1988) and follows the standard slasher plot of; a group of people visit a  place.  Unknown to them there is murderer/slasher there and they are killed one at a time.  The film also follows many of the standard slasher tropes, for instance the first kill takes places after a couple have sex, which is seen in many western slashers (the ‘friday 13th’ and ‘Nightmare on Elm Street’ franchises are a good example of this)but , unlike the other slashers the new crew  are not there to party and fornicate but to investigate a possible murder.  This makes their initial decision to split into three groups a bit odd seeing as they already know that there may be a killer around.

The five main characters who form the film crew the news crew are:

Nami - the main character and film anchor

Lee & Rie - backstage crew

Makio - Photographer

Kondo - the only male on the crew who seems to be the ‘gofer’

With the exception of Nami it’s not really obvious what roles the rest of the crew play with the possible exception of Makio who is always running around photographing everything but the film needs victims or else it wouldn't be a slasher. Kondo seems to have the distinction of being included in the crew so we have a male and female for the  (consensual) sex scene.  Apart from that he seems to spend his time hiding in cupboards and being a bit of an arse, he also has the distinction of being the one kill we don’t see on screen(slight spoiler but if you’ve seen even one other slasher you’ll know he had it coming).

Apart from the news crew there are four other characters who appear at the building, these are:

an unnamed man who is looking for his brother, he seems to know his way around the building including a secret passage.

another unnamed man who likes to rape people and give (cryptic) information about the killer whilst doing so.

Hideki - for most of the film this is just a name we here.  Possibly the first man’s brother

Hideki’s mother is also (kinda but not a Norman Bates Kinda) in the film.

It is a good guess that one of these is the killer and that one lured the crew to the building but the film does do a good job of keeping at least some of it’s secrets until the final confrontation.

Evil Dead Trap is a good little slasher and, even if you guess who is going to be the first to go you don’t guess how and when.  Some of the deaths are gory and there are a couple of good jump moments as well as a couple of fake outs.  Some of the effects are a bit dated but it stands up better than another film with a similar killer  (whose title i will not name because it will be a massive spoiler).  There are a couple of moments of ‘Hostel’ like torture and a couple of ‘Saw’ like traps but the film is definitely more slasher than anything else.

Evil Dead Trap has spawned two sequels, ‘Evil Dead Trap 2’, which I will review in a following entry and ‘The Brutal Insanity of Love’ which i can not find a copy of. If i ever do I will also review it.