Uzumaki: Viewer Comments

WOW!!! This movie was something else entirely. I caught this on sundance channel on Halloween night and was scared out of my mind. It wasn't scary like THE RING was scary, which relied on tension, suspense, and quite a few jumps. Uzumaki is just plain creepy and unnerving. As you watch, you just know that something isn't right, and it begins to build until you almost cant take it. At one point I just about shut off my TV because I thought I was gonna go crazy. In the scene where the smoke is rising in big spirals, and the woman's eyes are giant just freaked me out to the max. At first I knew something wasn't normal, and soon it dawned on me till I actually screamed out loud, and I never scream in movies. People complain about the ending of the film, which sorta goes the way that a David lynch film might end. However if you were given a concrete ending where everything was nicely explained and everything laid out the film would've been ruined. Things in this movie just happen, and there is no explanation, no way of stopping it, and no way to get away from it all. That is exactly why its so scary. I recommend buying this movie right away no matter what. The more you watch it the scarier it gets!

I've never read any of Japanese writer and artist, JUNJI ITO's Horror Manga (which this movie is based on) but if it's half as creepy as the film version, then it's gotta be downright spooky because this movie is without a doubt, one of the eeriest puppies I've seen in a LONG, LONG time. Yeah, I know you're saying that the ending was kinda weak and maybe even a little lousy, but that would be the ONLY strike against it, in my opinion. But if you take the time to analyze the movie as a whole, you can overlook the ending (which really isn't an ending at all). And, you know, after watching it more and more, I'd go on the record to say that I can totally forgive it because it's really quite scary, and that's something you just don't find in many horror movies these days. NOT so much scary as in the presentation of the provocative scenes of juicy moist, crimson-colored gore and glorious bloodletting that's so abundant in the Asian Horror Cinema, but it's the slight-of-hand and the witty quick swaying camera work that will actually "do you in" instead of it's many visceral surreal images. Well, I kinda take that back, there are o-plenty of scenes of the human body horribly twisted and contorted by the UZUMAKI (the Japanese word for "Vortex"). And it can be rather unsettling to see a person spun into a dough-like, quivering fleshy pulp stuck inside a running washing machine. But it's really when the camera pans in close to see it's face, and it suddenly snaps open it's eyes and starts to scream, that's when you get your shock, or as I like to call them, your "Scare Moments". But enough of the spoilers, here's the basic storyline, it stars ERIKO HATSUNE and her town's inhabitants begin to suffer from a phobia of swirls, or vortex patterns, or better known as the already mentioned term, UZUMAKI. If you don't die from it right away by stuffing yourself into a washer, or cutting out your circular inner ear parts, growing spiral snail shells from your back (?), getting ran over and stuck in the truck's tire well, or plunging to your death from a spiral staircase, (see any similarities yet) then you're bound to become insanely possessed by it and attempt to kill any one else not already infected with this UZUMAKI disease. Of course, the only fun way to really kill someone is to twist your body into horrid, elongated shapes and try to strangle your potential victim. But contrary to what you may be thinking now, all this is shown in a way as to NOT "gross" you out with the "red stuff". And that I think (Lord forbid I should ever say this) it actually works better for this kind of movie. Let me know if you agree so I can re-assure myself that I'm NOT loosing my appetite for excessive human carnage and blood-filled carnal slaughter.