Well, the name of the movie sounds cool enough, and I have been on a pretty successful streak of good Japanese movies lately, so I figured I would try this movie out. Quite frankly, is there a cooler name out there? Anyway, on to the movie.

The movie is about a woman who works as a projectionist at a movie theater. It appears that she is directly involved in a chain of ghastly murders that has been taking place (and by “directly involved” I mean that she is the killer). An interesting side note is that she is a little overweight. Not that this is interesting in itself, but Hollywood today has us so brainwashed about perfect looking people that whenever we see a normal looking person in a lead role, we are taken aback.

Anyway, focus Paynecraft san! She has a friend who is a tv reporter and is covering a lot of the murders. Her friend introduces her to this dork who has the hots for her. Really weird shit happens in between all this and blood is flowing everywhere all the while. We have quite a murder mystery to untangle here, and I won’t divulge anymore. Rest assured however that this movie includes brutal murders, buckets of blood, ripped ovaries, knives, drugs, blood, a scary ass little kid, and beautiful atmosphere. The perfect recipe for carnage!

I will now talk about three things that le Craft du Payne considers very effective to make a movie good, and that is gore, violence, and nudity. I am actually more interested in the gore and violence, but seeing some skin every now and again isn’t a bad thing, right? The women agree too.

There is a lot of gore in this movie. Blood and entrails are everywhere. The violence is top notch also, though quite a bit is implied. A lot of the grisly murders are viewed after the fact. There are disturbing images abound however. There are lots of razor and knife stabbing and slashing. This includes several knife fights along the way, including one in a bathroom that should leave you feeling pretty uneasy. There is one scene towards the end that must enter the Pantheon of Payne upon initial nomination (Payne-pain. I’ve used these two words synonymously my whole life. A built in gimmick, if you will). I won’t spoil it for you, but it left me wilted and weeping in a corner until I was mercifully revived back to my senses by a tasteful and timely lingerie shot.

The atmosphere of this movie is great. You feel like you are watching an Argento flick, with all the deep contrasting colors. The setting and scenery is top notch also. This is a very nice film to look at. There is a fight scene in a bunch of sheets that are hung up. Every time somebody gets stabbed, the blood splatters on one of the sheets. Tasteful, yet brutal. Just how I like it, taste optional.

The movie flowed kinda weird. There were several times when I had no idea what the hell was going on. I am still not real sure what the hell went on. Not knowing this shit doesn’t bother me though, like it does a lot of people. I find it intriguing. I also had to rewind a couple times because some of the subtitles went by too fast. No big deal. The acting was average. The music was great. The main theme song is as addicting a song as I have heard. It takes me back to the marathon Mahjongg matches I used to have when I first got the game. I still hum those damn songs...

Overall, this was a damn good movie. It was weird and not always logical. It definitely isn’t as weird as the trailer makes it out to be though. If this kind of shit bothers you, then it may not be for you. The atmosphere and gore should make up for it. I never did see a damn Evil Dead trap though, and I read that it pretty much had nothing to do with the first one. It stands alone perfectly however.

I give it 8 out of 10 Paynecrafties, but you would probably only give it 3. I get a +1 adjustment because I am a crazy fucker.

This review was written while listening to Nightwish. Why in God’s name have they not hit it big over here? Why people, why?