A manga turned movie horror story about inexplicable events around the sea side town of Kurozu-cho. The story focuses on a high school girl Kirie and the appearance of spiral designs - and the monstrous transformation of people around her.

WHERE TO BUY: Uzumaki
STUDIO: SHOGAKUKAN
MSRP: $16.99
RATED: R
RUNNING TIME: 90 minutes
SPECIAL FEATURES:

• Widescreen Transfer (16×9)
• Dolby Digital 5.1
• Behind the Scenes Interviews
• Original Japanese Soundtrack / English Subtitles

Uzumaki is a horror movie based on the manga of the same name. While I have not read the manga, I have been told that the Uzumaki movie tells an incomplete story because it effectively only covers volume 1 of a multi-volume story. However - I just don’t care! Even if a movie is based on some other medium, it should stand alone on its own merits. Uzumaki the movie does tell a story - one that will satisfy Lovecraft fans.

Uzumaki: The Lovecraft Story

The central character of Uzumaki is a high school girl named Kirie, the daughter of a local, but famous potter. This isn’t taking place in a vast, urban metropolis such as Tokyo, but in a more confined, remote and perhaps a bit more traditional small town. Kirie is very close to a very intelligent and well educated boy named Shuichi Saito. Shuichi tells Kirie that something is wrong with his father - he has become obsessed with spirals. Kirie confirms this when she runs into the father while he is video taping a snail in the middle of a street. This madness eventually engulfs the entire town - perhaps with the exception of Kirie herself. There does seem to be an actual, physical source to the spiral lunacy, but it is not central to the storyline. In this way, it bears some resemblance to The Colour Out of Space.

Manga and Movies Don’t Always Mix

When Japanese directors are given manga to turn into television or film, they often try to incorporate manga genre elements that are not entirely compatible with the new medium. For example, manga is often overstocked with extreme caricatures - the high school in Uzumaki is packed with them. Another element are over the top close ups. When one character goes completely insane, his eye rolling is straight out of manga land - not humanly possible - even if a universe where the elder evil exists.

On the other hand, there’s a very odd boy who stalks Kirie that has been a source of commentary elsewhere as being unrealistic. Although he engages in manga behavior, his obsessive pursuit of Kirie is believable, given that he is considered a sort of social outcast by the other kids.

Rating Uzumaki

While many manga formulas get downright irritating, there’s a story here that as much as anything develops just like the spiral itself - it turns in on itself, and takes everyone with it. The plot, in addition to the rather authentic small town feel to the setting capture the equivalent feeling in many Lovecraft stories, making it well worth seeing.