Excellent adaptation.

The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

Toshiharu Ikeda's 'Evil Dead Trap,' which was written by Takashi Ishii, who would go on to direct the great Yakuza flick 'Gonin' (1995) and the arty rape revenge 'Freeze Me' (2000), has the set-up of Nami being the presenter of the TV show 'Late Night With Nami.' She requests viewers send in video's to play, and receives one hell of a submission; David Cronenberg's 'Videodrome' (1983) comes to mind as a woman is seen being tortured and ultimately murdered, edited in such a way that it is meant to be Nami. The power of montage. When discussing whether they should use the video on their program, a producer says "if we give attention to it, we'd only be encouraging sick behaviour." Indeed… Regardless, Nami is given 'unofficial' approval to go and investigate. The video leaves clues as to how to find the scene of the murder, and the girls and their chaperon too easily discover a deserted military base that doesn't appear on any maps. The killer is clearly waiting for them. Black and white style Sam Raimi 'Evil Dead' style tracking shots indicate an evil presence, and the obvious source of the film's title.As is the logic with these exercises, they break up into small groups; Rei goes with the male in the group, Kondou. Rei observes the buildings have the appearance that "everyone suddenly left without warning." Masako takes pictures and goes with Rya, who is the most likely 'final girl' as she wears pink. 'Sensibly' Nami goes off exploring by herself. The film starts off visually with the daylight horrors of Dario Argento's 'Tenebre,' and Nami makes a point of saying it's 1pm when they arrive. Rei finds maggots falling from the ceiling straight out of Argento's 'Suspiria,' and being the first to have sex, is also the first to die. Rya, being a sensible 'final girl,' suggests they should leave after Nami lets on that she thinks the video was an 'invitation' to them.Masako, being a photographer, cleverly dies by camera flash (and knife), dispatched by a suitably hooded 'Giallo' figure as the film quickly goes about disposing of the cast. However, Rya isn't a 'final girl' after all, on the verge of escape a killer (not faceless at all), states he prefers his victims to die slowly and makes her endure a prolonged rape where he goes on at length about his girlfriend who had her eyes cut out by these 'evil two who are one.' Rya doesn't die, she fights back, is about to die, then the rapist is killed and bleeds all over her… then she walks into a noose, and still THAT isn't what kills her, she struggles, falls over and breaks her neck. It is a noteworthy sequence as is doesn't drive the narrative but exists for its own nastiness. The film then veers off the slasher film trajectory and moves into a stranger land indeed; one that shows the influence of such disparate films as Frank Henenlotter's 'Basket Case' (1982), as well as Ridley Scott's 'Alien' (1979)."Hideki, it's time for you to go to sleep. You have school tomorrow. Not again! You went out. You're like a kite with a broken string."The killer removes his mask, in a very 'un-Giallo' move, however then enters a 'Giallo' yellow room. He has cat like whiskers painted on his cheeks, reflecting Argento's cat obsession. In the final act, the basic elements of fire and water take over as all bets are off regarding narrative logic, as celebrity obsession meets with umbilicus cords and floating fetus'!The long takes, tricky camera angles and less is more editing are influenced by Argento's stylized baroque cinema, and the music is clearly influenced by 'Deep Red.' Composer Tomohiko Kira is lead guitarist in the group 'Zabadak,' who took their name from the song by 'Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich,' whose song 'Hold Tight' features in Quentin Tarantino's episode of 'Grindhouse' (2007), which has a few Argento references of its own. An Asian film with no Asian reference points, but clearly familiar with the work of Argento. It somewhat joylessly riffs on the Argento style, and opened the door for the J-Horror tsunami to come that use atmosphere, more than the shock tactics of 'Evil Dead Trap.'

I think this is one of those (relatively) unheard of movies that was a bit ahead of the curve so when you do finally stumble upon it it's like a really cool time capsule. This movie was released when I was two, so i'm kinda glad I didn't see it till a bit later in life! Some foreign movies are just so painful to watch with subtitles that we don't give them a chance. Give this 'baby' a chance. It will blow your mind.Like many other people mentioned it's very 'Fulci'or giallo-esque for a few reasons, including music transposed from Goblin ((thank you those who clued me into that in advance I can totally see myself having been wondering what the hell it was - distracting me in the process.)) One cool thing E.D.T. do better than most Giallos is effectively keeping you guessing what or who exactly the antagonist is. Not in a stupid M. Night Shyamalan ((blechhh)) type of way, one that will most likely surprise and freak you the heck out.The deaths are creative as hell and out of control in the way only our Japanese friends can so awesomely pull together when we least expect it. The surface plot may trick you into thinking the movie will play out predictably. It does not. Just as this movie borrows a small bit from the genre; there are plenty of things in this movie I can see certain people have taken a nod from (James Wan) came to mind first.It's probably scarier to non-Japanese viewers because we can't even tell if the actors are good or bad, you don't question their motives as much subsequently. For all I know any Japanese Historian Filmmmaker might say this is an absolute abomination of trashy exploit cinema (That would only make it even more awesome)Make sure you get the uncut original version so you don't miss any of the extra punches it packs. If you say you saw the end coming - I'm glad i'm not in your head ;)

