Naked Teenage Japanese Vampire Girls Do Not Make Good Housepets! MAREBITO.

Marebito (2004) Directed by Shimizu Takashi

"They didn't see something that terrified them. They saw something because they were terrified." -Masuoka

Masuoka (Tsukamoto Shinya) is a free lance camera man who happens to capture a man's suicide in the Tokyo underground.  The man was so terrified of what he saw; he stabbed himself through the eye.  This incident seems to fester within Masuoka until he decides to explore his hypothesis; that there are terrors in the Tokyo underground that you can only see if you are terrified, and once you have seen them, you will be so scared that your only escape is suicide.  I think this course of action is a clear indication that Masuoka is entertaining a Lovecraftian Death Wish.

Whatever the case, his explorations in the tunnels under the subways lead him ever downward through seemingly endless tunnels, and in to the depths of madness.  There is life down here; fleetingly glimpsed feral men, bald, pallid, with voices like whalesong.  And there are the dispossessed, the damaged souls who live in fear of the "Dero" but apparently deeper fear of the world above.

In the deepest portions of the labyrinth, he discovers amidst the mountains of madness, a girl, naked, chained to her alcove.  He takes her back home.  F, (Miyash*ta Tomomi) as he calls her, does not stand, but moves in a crouch.  She does not speak, nor eat, nor drink, but sleeps twenty three hours a day.  His noble salvation of her becomes a trading of one small cramped prison (the alcove) for another, (his apartment).  She becomes not a person, but a pet.  And she is in trouble; she neither eats nor drinks.

Of course, Masuoka discovers what she needs for sustenance when he cuts his finger.  And it is all downhill from there; I mean, what do you feed a captive vampire?  And how do you obtain her nourishment?

The film shows Masuoka to be deeply disconnected.  He quits taking his Prozac so he can get terrified enough to see what he is after.  He walks around Tokyo, navigating by his viewfinder; the image in it is clear.  With his real sight, the faces are blurred, as if by "Identity Protection" software.  And he is being followed.  One woman is either insane, or his wife.  The mysterious stranger he sees knows about F, and seems concerned for her.  I find it interesting that Masuoka freaks when his phone rings; I don't think it ever has before.  That shows the depth of his disconnect from other people.

This air of isolation and desolation is bolstered by the films cinematography; of course much of the film takes place in the subterranean maze, and in his tiny depressing apartment; most of it dedicated to his technical surveillance equipment.  Yet with all this computer gear, does he chat on websites?  No.  He merely watches.  The cinematography also works from its multitudinous grades and clarity.  Much of what we see is through his camera, and through his grainy surveillance monitors, so when the real camera footage shows up, it is startling in its clarity.  It underlines what is shot that way; this is something real, not Masuoka's world in the viewfinder.

Ultimately, Masuoka is seeking mind blowing horror that will destroy him.  And this goes under the heading of being careful what you wish for.  Along the way, the film studies (displays?) isolation, depression, altered states of reality; a man's decent into madness, or a man's enlightenment to terrible truths.  It does not tell you which, leaving you to draw your own conclusions.  And frankly this takes work.  It takes contemplation, and reflection, and when you are done, there is no way to check your conclusions.  If you like your horror in the bloody chunks of babysitters variety, then this movie will probably not appeal to you.  But if you like a cerebral tease, this delivers delayed reaction horror that will stay with you long after the disk is back in the Netflix queue.

Certified Lean-N-Mean (666) 1st, and entered into Captain D's Good Movies Write Off.

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