Starring Jonathan Tucker, Jessica Lowndes, Robert Englund, Directed by Tobe Hooper
Review by Louis Fowler | Anchor Bay Entertainment | Buy from Amazon.com
Starring Youki Kudoh, Michie, Billy Drago, Directed by Takashi Miike
Review by Louis Fowler | Anchor Bay Entertainment | Buy from Amazon.com
In the special features for DANCE OF THE DEAD, Tobe (THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE) Hooper says that with a few more days of shooting, he could have turned his episode of Masters into a full-length feature. I really wish he had, because this dystopic-future adaptation of Richard Matheson's story is the best thing Hooper has done in twenty-or-so years.
And yes, I'm counting that movie with the killer laundry press.
After terrorists unleash a chemical on America that acts as a kick-ass airborne flesh-eating virus, we've become a nation of Juggalos. Regular folk can no longer walk down the street in peace for fear that Shaggy 2-Dope clones will randomly grab them and drain them of their blood. And as if that weren't bad enough, when they're not terrorizing the remaining populace with their baggy pants, these malcontents get their rocks off watching reanimated sluts, um, I mean "dancers", at a sleazy club called the Doom Room, manager by Freddy himself, Robert Englund, who, in the role of his career (and what a career!), announces the acts and then bangs them backstage. Is it necrophilia if they are undead and willing?
With the exception of a few unfortunate camera choices (does everything need to be shaky in the future?), DANCE OF THE DEAD is a stellar return to greatness for Hooper. His balance of sci-fi and depraved horror is in check, creating a very aware sense of prophetic dread. It's a future that I could totally see coming to fruition. Watch your back the next time you're in Hot Topic.
Unlike Hooper, who's seemingly been banned from theaters for the past few years, instead, Japanese director Takashi Miike's contribution was banned from cable television. Showtime, to be exact. The same Showtime that shows the equally horrific HUFF. Upon viewing his finished cut, the network brass decided not to air it, causing it to carry an air of "what could be so bad?" about it, causing fans to clamor for it's release on DVD. And, after viewing it I still have to ask, "What the Hell was so bad about that?"
Oh yeah, the fetuses. I forgot.
Imprint starts with an American journalist, played with insane aplomb by crazy-eyed American Billy Drago, looking for a prostitute he fell in love with to bring her back to America. His travels take him to a creepy-ass island full of "whores and demons", though not mutually exclusive. They live on separate sides of the island, apparently. There, he meets a disfigured woman who tells him all about what happened to his lost love, as well as her life story – one that involves torture, incest, abortions and all those other real-life horrors most people are way to afraid to face. At times it's a bit too much to take, but to soldier on is worth it.
The audience, much like the man looking for his love, is never sure where the truth ends and begins, leading to a wholly unexpected finale that, in typically Miike fashion, almost dares to leave you fully perplexed. Only a quasi-genius like Takashi Miike can mess with an audience like that and still leave the viewer coming away satisfied. Like all his films, Miike pushes the envelope of all things socially acceptable with this Japanese ghost tale based on the novel Bokee Kyotee, and while it's pretty hardcore for Masters of Horror, it's honestly no more controversial than, say, Dario Argento's JENIFER. Maybe it was purely a marketing scheme?
In the end though, completely horrific and completely scary, IMPRINT lives up to it's name, burning an unforgettable experience into your brain. An episode definitely not for the squeamish.
