[shadyJ]

So I finally got around to seeing Evil Dead Trap, A Japanese slasher movie from the 80s and a movie I had heard mentioned on and off for years now. Like the title of this post, it's strongly reminiscent of the Italian movies from that era, especially Argento and Fulci. It's a stylish, brutal, movie with a music score that relies primarily on synthesizer arpeggiation. The plot is a television reporter receives a videotape with what looks like a snuff movie, which is preceeded by directions to its location shoot. Right after the kill the video cuts to an image of the reporter. Hungry for ratings, she decides to investigate the location with a camera crew instead of informing the police. This being a horror film, you can figure out what happens next- mostly; there is a turn for the surreal in the third act which I won't spoil for you.

The kills are pretty nasty in this one, I would say on par with its Italian counterparts. One thing I enjoyed about this one is the grainy film look of the movie which was prevalent back then. It gave me a nostalgic sensation because you just don't see that anymore. Nowadays all the horror films are shot on high def digital video. Yes, they look sharp, but they just don't have the atmosphere of that 1980's film stock.

The movie isn't perfect though. As with so many other slasher movies of the time, all the victims are so dumb that it's hard to empathize with them and instead you find yourself rooting for their demise. Also in keeping with it contemporaries, logic was clearly not a high priority for whoever was constructing the story. However, given the time and the genre, this is all par for the course, so I can't complain too much. In these respects, it's not much worse than anything made by the Italians or Americans.

Anyway, if you are a fan of 80's Italian horror, you really should give this one a chance. It would fit right in a film fest between something like Demons and House By the Cemetery. In fact, this movie is so Italian in style, that I can't really see anything specifically Japanese about it. I know of no other Japanese movie like it at all. If the actors and language wasn't Japanese, you really would say this was vintage Italian horror.