25 October 2024

Review: Village of Doom

DVD & Blu-ray: Village of Doom (1983)

Village of Doom (original title: Ushimitsu no mura) is based on the true story of a killing spree that happened during the night of 21st May 1938 in the rural village of Kamo and is the deadliest mass murder spree in Japanese history.

With that in mind, I was surprised at how much I was reminded of the “Confessions of…” movies during the first part of the narrative, as Tsugio (a young man denied his dream of serving in the Japanese army during WWII due to being diagnosed with tuberculosis on his army assessment) loses his virginity to one of the women in the village (who all seem to be shagging anyone they can while their husbands are at war or out at work) and then proceeds to become the local lothario, bedding most of the women he comes across.

Needless to say, his TB, frustration at not getting into the army, and his shagging antics soon combine to ostracise him from the local community, leading him to finally mentally snap and cut the power to the village, attach a couple of torches (flashlights for our American readers) to his head, grab a shotgun, Japanese sword, axe and knife, then proceed to shoot and stab his way through the village (including his own Grandmother) in a final 20 minutes that is made all the more horrific knowing that this actually happened.

While blood is splattered around, it is not overly gory. The horror comes from the situation that the victims find themselves in and the emotions generated for the characters that have been created during the previous 90 minutes.

The backdrop of war and starvation, poverty and lust, greed and ambition, all help to build the tension towards the final act where Tsugio can take no more.

Another great release from Unearthed Films.

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