| The first entry in the "bloodthirsty"
trilogy, Michio Yamamoto’s Vampire Doll
is an aspiring and atmospheric horror film. In
fact, most aspects of the movie are accomplished
exceedingly well. The story itself, while not
too complex, unfolds in a manner that makes the
plot interesting. Granted, the characters aren’t
very deep, but the acting here tends to be top
notch and compensates rather well. Unfortunately,
the film’s dark spot is Riichiro Manabe,
a composer who should be infamous to most Toho
enthusiasts, as he churns out another poor score
here that, thankfully, the film is able to rise
above.
Vampire Doll's story starts
out with Kazuhiko Sagawa in route to Tadeshina
to meet his finance, Yuko Nomura. Once at Yuko’s
house, Sagawa meets Yuko’s mother, Shido
Nomura, and Genzo, her mute butler. He is also
given the news that Yuko has died after a fatal
car accident that occurred two weeks prior. Devastated
by the news, Sagawa spends the night at the Nomura
house. As dusk hits, the young man begins to hear
a strange wailing sound emanating from inside
the house. While investigating, he swears he sees
Yuko until he is struck in the back of the head
and slips out of consciousness. Upon awaking,
he tells Mrs. Nomura what he saw, but she assures
him it was only a dream. Still restless, Sagawa
returns to his room and peaks out the window,
only to spy Yuko running away from the house,
he quickly leaves his room and gives pursuit.
Sagawa finds Yuko near her grave, and the two
embrace.
Several days later, Keiko, Kazuhiko’s
sister, grows worried as she hasn’t heard
from her brother in the past eight days. Together
with her boyfriend Hiroshi Tagaki, the pair travel
to Tadeshina to see if they can locate him. Upon
arriving, they hear the dreadful news that Yuko
had passed away, while Mrs. Nomura tells them
that Kazuhiko had left four days ago. Keiko asks
to see Yuko’s grave, and the pair go off
alone to the spot. While there, Keiko tells Hiroshi
that she doesn't trust Mrs. Nomura, and believes
that her brother is still here. Hiroshi reluctantly
agrees, and removes the car’s fan belt so
it appears they have car trouble, and are allowed
to spend the night. Later, after dinner, the two
hear an odd wailing noise emanating from the house's
lower levels. Hiroshi goes to investigate, but
is discovered by Mrs. Nomura who assures him it's
only the wind. That night, after everyone is asleep,
the pair go off to explore the grounds. Hiroshi
comes across Genzo in the courtyard, as he attempts
to knock him out until Mrs. Nomura intervenes.
Keiko, on the other hand, hears the odd wailing
noise as Yuko corners the young girl in her room,
although Keiko is saved when she accidentally
knocks over a light fixture, which blinds Yuko
temporarily. Mrs. Nomura and Hiroshi find her
shortly afterwards, while Yuko is nowhere to be
found, and they assure her it was only a nightmare.
The next day, Hiroshi fixes the
car and the two are off, but Keiko still insists
that something isn't right. So they visit the
coroner's office and Yamaguchi, the doctor who
declared her deceased, and learn of the family’s
grave history: how a burglar had broken in and
murdered everyone in the house except Genzo and
Mrs. Nomura, who later gave birth to Yuko. Strangely
enough, the doctor believes Keiko about seeing
Yuko the night before, as Yamaguchi tells of his
own experiences with the occult during the war,
where we swore he saw a fallen soldier’s
specter. The pair then decides to go their separate
ways with Keiko returning to the house while Hiroshi
meets the gravedigger who buried Yuko. The laborer
then offers to dig her back out for a fee, and
Hiroshi agrees. Keiko’s exploration of the
house leads to trouble, though, as Mrs. Nomura
locks her in one of the rooms. Yamaguchi arrives
at the house, following claims that Keiko had
gone insane, and sedates the girl. Meanwhile,
Hiroshi and the gravedigger have just uncovered
the coffin. To their surprise, only a dummy pops
out when opened; however, the gravedigger becomes
spooked and starts to run off, only to run into
Yuko. Hiroshi hears him scream off in the distance,
but arrives too late, as the man is already dead.
However, he does see Yuko and begins to follow
her, until Genzo leaps out and tries to kill the
young man. The two get into a brief struggle,
which leads them to the edge of a cliff where
Genzo tries to push Hiroshi off, only to fall
to his own death instead.
Following the short skirmish, Hiroshi
finds their car hidden nearby, and rushes off
to the house, now worried about Keiko. Inside,
he meets Mrs. Nomura and tells her what they found
in the coffin, while demanding to see Keiko. Unfortunately,
Mrs. Nomura is still uncooperative, but starts
to slowly explain what is happening to Yuko. How,
when death was about to overtake her, the young
girl was hypnotized, creating her twisted second
personality and leaving Yuko in her present undead
state. Yamaguchi then emerges, announcing that
he was the one to have hypnotized her. He also
explains that he was the one to have killed Mrs.
Nomura’s family all those years ago, as
he had loved her before the war but came back
to find she had been living a life with someone
else. The doctor also reveals that Yuko is, in
fact, his daughter. Unfortunately, while making
these revelations, Yamaguchi is beginning to hypnotize
Hiroshi. Thankfully, the doctor’s efforts
are lost when Keiko, after finding the corpse
of her brother and Yuko, screams from one of the
lower levels where she was being kept. Hiroshi
quickly snaps to and runs down to meet her. The
two then try to flee, until they hear a gunshot
and turn to see the doctor holding them at gunpoint.
