Shiryô no wana (1988)

Shiryô no wana: Directed by Toshiharu Ikeda. With Miyuki Ono, Aya Katsuragi, Hitomi Kobayashi, Eriko Nakagawa. A late night TV presenter receives a snuff tape, in which a woman is brutally killed. She decides to take a crew out to a location indicated in the tape, but only death and despair awaits them.

“Why, oh WHY did the filmmakers have to throw in that incredibly *stupid* ending? Like so many reviewers before me have said, the film shouldu0026#39;ve quite while it was ahead.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eI guess its kinda ironic that Iu0026#39;m criticizing a slasher film for being too unique, since usually the main criticism that falls upon slasher movies is that theyu0026#39;re too u0026quot;by the book.u0026quot; But the ending to this film was so out of left field and completely ridiculous that it almost ruined the movie for me.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003enNot that I said *almost*. Itu0026#39;s certainly not worthless. The main problem is, all of the characters (bar the heroine, of course) are killed off in the first half hour/forty-five minutes. From there, the film becomes a really bizarre and surreal nightmare as the heroine, Nami, is left to stumble around in the dark in the abandoned military base.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThen this mysterious dude shows up, whou0026#39;s supposedly looking for his brother. I donu0026#39;t want to give anything away, so Iu0026#39;ll stop there. Unfortunately, after the first 45 minutes this film really loses its edge. Visually, itu0026#39;s stunning. I mean seriously, Dario Argento could use some pointers from this guy, since his recent films have been so bland lately. Apparently this film was shot on 16mm but if I hadnu0026#39;t of known that I wouldu0026#39;ve sworn on my life that it was 35mm. u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eLike I said, though, the ending is terrible. Admittedly, itu0026#39;s pretty surprising. But that doesnu0026#39;t make it good. Just because itu0026#39;s original and kind of unique does not make it a powerful ending. In this case, itu0026#39;s just stupid. They shouldnu0026#39;t have gone the supernatural route, and should have stayed more grounded in reality. It would have been *much* more effective had the killer been 100% human a la STAGEFRIGHT (1987). I know that would have been really generic but like I said, the ending to this film was terrible. u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eI also hated the final scene. Why, oh WHY did they have to stick that final scene in there?!?!”