Kazuo Umezu's Horror Theater: The Present (Umezu Kazuo: Kyôfu gekijô - Purezento) (Japan, 2005)
rating: ***
starring: Mai Takahashi, Takamasa Suga and Yoko Mitsuya
I stumbled upon this J-Horror in my search for another Killer Santa flick, and well, you know J-Horror's not gonna make it as subtle as possible.
Kazuo Umezu's Horror Theater is actually a series of 50 minute short films with varying level of cheesiness, creepiness and exceptional low-budget; while some shorts are terrible in terms of execution and/or storytelling, The Present was one of the few titles that made the low-budget work with a proper amount of shocks, laughs, good gore and an easy to follow story.

What happened that night was never been clear, as we go head long to a few years later, as we join the young adult Yuko celebrating Christmas with her loud, brash and annoying friends, one of which just happens to be a guy she's eyeballing. When a simple trip to the bar was rendered boring, the gang decided to pack up and spend their night at a fancy mansion-like hotel. There, they found their night of possible fun and games turned into a horrifying nightmare when a vengeful Santa Claus decided to get back the presents he gave, and he's doing it with a nasty chained blade and a pack of carnivorous reindeers!

On the production department, The Present is an okay when it comes to the gore and some practical effects; though I find somebody bleeding to death from an arm stump with the resemblance of a broken beer keg seems beyond believable, the non-CG effects were fair, featuring some sticky red innards, folks sliced in halfs or quarters, and plenty of shocking close-ups. However, the visual effects kinda sucked; I find those scenes involving Santa's bladed Christmas star quite laughable when it go all Matrix-like, Slow-mo and all! This is actually the only scene in the film that used the most visual effects, so I guess we can be thankful at least for that.
In your typical J-Horror shock/cringe, we also got one heck of a last minute weirdness and twist; not bad by means of making a quick jab at us slasher and splatter fans, with our fascination for all things mutilated and dismembered.
The Present is, by all means, a J-Horror flick trying to be an American slasher; while it have many of the usual suspects right, the overall feel is definitely your standard Asian horror in terms of weirdness and theme. Not a bad movie for this time of the year, and a definite try for any Killer Santa fans out there!
Bodycount:
1 female bled to death from missing arm
1 male found in half
1 male thrown to wall, leg sliced off with chained blade
1 female beaten repeatedly against table
1 male bladed toy staff through the head, exit to mouth
1 female found rotting in pieces
1 female killed, method unknown
1 female brain torn out from her skull
total: 8
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Meri kurisumasu... |
Sounds interesting but I'm a Santa's Slay man through and through.
ReplyDeleteyou mean This Santa's Slay?
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