These two films, Marebito and Infection, were shown together (with subtitles) as a double feature at the William Powell’s Sci-Fi Center in Las Vegas. I have to be cautious about what films I take the time to review on here because my schedule is becoming increasingly full and I only have time to review films that will attract public interest, if I can, which is by no means the kind of films that interest me much, but these films seem to be the kind that a review could attract some attention. Those Japanese are sure to come up with some sadistic horror films given the opportunity- the Guinea Pig videos back in the 80’s actually had people thinking they were real snuff films, Grotesque back in 2009 was banned in the UK outright. If you want to talk about body horror, more recent Japanese horror cinema goes there in a big way. Some of these ultra-sick and disturbing Japanese films are going to work better than others, obviously. I strongly preferred Infection over Marebito. Don’t get me wrong, Marebito is actually pretty good, but Infection is amazing. Marebito I would be willing to sit down and watch again just to get a clearer sense of what is going on in the film, if such a thing is possible. I don’t think you can necessarily sit down and map out the plot of Marebito and have it all logistically make sense really. The main completely crazy and it is strongly suggested that what is going in the film is actually going on in his head. The general gist of it is that the main character discovers an underground tunnel system beneath Tokyo in which he finds a woman that has never had human contact and lives entirely off of blood. First he feeds her his own blood (which he says he enjoys and appears to get off on sexually) but then begins killing people to feed her. This plot synopsis is a vast oversimplification but I hate writing out a plot synopsis for films in a review and, again, this film I would be willing to watch over because a lot of it didn’t appear to make sense to me much. It is suggested at one point that one woman he kills is actually his wife and the strange woman that only drinks blood he finds underground is actually his daughter. Obviously, this a wholesome family film that should be shown to children in elementary schools, especially around the holiday season. Infection is hot. It actually scared me. This hospital in Japan is running out of money, not clear if there is some sort of economic depression going on, but that is sort of the implication. This hospital is running under budget and with inadequate staff. There is an ambulance headed to the hospital with a mysterious illness. This one becomes another one in which it is not clear how much is actually going on in the character’s minds. There is an incident in which by making a mistake, one of the patients, a burn victim, dies, and the doctors and nurses involved discuss the ways to conceal the error. Meanwhile, the ambulance has dropped off the mysterious patient which has a contagious infection which first effects the brain and then causes the internal organs to dissolve into green slime. It is suggested that the disease is actually a disease that takes place in the mind, and has something to do with the death of the burn patient. The answers are not given conclusively in the end, without spoiling too much. A woman in the audience actually screamed during the screening of Infection. It’s pretty sweet.
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