The shape of fear
And wilt thou have a reason for this coil?
REVIEW
UZUMAKI
Starring Eriko Hatsune and Fhi Fan
Directed by Higuchinsky
Opens Friday, September 20
Uptown Screen
In the first third of the Japanese horror film Uzumaki (a.k.a. Spiral), there is a scene in which a disturbed man demonstrates to his horrified wife and son that his peculiar brand of mental illness has progressed to the point that they cannot help him.
The man has been collecting spiral-shaped objects obsessively, and his behaviour has grown increasingly compulsive and irrational. After flying into a rage when he learns that his family has thrown his collection away, he suddenly becomes unnaturally calm, and even begins to laugh. He explains that the objects themselves are no longer necessary. Then, something quite grotesque happens to his face. With an awful sound suggesting human features being forced into unnatural shapes, his eyes begin to rotate in their sockets, independently of one another, while his grin becomes manic.
It’s a ludicrous image, and somewhere in the depths of your mind, you begin to laugh – but the laugh never makes it out of you. The scenario is simply too disturbing to be dismissed with levity. Sure, the guy looks like he’s doing a Cookie Monster impression, but he’s also clearly doing irreparable damage to his body and mind. The wife and son (two characters we have already grown to care about) are being forced to realize that a loved one is no longer the man they knew.
For viewers who have watched a family member deteriorate before their eyes, either through self-destructive tendencies or illness, this scene brings back uncomfortably familiar emotions. This is the line that Uzumaki walks. Many of the sights and situations seem ridiculous, but the film casts such a spell of unease and dread that we break into a cold sweat. It’s like being traumatically frightened by a clown.
The film benefits from its clever and inventive visual style. The world depicted is a fascinating one, and we gaze upon it with rapt attention, even as the disquieting mood of the film keeps us ill at ease. Particularly interesting is Uzumaki's use of subliminal images. We are constantly seeing spirals throughout the movie – not just in regular objects like telephone cords and snail shells, but in barely visible Photoshop-style image manipulation. Spiral patterns appear in clouds, water, even barren ground – but by the time we notice them, they have faded away.
This adds a unique jolt of competitive interactivity to watching the film – you want to see how many of the hidden spirals you can spot. (Stay alert – there are a hell of a lot more of them than you expect.) Of course, as the film progresses, this most hypnotic of shapes becomes more and more sinister in the minds of the characters – and the audience.
The word that best describes the tone of the film is "nightmarish." As in a nightmare, no explanation for the film’s bizarre events is supplied, and no satisfactory conclusion is reached. The film simply ends, without fanfare or denouement. Once the curtain falls, you’ll stagger outside feeling unbalanced, wondering what just happened and what it all means. The most noticable effect is that you’ll suddenly be aware of just how many spirals there are around you, all the time. Billboards, corporate logos, fancy sign lettering, barber poles.... I spotted dozens of them just by leaving the Uptown and crossing the street – and I wasn’t even trying. |
