If I had seen this sooner then, I would have definitely added this to my top 50 best slasher movies of all time, so I think an update is long overdue. After viewing this masterpiece my mind was just totally blown away. I mean rarely have I ever seen a horror movie that just gets everything this right, it just works on every level and should be better known.
The plot is very intriguing where a reporter Nami who hosts a TV show called 'The Late, Late Show' which is basically a mix of 'You've Been Framed' and 'America's Funniest Home Videos', gets sent a video tape which shows a young girl whose chained up getting brutally murdered, and at the end shows a picture of Nami, so instead of alerting the police, she decides to go with her crew to investigate, which leads them to a very creepy abandoned warehouse, and once there they split and start to get picked off one by one by a mysterious hooded killer.
'Evil Dead Trap' perfectly combines a mixture of other genre styled horrors such as 'Italian Horror', 'American Slasher Movies' & 'Japanese Horror' and makes something quite unique and even puts some of those to shame. It has stylish direction with a lot of eerie tension and a genuine creepy tone. Even when the characters wander around the building, the atmosphere is full of dread and the setting with its long and dark dingy corridors looks excellent and the director makes perfect use of this location. Even the score is very riveting and despite being used throughout the film no matter what situation it is, it totally works and very catchy.
Even the first murder which was nasty and very brutal, it also comes as a total surprise as you never expect it to be that fast, and even the other deaths remain well and truly mean spirited with some brilliant effects that are well staged with a savage tone. Plus we have a great heroine in Miyuki Ono who plays Nami brings a childlike innocence to the role and even without saying anything she can express her feelings with just her facial expressions which was very subtle and well done, and it's nice not having every character explain what their feeling all the time, it made her feel very human.
While each of these scenes are awesome, they all happen within the first 45 minutes, and the 2nd half of the movie does struggle a bit without the same momentum, but then at the final scene we do get a well and truly shocking twist that does totally take you off guard, and while it may seem a bit too bizarre for some, I personally found it brilliant and it did kinda make sense in a way, as there were unexplained things going on throughout the movie such as the killer just standing there while arrows and flairs are being fired, a tin can falling down the stairs seemingly on its own, and so on, and while the killer's identity wasn't a surprise at all, it's what comes after that which is the real shocker and almost takes on feels like a different genre altogether, kinda supernatural in a way, which was totally bizarre and my gripe with it is that it's never explained, but I guess that is what makes it so unsettling.
Another minor gripe with this is that there's a whole other subplot involving the killer's assistant which just went nowhere and was only there to add to the bodycount, but honestly that didn't spoil my enjoyment of this, although I would have liked to have known more about it. This is still a great movie that's very unique and gives you that feel that anything can happen at any time and the viewer is constantly on edge and although I did say that the 2nd half leaves little to do, it never gets boring and doesn't drag either, but it could have been slightly better structured.
So all in all 'Evil Dead Trap' is a definite must see for any fans of slasher movies, sure it's a little different to them but that's the beauty of it, it's definitely not generic in any way whatsoever and with stylish direction, gruesome bloody and inventive kills and decent performances, this is definitely a lost masterpiece that deserves more recognition.
The plot is very intriguing where a reporter Nami who hosts a TV show called 'The Late, Late Show' which is basically a mix of 'You've Been Framed' and 'America's Funniest Home Videos', gets sent a video tape which shows a young girl whose chained up getting brutally murdered, and at the end shows a picture of Nami, so instead of alerting the police, she decides to go with her crew to investigate, which leads them to a very creepy abandoned warehouse, and once there they split and start to get picked off one by one by a mysterious hooded killer.
'Evil Dead Trap' perfectly combines a mixture of other genre styled horrors such as 'Italian Horror', 'American Slasher Movies' & 'Japanese Horror' and makes something quite unique and even puts some of those to shame. It has stylish direction with a lot of eerie tension and a genuine creepy tone. Even when the characters wander around the building, the atmosphere is full of dread and the setting with its long and dark dingy corridors looks excellent and the director makes perfect use of this location. Even the score is very riveting and despite being used throughout the film no matter what situation it is, it totally works and very catchy.
Even the first murder which was nasty and very brutal, it also comes as a total surprise as you never expect it to be that fast, and even the other deaths remain well and truly mean spirited with some brilliant effects that are well staged with a savage tone. Plus we have a great heroine in Miyuki Ono who plays Nami brings a childlike innocence to the role and even without saying anything she can express her feelings with just her facial expressions which was very subtle and well done, and it's nice not having every character explain what their feeling all the time, it made her feel very human.
While each of these scenes are awesome, they all happen within the first 45 minutes, and the 2nd half of the movie does struggle a bit without the same momentum, but then at the final scene we do get a well and truly shocking twist that does totally take you off guard, and while it may seem a bit too bizarre for some, I personally found it brilliant and it did kinda make sense in a way, as there were unexplained things going on throughout the movie such as the killer just standing there while arrows and flairs are being fired, a tin can falling down the stairs seemingly on its own, and so on, and while the killer's identity wasn't a surprise at all, it's what comes after that which is the real shocker and almost takes on feels like a different genre altogether, kinda supernatural in a way, which was totally bizarre and my gripe with it is that it's never explained, but I guess that is what makes it so unsettling.
Another minor gripe with this is that there's a whole other subplot involving the killer's assistant which just went nowhere and was only there to add to the bodycount, but honestly that didn't spoil my enjoyment of this, although I would have liked to have known more about it. This is still a great movie that's very unique and gives you that feel that anything can happen at any time and the viewer is constantly on edge and although I did say that the 2nd half leaves little to do, it never gets boring and doesn't drag either, but it could have been slightly better structured.
So all in all 'Evil Dead Trap' is a definite must see for any fans of slasher movies, sure it's a little different to them but that's the beauty of it, it's definitely not generic in any way whatsoever and with stylish direction, gruesome bloody and inventive kills and decent performances, this is definitely a lost masterpiece that deserves more recognition.