Aki Otani is a cinema projectionist who is haunted by visions of a strange and deformed child. She is also shunned by most around her given her shy and reclusive nature. What is rather surprising is Aki's penchant for stalking and horrifically murdering the prostitutes who ply their trade outside her place of work. One assumes that it is the influence of the ghostly child that leads her to indulge in such madness. As with the original in the movie, Hashimoto attempts to give the violence a cold and meaningless edge. Very little clue is given to the motive for the brutal attacks - the only similarity between them that the victims have their sexual organs removed. It would appear possible that the visions Aki is experiencing are that of her unborn child who perished at birth, and that she now wishes to punish those she sees as undeserving of what she never had.

All of this is of course speculation as the fog that hangs over the movie is so thick as to leave the viewer scratching their heads right to the very end. Hashimoto introduces another rather bizarre character to the plot in the form of newsreader Eimi Kageyama. This individual associates herself with Aki but seeks to ridicule her in front of others for her withdrawn nature. Kageyama unwittingly, also heads the newscasts that frequently cover the brutal murders committed by her reclusive friend Aki. The relationship between the two is curious indeed, as is the behaviour of Kageyama's casual boyfriend Kurahashi. Although he is involved with the news presenter, he constantly makes passes at the vulnerable Aki who tries to spurn his salacious advances.

In all honesty, it is difficult to comment on the body of the film, as there appears little interlude before another vicious and graphic murder. The violence contains none of the context or framework that the original Evil Dead Trap contained. Instead there is simply wave upon wave of murder sequences that are held together very loosely by the presence of the phantom child and its influence over Aki. Even Hashimoto's attempt to clarify the plight of his main character by having her visit a spiritual cult, fails. Little is truly revealed apart from the fact that something thoroughly unpleasant is stalking Aki's soul.

In the tradition of Evil Dead Trap, this sequel contains one of the most mindless and idiotic endings ever to appear on screen. However, in this first outing (that had an equally awful conclusion) there was a sense of extreme disappointment at the end given the brilliant 90-or-so minutes that had gone before. With Hashimoto's effort there is no such lack of fulfilment. On the contrary, the ending to Evil Dead Trap 2: Hideki is simply a rehash of the movie as a whole. A relative feast of ill-conceived set pieces ring-fenced by unceasing violence that more tires than compels. Somewhere in the background to this mess is Hashimoto - a director with undoubted ability lumbered with an unworkable project. By the movie's conclusion it's almost as if the actors are directing themselves and the man behind the camera has faded into a cloud of obscurity. This was unfortunately always going to be the case when one attempts to create a sequel to one of Japan's all-time greatest horror films.

The central character is Aki, a fat, shy, film projectionist. Her only freind is an ex-high school chum, Emi, who now works as a reporter and shares Aki's more morbid tastes, like the dark work of photographer Joel Peter Witkin. Emi introduces Aki to the married man she is having an affair with, Kurashi, who also seems to be have and eye for the sullen Aki. A rash of murders have been occurring, prostitutes being found eviscerated near an area where there is a lot of construction over a supposedly haunted patch of land. Emi reports on the murders and finds herself turned on by them, while Aki it seems is the murderer. She is present at the murder scenes, blood soaked, but the next day she seems puzzled, like the acts of the previous night were sleepwalking, or perhaps even possession. She begins to see the same child out of the corner of her eye and in the background of the murder news reports. After she seeks the advice of a spiritualist and cult leader and consummates her affair with Kurashi, she, Emi, Kurashi, and the mysterious child form a circle that leads to a head-to-toe bloody finale.

One of the nice things I can say about Evil Dead Trap 2 is its non-conformist casting of a female who isn't your typical beauty as a lead. Having a portly, hanging faced outcast was a great idea, but it is a film full of ideas ill-executed. Its plot liberally borrows from many horror influences which end up in a nearly unrecognizable heap on the floor because they are crushed by an incoherent plot. While a nightmarish imbalance was no doubt intended, harkening to the likes of Rosemary's Baby and Suspiria, you can still tell the film makers couldn't quite make up their minds and the end result is amateurishly ambiguous. The events of the film could be some real supernatural occurrence or they could all just be part of Aki's mind. When Aki visits the cult, its leader has some vision of Aki being dangerous, yet they also show one of her lackeys dramatically flicking the lights on and off. Pretty much sums up the film- you're not sure if its an intentional misdirection. By the end you can tell the writers probably couldn't decide which way to lean, the bizarrely supernatural or the demented psychological. It feels like one of those movies set on auto control, based around a few murder sequences and a vague concept of characters and their arcs.

The director was is Izo Hashimoto, whose resume really only jumps out at me because he was one of the co-writers of the HK fantasy Peacock King- a movie that, unlike Evil Dead Trap 2, really knew what it was every second of its goofy/fantasy/action/b-movie screentime.