However, the doctor’s threat is interrupted
by the appearance of Yuko, who quickly rushes
Yamaguchi and slashes his throat, killing him.
Yuko then turns to attack Keiko and Hiroshi, but,
with the doctor’s demise, the trance over
Yuko is broken. The young girl then falls to the
ground and begins to wither and die, as the evil
in the house has finally been vanquished.
All in all, the plot isn’t
overly complex, but the nonlinear reveal and the
mysterious establishing of the situation at the
start makes it interesting to watch. Vampire
Doll, overall, feels like a classic horror
film. The countryside setting and minimal number
of characters work great to weave together a feeling
of isolation, while it’s also difficult
to tell which of the movie’s characters
one can trust. The doctor, for example, seems
like he’s going to rescue Keiko when he
later emerges, although it’s later revealed
that he is actually the root of the entire problem.
The Yuko character is also effective here as the
antagonist, as she’s frightening while she
also evokes sympathy from the viewer. It’s
also nice that this film doesn’t rely on
surprise-oriented scenes to scare the viewer,
as Vampire Doll instead builds on the
atmosphere. There aren’t a lot of genuine
scares to be had though, as the film is more unnerving
than anything else. Yuko’s wailing sound
is good example of this, as it’s a fairly
creepy sound that is effective throughout the
entire movie. The film also features very little
gore, but what is here is effective and credible,
such as Yuko slashing the neck of a raven, which
looks disturbingly realistic. In fact, the entire
visual production side of things looks good, save
the overly fake bats that look like they were
culled directly from Space
Amoeba (1970). I suppose it shouldn’t
go unnoted, though, that the movie doesn’t
actually contain any vampires in the traditional
sense. Yuko, the film’s undead character,
has no fangs, nor does she suck the blood from
her victims. She is called a vampire during the
course of the film, but doesn’t show the
normal tendencies of them.
Unfortunately, the film’s
character development isn’t as strong as
it could be. It’s easy to relate what Keiko
and Hiroshi are feeling, but they aren’t
entirely deep characters that one grows an attachment
with. Hiroshi tends to fare the better of the
two, as his notable reluctance and overall good
nature make him hard not to like. That’s
not to say Keiko is a bad character, and it’s
nice to see her jump to some conclusions that
make complete sense to the viewer in contrast
to some entries in the genre where characters
seem to stumble around when the obvious is right
in front of them. Overall, though, not much of
the character is explored, and the only thing
one really gets a sense of is her desire to discover
the mystery behind her brother’s disappearance.
As for the supporting cast, not much to dissect,
but that works well in the story as most are either
fodder for Yuko or are intended to be mysterious.
Even though the character development
isn’t spectacular, the acting showcased
in the film tends to be great. Kayo Matsuo, as
Keiko, is the film’s main character. Overall,
her acting tends to be good, as she is able to
convincingly portray her character’s emotions
during the course of the film. Granted, she’s
not the best at screaming, which is demanded a
couple of times here, but does it well enough
that it’s not something that stands out
negatively either. The other lead is Akira
Nakao, as the good-natured boyfriend, who
gives a great performance. It’s surprising
too that the actor didn’t find more work
in his youth, as Nakao is energetic when he needs
to be while his fear in the film feels genuine.
Yoko Minakaze as Ms. Nomura gives an excellent
portrayal here as well, as her character feels
distant from everything, which gives the viewer
that feeling that something isn’t right
from her first scene. To her credit, Minakaze
doesn’t show a lot of emotion here, but
her inner thoughts are sometimes apparent, such
as a fake smile that subtly changes into a grimace.
The center focus in the film, though, is Yuko,
portrayed by Yukiko Kobayashi. All in all, Kobayashi
does a flawless job given the role. Granted, she
barely has any lines during the course of the
film, but she gives a chilling performance as
the film’s undead character while being
eerily alluring at the same time, showing off
extraordinary physical acting talent. Nearly every
scene she is in, save the two flashbacks, is noticeably
unnerving, particularly when she gives her disturbing
smile. Rounding out the notable performances is
Jun Usami as the film’s twisted doctor.
Usami does pretty well here with the material
he is given, he seems inviting when he is first
introduced in the film, as even after his morbid
tale about the undead solider he ends the conversation
with a laugh and a smile. One feels safe around
him to the point that his emergence at the house
leads one to assume he will help solve the situation.
However, near the end of the film, when his true
intentions are reveled, the actor is slightly
heavy handed in his delivery, although this ends
up working in his favor to give the character
a more demented twist.
Sadly, the film’s low point
can be credited to Riichiro Manabe, who, without
question, takes the title of Toho's worst composer.
That’s not to say that some of his cues
don’t have their merit, as the start of
the main theme works well here for example. However,
a lot of the music found in Vampire Doll
is ear piercing, as for every good track in the
composer’s resume there seems to be an equally
awful one. Thankfully, the film is mostly devoid
of music, which works well to build the foreboding
mood and is largely positive on account of Manabe’s
inadequacies.
Overall, the film is simply a well-made
picture. That’s not to say Vampire Doll
is a flawless entry in the horror genre, as it
has its faults, but, thankfully, most of these
are overshadowed by the movie’s other qualities.
|
(3.5/5)