Demon Hunting (Akuma Gari) review

This past year Laguna Films, a US distributor that has previously focused on Spanish-language independent films, decided to get in on the Asian horror wave. Unfortunately the current state of Asian film importing consists of a few major distributors out-bidding everyone else for the top films, while the little guys bid against themselves to spend way too much importing the lesser-known stuff with very little hope of ever recouping their expenses. Laguna decided to take a cheaper route, buying up the rights to a 6-episode television series from 2003 called Series Kyoufu Yawa and then releasing them as separate movies over the course of a few months. Demon Hunting, or Akuma Gari, was the second episode of the series.

Michiru (Nozomi Ando) is a high school student with a crush on one of her teachers, Mr. Kamata (Hideo Sakaki), and a particularly vicious jealous streak to go along with it. She’s so jealous, in fact, that she feels the need to sell her eternal soul to a demon in exchange for the death of her main rival Hitomi (Chiaki Oota). With her out of the way Michiru figures she’ll have Kamata all to herself. While she’s at it she casually tacks on an additional wish, that being that she wouldn’t mind seeing the world destroyed. I guess nothing sets the mood for inappropriate student/teacher relations like a romantic apocalypse.

After an indeterminate length of time odd stuff starts happening around Michiru. First, she finds Hitomi stabbed to death in a bathroom stall with the words “voodoo child” painted on the wall in blood behind her corpse. Apparently having completely forgotten about her pact (her memory was wiped when the deal was sealed), she’s completely shocked by this discovery. Also, a strange email has been circulating to students throughout the school via cell phones which reads, “The demon is coming. If you don’t show this letter to your friends, you will be killed.” Eventually people around Michiru start getting possessed by demons one by one, signified by a red tongue they feel compelled to flick out of their mouths while glaring at her wildly. I guess that’s supposed to be creepy in some way, but really it just looks like they’ve been eating popsicles. Michiru, her friend Yukiko (Asumi Miwa), and Mr. Kamata take refuge in the school while various crazed popsicle-eaters stalk them.

The main problem of many with Demon Hunting is that the viewer is given the big twist ending before the opening credits. One would think this is more of an editing faux pas than a writing issue since the related scene is played three times during the course of the movie, but either way it negates a big chunk of the premise, that being the idea that Michiru has no clue she made a pact with a demon in her past. We’re forced to listen to the main character’s insipid inner monologue as she runs away from demonically-possessed creeps and half-heartedly proclaims her own innocence. Meanwhile we know something she doesn’t – it’s all her fault and everyone would be better off if she just dropped dead. On that basis it’s kind of difficult to care what happens to her on any level and oh-so-easy to mentally check out around the 10 minute mark.

Aside from that odd narrative choice the film is mind-numbingly slow. There is not one moment that could be considered even slightly scary or creepy. The most exciting scene consists of Kanji Tsuda’s character challenging Michiru to a rousing game of Horse. Seriously, they shoot free throws in the school gym to decide if one of her schoolmates should die. I really don’t know what else to say about this one. It’s just a really awful, awful movie.

While I don’t usually review individual DVD releases, it should be noted that the Laguna Films release of Demon Hunting only has an English dubbed vocal track. The original Japanese track wasn’t included and there are no subtitles. This won’t be a big deal to people who prefer dubs, but to me it makes an already corny movie about 10 times cornier. Although on the bright side watching Japanese school girls dubbed with latino accents is good for some comic relief. And with a movie this bad, any sort of relief is welcome.

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