Film Review: Living Hell (aka Iki-jigoku)
I’ve seen a lot of Japanese horror films and this one is one in which I wish I hadn’t. I like a good low budget oddity as much as the next person but this film from writer/director Shugo Fujii is a complete mess of a film.
It has low production values and a script that’s so horrible bad that there is wonder as to why (or even how) it ever made it to our shores. The film boasts as being the Japanese Texas Chainsaw Massacre but has now of the grain or roughness of that film nor the tense of sheer terror that makes it a classic (and for the record I’m no fan of that film either yet I do recognize its contributions to the genre).
The story (if you’re even interested) concerns a seemingly normal family whose suddenly visited upon by two relatives who are more sadistic then when first viewed. These relatives torture and disfigure their fellow family member through most of the second half of the film which is neither interesting nor remotely entertaining. Unlike Chainsaw where the murders were interestingly displayed in a brutal fashion here everything is meant to be shocking and gory yet comes off as laughable and pedestrian. The poor production values don’t help as the film looks like it was shot on video and an cinematographer was non-existent.
These shoddy representation of the film just makes the whole experience of watching it tedious. I almost stopped the film but I hate doing this as I like to have watched the entire film prior to reviewing it, no mater how excruciating the experience.
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