HorrorSpeak---Terror Awaits You in Every Forum!!!!: EKO EKO AZARAK

And here is the promised review:

EKO EKO AZARAK

aka WIZARD OF DARKNESS

Japan 1995

Directed by: Satou Shimako

Based on the comic "Eko Eko Azarak" by Koga Shin'ichi

Cast: Yoshino Kimika, Kanno Miho, Takagi Mio, Kadomatsu Kanori, Okamura Youichi, Shuuma, Takahashi Naozumi, Shibata Miki, Maezono Juri, Tamura Miho...

Running Time: 81 min.

"Eko Eko Azarak..." Speak it loudly and listen to the words. The sound of this spell (I have no idea what the words mean) has a special quality that's hard to define. Mysterious, beautiful, full of hope... or is it a menace? I can imagine that each person will feel something else...

EKO EKO AZARAK (WIZARD OF DARKNESS) is based on the well-known Japanese comic series of the same name that began life in the 1950s. The heroine, Misa Kuroi, took the population by storm, making the comic a bestseller. Director Satou Shimako seemed to be predestined to direct the movie because she claims to be a huge comic fan. And the outcome is "quite simply one of the best movies ever made dealing with satanism", as N. Cowan said at the Toronto Film Festival in 1995. I go as far as to say that it's one of the best horror movies ever made!

The movie opens with a bang. Seven people, dressed in red clothes, perform a sinister ritual, complete with creepy chanting, burning candles and a voodoo doll, and conjure up a hellish and deadly force. At the same time, a young woman runs through the streets, screaming hysterically, obviously trying to run away from someone... or something. Exhausted, she leans against a wall, trying to catch breath. She looks up frightened, when a few screws land right in front of her feet. A huge iron beam follows the screws, hits her face and smashes her to the ground, bursting her head like a ripe mellon, and causing blood and brains to splatter the dark street. Later, we are at a school and learn to know the main characters. One of them is Misa Kuroi, a beautiful young woman, who knows a lot about magic and spells. It seems that this very school is the hiding place for the persons responsible for the opening murder, who want to bring Satan into our world. Late in the evening, when only a few boys and girls are working in a clossroom, they are startled by loud strokes from a clock. On the blackboard, the number "13" is written. In the toilet, a girl finds herself locked up in a narrow cabin, when suddenly all taps are turned on, causing the room to be flooded. The helpless girl drowns. Alarmed by the panic-stricken screams of the unfortunate girl, a few schoolboys and girls go to have a look but are only able to find the drowned girl standing in the cabin. After telling their friends they try to leave the building only to find out that all doors are locked, the windows seem to be indestructible, and all the telephones are dead. On the blackboard, the number "13" is erased and as if by magic the number "12" appears. 12 boys and girls, locked into the school building, completely on their own. A seemingly hopeless fight for survival begins...

I must apologize if there are one or two important facts missing from the short synopsis, but I saw the movie without subtitles so it's likely that there is more behind the story than I realized.

Ladies and gentlemen, let me tell you this: the movie is absolutely fantastic. Awesome. Great. Wonderful. Terrific. Words fail me.

The opening scene is as impressive as Dario Argento's famous beginning of SUSPIRIA (1977), although the sequence in this movie only takes 3 minutes. The parallel montage of the desperate woman running aimlessly through the streets and the mysterious group of people conjuring up a deadly power is excellent. The scenes of the devil worshippers are illuminated in a mysterious, threatening red light, that's always in motion because of the flickering burning candles. In contrast to this, the scenes in the street are in a cold dark blue light. The music is different too. A soft, slow and creepy tune, when the worshippers are to be seen, and a noisy, rapid, hyped up theme, with choral voices, when the fleeing woman is on the screen. The build up to the inevitable killing is perfect: you feel that something terrible is gonna happen, that there is no escape. And yet when it happens you are shocked by the sheer brutality of it.

This is just one outstanding setpiece; there are many more to follow. I don't want to give too much away, but I'd like to mention one scene that belongs to the best horror sequences ever put to celluloid. A girl succeeds in opening a window, leans out a bit and cries for help. A crunching sound makes the girl look in that direction, and she sees the glass pane sliding out of the frame. She can't react and the glass decapitates her, with the severed head falling to the ground outside. Her friends look in horror as her body slowly tips over and falls to the ground, blood spurting from the stomp, the hands twitching, the body jerking in death throes. It's only now that one of the friends starts screaming her lungs out. Fantastic editing, a perfect camera position, no music, this scene has a power that is incredible. It's not as spectacular as David Warner's decapitation in THE OMEN (1976), but it gets much more under the skin and is consequently more shocking.

The effects work is excellent too. The splatter effects are short but effective, very bloody without showing too much. There's enough room for your own imagination to run wild. In the end, there even are some great-looking visual effects to be seen, that don't need to hide from similar effects "made in Hollywood". Simply terrific. And two or three arterial sprays (THE japanese speciality, also seen in great movies such as the LONE WOLF AND CUB (aka OKAMI; 1972-74) series, LADY SNOWBLOOD (1973) or the recent ICHI THE KILLER (2001)) are there too.

What would a movie be without believable and likeable characters? In this case, it works great, even through the language barrier I immediately liked Misa and her friends, so it really affected me to see some of them die a very grisly death. The movie is suspenseful throughout, with an excellent music score (alternately piano, organ music, and strings) and very good camerawork. Long dark corridors that never seem to end, deserted classrooms, unbreakable windows... this all adds to the dark, mysterious and eerie tone of the movie. The actors and (particularly) actresses are good enough to make it easy for me to "get into" the movie. The Misa character is not your typical heroine too, as she is some kind of outsider, who knows much about magic (both the good (white) and the evil (black) magic I think), and therefore is mistrusted (and probably even feared). And the dot on the I is a very erotic lesbian encounter between a teacher and a schoolgirl, that's at least ten times as sexy and erotic as the typical American erotic thriller. I could go on and on and on in praising the movie, but I think you know by now what I am trying to say: EKO EKO AZARAK is a true masterpiece of the horror genre, that for some strange reason is hardly available and therefore almost undiscovered.

Female director Satou Shimako debuted in the film business with the Julian Sands starring TALE OF A VAMPIRE (1992), shot in England, after she finished the film school she visited there. She then went home and continued working in the horror genre with the first two EKO EKO AZARAK movies. She also wrote the screenplay for TALE OF A VAMPIRE and EKO EKO AZARAK 2. Misa Kuroi was played by the then-20-year-old actress Yoshino Kimika in the first two films of the series. I couldn't find any more credits in her filmography. WIZARD OF DARKNESS was followed by BIRTH OF THE WIZARD (1996) and MISA THE DARK ANGEL (1998). There also is an EKO EKO AZARAK TV series (26 episodes each approx. 25 min. long), made in 1997.

Sadly, the movie is at this time only availabe as a bootleg copy (taken from the japanese tape). It is widescreen at about 1,7 : 1, and there are no subtitles. Despite the absence of the subs the movie is a masterpiece (I know: I keep repeating myself). And I'm sure it would even be better if I would be able to understand the dialogues...

Entertainment: 5 (out of 5)

Splatter: 7 (out of 10)

One of the best horror movies ever made! Pray for a subtitled DVD release!

This review, spiced up with a few pics I have found, can also be viewed at my webside:

Eko Eko Azarak

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Let's make some art!

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