MAREBITO (2005) - Shot in a mere eight days between the filming of "JU-ON" and "THE GRUDGE", justly celebrated director Takashi Shimizu tries to both "pull a Roger Corman" as well as conduct an interesting experiment in horror. The results, of course, are mixed and do not eclipse the director's masterly ghost film "JU-ON"; but "MAREBITO" is very interesting in its own right. It's been asserted that "Marebito" is an inverted adaptation of H. P. Lovecraft's short story "THE OUTSIDER" but I'm not so sure I buy that. HPL's story, which features a ghoulish creature who climbs up to the surface after a lifetime in the bowels of the earth, differs much too much from this film for "Marebito" to be called any sort of adaptation. However, there are some strong similarities and I think one can at least assert that MAREBITO was "inspired heavily" by THE OUTSIDER. There is also a pronounced Lovecraftian slant to the whole film which owes nothing to "THE OUTSIDER" but more to Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos. This strong Lovecraftian bent is not surprising owing to the fact that the script was written by Chiaki Konaka; who also wrote the Japanese television adaptation of "THE SHADOW OVER INNSMOUTH" entitled "INNSMOUTH WO OOU KAGE" in 1992. There is a strong sense in "MAREBITO" of strange realities separated from ours only by a very thin membrane. Add to this mix the explicit mention in the screenplay of the Hollow Earth theory, science fiction writer Richard Shaver's "Deros" or "detrimental robots" as well as ghosts and disturbing phone calls from otherworldly voices and you've got one hell of a stew! Not only does the film remind one of "The Outsider" ("Marebito" actually translates as "The Stranger From Afar") and the Cthulhu Mythos, but there are also similarities with "PEEPING TOM", "MARTIN", "THE MOLE PEOPLE" and even a tenuous link to Dan Curtis' Kolchak telefilm "THE NIGHT STRANGLER" with its subterranean catacombs. But let's get on with the film itself.

Director Shinya Tsukamoto (TETSUO; ICHI THE KILLER) plays cameraman Masuoka who happens to film the suicide of a man in the subway. That man, Arei Kuroki (Kazuhiro Nakahara) was so afraid of something he saw that he shoved a knife into his own eye. Masuoka becomes obsessed with finding out what the man saw that so scared him and experiencing that kind of fear for himself. While revisiting the scene of the tragedy, Masuoka finds an access tunnel which takes him deeper and deeper under the earth into a World War II-era subterranean city of catacombs; during which he also glimpses a ghoulish albino creature scuttling amongst the darkness. In the catacombs, Masuoka encounters a homeless man who warns him of the "deros" who "if they find you, they will suck your blood dry." Masuoka journeys farther down and encounters the apparent ghost of the suicide Kuroki (who doesn't seem to think he's a ghost) who explains that all population centers on earth have similar underworld catacombs leading to a deeper "hollow earth" area in which the vampiric Deros dwell. But this hollow earth is certainly no Skartaris! Kuroki soon vanishes and Masuoka eventually emerges into that huge craggy "hollow earth" (a beautifully realized special effect) that the script literally calls "The Mountains of Madness" (another direct Lovecraft reference). Here, our traveler finds a naked female Dero chained by the ankle and brings her back with him to the surface world (i.e. his apartment). The bestial woman is played by the enigmatic actress Tomomi Miyashita who, according to director Shimizu spent days crawling around her apartment nude to get into character. The woman, who appears relatively human except for some rather nasty-looking teeth and claws, is dubbed "F" by Masuoka.

"F" will not take any food or drink. Masuoka, who is such an obsessive cameraman that he has camera's filming all over his apartment, sets up a remote camera on his cell phone so he can check up on "F" while he's out. One day, Masuoka returns to find "F" having some sort of seizure. When he examines his video equipment, "F" appears normal until suddenly the screen goes black for 12 seconds; after which "F" lies incapacitated on the floor. What happened during those 12 seconds, Masuoka wonders. So do we. Sadly, we'll never know because these 12 seconds are never mentioned again. One cannot assume "F" collapsed of hunger because the next scene finds her back to normal again without receiving any new nourishment whatsoever. Matsuoka gets a strange phone call from a payphone by a macabre, otherworldly voice warning him that he has someone there who shouldn't be there and he is slowly killing her. Before long, after he is slugged by someone in the street and cuts his finger on a smashed camera lens, Matsuoka discovers that "F" needs blood to survive. Given the homeless man's warning, Matsuoka is a bit thick not to have thought of this before. After "F" lunches on small cuts and animal blood, Matsuoka starts murdering people and draining their blood for his starving "pet". During the murder of a woman who may be his wife, Matsuoka films it with his camera as he stabs her. Director Shimizu sets up the shot in such a way as to remind one strongly of Michael Powell's "PEEPING TOM"; the film in which a murderer filmed his victims while impaling them with a knife concealed in his camera tripod. Now, I know Shimizu is familiar with films like "EVIL DEAD", "THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE" and "THE SHINING", but I'm not sure if his knowledge of Western horror extends to the relatively obscure sixties film "PEEPING TOM"; so this could be either an homage or a coincidence. Either way, the possibility of Matsuoka's first victim actually being his estranged wife and "F" his daughter concretizes in the viewer's mind the man's long-standing mental disorder as well as also providing another unexpected and disturbing twist to the proceedings. The director (as he did in JU-ON) nicely evokes a feeling of constant dread and creepiness; we never really know what our neighbours get up to. There is also a queasy feeling permeating the film; which of course is exactly what's called for. Add to this the occasional erotic charge; especially in the first scene where Masuoka first discovers "F" subsists on blood when she essentially fellates his cut finger. Heavy use of jittery handheld camera helps to up the unease quotient.

"MAREBITO" is indeed disturbing (particularly in the slashing/blood-drinking scenes which will cause the squeamish to squirm) but the film is also very interesting and thought-provoking in its themes and techniques. In fact, the viewer may find himself feeling like the real "stranger from afar" when confronted with this world in which no one appears to be normal or recognizable to us. As Matsuoka slides deeper and deeper into insanity, it is only a matter of time before he follows "F" back down into the bowels of the hollow earth once more to reside in those "mountains of madness"; for, in reality, it's the only real place they both belong.