Horror Extreme Movie Catalog

Marebito (Stranger from Afar)
Takashi Shimizu - Japan, 2004

A reviewer of our 2007 "Shaver Revival" sci-fi movie Beyond Lemuria said that we should have a place in the history of science fiction films as the first Shaver Mystery movie. As much as I appreciate that recommendation, the credit must go to Takashi Shimizu (Grudge 1&2) and his team for their moody, introspective 2004 horror film Marebito.
This film avoids the sudden shocks of the Grudge films (amplified by loud
musical "stings"). Marebito creates a subtle mood of brooding terror and mystery which progresses downward into the gloomy underworld beneath modern Tokyo while descending deeper in the subjective torment of the protagonist's developing psychosis.
Tokyo, like most modern cities, has a multi-level subterranean network of subways and utility tunnels that connect to earlier abandoned and forgotten excavations at deeper levels. The tormented video-journalist Masuoka witnesses a grisly suicide in the subway. Driven by a compulsion to discover the unknown terror that caused the man to kill himself, Masuoka explores this gloomy netherworld, going deeper and deeper until he reaches a dark passage between the worlds where he meets the ghost of the suicide. The ghost gives him a brief explanation of The Shaver Mystery and warns him to beware of the deros.
Masuoka ignores the warning and enters the Cavern World of the ancients---which this film depicts as vast and mysteriously lighted. We get an impression of a Hollow Earth like Burroughs' Pellucidar. Here Masuoka finds `F' the mute and naked female dero chained in a rocky niche.
Next we find him with `F' in his Tokyo apartment. She won't talk and she won't eat. She scuttles on all-fours like an animal and has fangs. He discovers that she is a vampire and he must feed her blood: --his, that of live animals, and finally---as his psychosis degenerates into homicidal mania---other people.
Masuoka flees Tokyo and takes refuge in the countryside where he has a moment of clarity and realizes that he has killed his ex-wife and that `F' is actually his daughter whom he may also have killed---but the other world returns. The ghost of the suicide finally answers Masuoka's question: What was the ultimate terror that caused him to take his life?
"Ancient knowledge!"
--In agreement with Richard Shaver and H.P. Lovecraft.
Once again resuming his dark quest, Masuoka returns to Tokyo.
On the way to his apartment he glimpses the deros running on all-fours in the shadows. He realizes that they are in another dimension. At his apartment he collects `F'. He and 'F' then descend into the subways, and the abandoned tunnels beneath. Finally they reach the dark limbo between the worlds where he realizes the ultimate terror as his beloved dero begins to devour him.
According to Shaver, dero vampires (like wealthy and powerful vampires on the surface) maintain their youth with regular transfusions of baby-blood. We get closer to the truth in Beyond Lemuria but Takashi Shimizu's metaphor is still on the mark---even if `F' didn't have the characteristic dero "white eyes"--but if `F' was Masuoka's daughter...?
---For more on Shaver, and Shaver films visit www.shavertron.com

Poke Runyon,
Writer-Producer: Beyond Lemuria

Japanese Horror has become widely popular in the U.S. after the successes recently achieved by acclaimed hits such as "Ringu" and Ju-on, and while these past horror films are classics in their own right; there are quite of few imitations that deaden the premise of long-haired vengeful ghost. I remember watching a very different type of J-horror in early 2005; "Marebito" directed by Takashi Shimizu (Ju-on:The Grudge) is somewhat a "lovecraftian" film in a very different way. It is somewhat similar to short "shock" stories and has the philosophy and psychology of contemporary Japanese culture. Quite frankly, I'm very surprised with the low rating this film has received in amazon, it is a lot better than most reviewers gave it credit for.

Synopsis partially derived from the back cover:
Masuoka (Shinya Tsukamoto) is a cameraman possessed by the craving to understand fear. In particular, he obsesses over his footage of a grisly suicide in the subway. Returning to the scene to better understand the dead man's reasoning he opens a doorway into a bizarre, cavernous underworld. Here among the ghosts and subterranean creatures, he finds a beautiful, naked, mute young girl whom he takes to his home. As the days past, Masuoka suspects that there something truly inhuman about this girl. When he begins to uncover her terrifying secrets, Masuoka realizes that he has finally found the key in gaining the terrible knowledge he so craves...

Shot in a meager 8 days, with only a few actors with a very limited budget, with very limited special effects, "Marebito" achieves a lot by carefully understanding the mood of psychological horror. Alienation, self-pity and loathing, mutation, alien influences, loneliness, the collapse of tradition, perverted sexuality...all these hidden themes and motifs are observed in subtle fashion by this film. The film creates a bitter and unique moody feel to its main premise of very creepy obsession and inevitable descent into madness and eventual doom. The director's unique style in delivering the audience into the delves of Masuoka's unhinged consciousness through the camera's perspective adds a lot of gritty and disturbing "feeling" of being immersed into a psychotic mind. I commend the director in avoiding some overused special effects, because truly, the basic psychotic mind is such a terrifying thing to be privy to.

Shinya Tsukamoto is the right choice to play an alienated, solitary obsessive man. The man is an awesome director as well as a director. He played the antagonist on the recent hit "Nightmare Detective" as well as in the cult hit; "Haze" and is the director responsible for the TETSUO franchise. He plays his character with almost effortless fashion, he truly shines in playing a man detached from mundane reality and society, completely focused on finding the darkest, sinister truths in the nethermost places of human experience. The nude girl (Tomomi Miyashita) is obviously not normal, perhaps even inhuman, and she remains unnamed, which adds more to its flare of mystery. Disturbing highlights of Masuoka's madness include him feeding the girl blood, and with a twisted touch, from a baby bottle! Don't worry, this is NOT another vampire film. Masuoka has his own agenda why he took this nude girl to his apartment, and the reason is a bit subtle that some reviewers missed it. Masuoka lost his daughter in the past and now he awaits the final horror that this nude girl may be the avatar to his desire for self-destruction. There is also some use of subtle symbolism that represents Masuoka's commitment to his cause, the masochistic desire to feel and understand the darkest ultimate reality. The only way is down...into the abyss.

MAREBITO is at its strongest with its very subtle suggestive themes and teases. The film may get a bit slower-paced in the middle and gets a little hampered with promises unfulfilled. But with its backdrop of a very peculiar mind, that may have been imagined than as a reality; "Marebito" may disappoint those looking for explanations and details, but for me, the film is not a film about set-pieces, nor is it a film full of scary aliens and landscapes. "Marebito" delves into the psychological aspect, maybe blood represents something else and viewers may have to take multiple-viewings to understand the complexity of its plot and hidden details. It is more a mood piece about an obsessed individual on a downward spiral towards insanity and eventual destruction. The film is definitely cryptic in its delivery and maybe geared to an ESOTERIC few very initiated to this style of psychological horror. Dark, moody and cryptic, "Marebito" may not be a plot-based affair, but for some strange reason, I really enjoyed this offering by Takashi Shimizu. It is a welcome departure from the typical J-horror that has flooded the U.S. lately. It is an experience unlike any other, which is so effective with existential dread and mind-bending claustrophobia.

The unknown definitely arouses my interest....

Highly Recommended! To those who love mind-bending horror. [4 Stars]

Note: To my surprise, Tartan carries a phenomenal transfer for a film shot in 8 days with excellent subtitles and a surprisingly powerful Japanese language 5.1 DTS track.