SYNOPSIS: As the Gods Will is a movie starring Sôta Fukushi, Ryûnosuke Kamiki, and Shôta Sometani. A group of high school students are forced to play a game of death without knowing who, why or how. REVIEW: I’ve reviewed a couple of Takashi Miike films now, and granted I’ve only carved into a mere fraction of his extensive catalog, but …

SYNOPSIS: A monk and his three disciples continue on their journey to battle demons. REVIEW: For all its glamour, demon hunting has to be a tough job. Your life (and immortal soul) is threatened on a constant basis, you’re always on the move, and you can’t get too involved with anyone lest your enemy decides to possess them. But the …

SYNOPSIS: Upon visiting a secluded summer home, four high school girls are soon targeted by a horrific creature in the basement with a knowing housekeeper trying to keep the unspeakable heap secret and at bay using a flute. REVIEW: If I had to pick a favorite era of horror, it would easily be the late 70s through the end of the …

SYNOPSIS: After a heroic death, a firefighter navigates the afterlife with the help of three guides. REVIEW:     There are certain subjects in film that I am always interested in seeing: horror musicals, sea monster expeditions, robots that want to be human, and hunting men for sport. But my favorite by far are stories dealing with the afterlife—angels, demons, gods, higher …

SYNOPSIS: Ghost Game tells the story of 11 contestants who sign up for a scary reality show which forces them to confront the supernatural and their innermost fears. They’re brought to an ancient war museum in Cambodia, which was used as a Khmer Rouge prison twenty years before. Thousands of innocent people were tortured and killed there during the Cambodian …

SYNOPSIS: Sequel to “Tetsuo” this time has the Iron Man transforming into cyberkinetic gun when a gang of vicious skinheads kidnap his son. When the skinheads capture him, they begin to experiment on him…speeding up the mutative process! REVIEW: I like to think that I understand “art films.” Anyone who has ever pursued an English degree knows that after enough …

SYNOPSIS: Keiko, the daughter of a legendary sushi chef, runs away from home when his Karate-style regimen becomes too severe. Finding work at a rural hot springs inn, she is ridiculed by the eccentric staff and guests.

SYNOPSIS: Devilman faces the tortoise demon Jinmen and birdwoman Shiranu. REVIEW: I have very specific tastes when it comes to anime. I’m more in “the Sailor Moon camp,” where sometimes heavy subject matter is flanked with pretty costumes and big sparkly eyes–I am very much a girly girl in that regard. The flipside of this is what I call “the …

SYNOPSIS: A man’s family is torn apart when his wife takes a loan from a loan shark who will stop at nothing to get his money back REVIEW: We love stories about organized crime. We love the idea of a world seemingly run by law and order, when in actuality it’s an underground organization of tough guys in nice suits …

SYNOPSIS: Based on the 16th-century Chinese novel Feng Shen Yan Yi (The Investiture of the Gods), the story tells of how King Zhou of Shang becomes a tyrant due to the wiles of Daji, a vixen spirit who is disguised as one of his concubines. REVIEW: Fantasy is tricky to pull off in film. Despite some of the most successful …

SYNOPSIS: Yoroi Samurai Zombie AKA Samurai Zombie is a 2008 Japanese comic horror film directed by Tak Sakaguchi and written by Ryuhei Kitamura, who had previously collaborated on Versus REVIEW: It’s safe to say that the most effective horror movies are the ones that wreak havoc on a happy family. It’s an old cliché that the genre is rotten with …

SYNOPSIS: In 2010, the people of Seoul, South Korea fight a virus that threatens to infect the planet. REVIEW: By and large, the American movie-going public is pretty much over zombies. The undead apocalypse trend was a mighty force in the mid-2000s consumerist culture, being relevant what with all our wars and recessions and such. For a while there, it …

SYNOPSIS: A Rich Heiress Receive a Third Butlerdroid for Her Birthday in Which She Begins Lusting After Him REVIEW: I’m a sucker for stories about robots. Whether it’s an android that longs to be human, or a computer that realizes its superiority to its creator, there is something about artificial intelligence that is immediately sympathetic and fascinating. It can be …

SYNOPSIS: Yosuke, a typical slacker kid dozing his way through school, showing nothing in the way of ambition as he quietly mulls over the death of a close friend the year before. He is clever enough and full of smart comments but just doesn’t seem to see the point of much in life. That changes when he meets Eri by …

SYNOPSIS: A teenager called Noriko Shimabara runs away from her family in Tokoyama, to meet Kumiko, the leader of an Internet BBS, Haikyo.com. She becomes involved with Kumiko’s “family circle”, which grows darker after the mass suicide of 54 high school girls.