After having seen it for a second time I simply can say that ultimately this is nowhere the classic made out to be. Sure it starts out real well. Immediately reminding me of giallo movies only Japanese style. And honestly it had a lot of potential to indeed become a true horror classic. Only one mayor thing lacking. It never is really that thrilling. Evil dead trap relies on the gore in stead of tension. And while that in itself can work. Here it fails miserably. The gore is just not that impressive.It doesn't help that the main character and her colleagues have to be the most dumbest people even for a flick like this. Miyuki Ono is attractive though. You can't help but feel that she is asked to underplay which is such a shame since I do think that more could have come out of her performance.Do I need to say something about the ending. Well,yes. Because it is on the one hand pretty creative and on the other hand one of the most weirdest of endings you will see. Is this movie worth your time. No! I can't recommend this one. Cause apart from the words (of the English title) Evil Dead it is nothing like that it. Although it borrows some of the camera tricks used in the immensely superior Evil Dead series.Give this one a miss!

Dead Trap aka Shiryo no wana (1988) Directed by Toshiharu Ikeda Credited cast: Miyuki Ono and others Evil Dead Trap is a film that I knew was going to be brutal and therefore kept on the shelf until the missus was sufficiently lulled into a false sense of drunken security before I bunged it onto the DVD player, only to be faced by the image of a crocodile eating a pigeon. Thanks! Good way to start a film. I suppose in the end it was Japanese though.Said biased battle betwixt crocodile and pigeon appears on a Japanese TV show presented by Namu (I think), who like to get her viewers to send videos in. One video turns up addressed to her and those 'who stay awake' or something like that. This one features a Japanese woman who is tied up and being tortured, who subsequently has an eyeball pierced very graphically and gets stabbed up all bloody. This intrigues Namu and instead of going to the cops she gets her loyal crew of expendable cast members together and heads out to the place on the video (the killer kind of gives her directions at the beginning of his film) under the assumption that this is just a fake snuff movie, or something to that effect. It's stupid anyway, and not the last stupid thing to happen in this film, because the moment they get there everyone splits up.Namu heads off on her own and meets a mysterious fella who warns her away and says nothing more. Another couple start going at it hammer and tongs like they do in this kind of film, and the other two do something else. Predictably the female half of the post-coital couple gets wasted by myriad floor piercing blades in a rather cool, if stupid scene. Whoever made this film is certainly up on their Italian horror - we have eye piercings, maggots, and a theme tune stolen from City of the Living Dead. The scenes are laid out Argento style and the gore and cheese are plentiful. For all its stupidity Evil Dead Trap wins out for its ending and its style. There are some very well executed scenes using flash photography, multiple TV monitors, traps (stick it up yer rectum SAW!) and in the end, utterly mental plot twists. I forgave the film for all its clichés and rip offs (plenty of girls running/falling/crawling...people walking backwards in the dark, and the surviving chick managing to escape and THEN HEADING BACK INTO the abandoned base thingy)...all these faults threaten to make you want to smash the TV in, but the look of the film, and some of the lovely set pieces make you forgive it (didn't need the rape scene though). If that doesn't sway you - the last, mind boggling fifteen minutes should. READ ON - BUT THERE ARE SPOILERS AHOY!Just when you think that the killer has been dispatched (and you are expecting him to get back up), his symbiotic twin brother, who up until that point existed only as a psychological construct, burst in a very gory organic form from the killer's chest and proceeds to attack the surviving girl. If this twist wasn't enough, the killer gets back up and stuffs his twin back into his chest, only to be burned alive, get up again, and finally fall out a window to shatter into tiny pieces. And if that ain't enough - the surviving girl gives birth to the twin at the end of the movie. Utter, entertaining brain damage. Very very stupid though. Not much makes sense, so I'd avoid looking at the plot AT ALL. Seriously. Even thirty minutes in I was scratching my head. As with the best of trash - just send your brain to the shops and enjoy the ride. This film isn't the classic I've seen it made out to be, but it's certainly one for the collection. See it now.Then scratch your head.