Something twisted

OK, that title is sort of a pun because today we're watching something with all the twists and turns (more puns) of an old telephone cord. Today's film is Uzumaki.

Uzumaki AKA Spiral.

This is one hell of a cool movie. Don't let the bloody screen shot frozen on the video link fool you. This isn't a gore film exactly, but a darkly imaginative treat for the senses. It's a nightmare that Tim Burton would have while living in Japan. Based on the manga by Junji Ito, this movie is all about spirals.

Spirals? Yes. Or more specifically, a town cursed by spirals.

Kirie lives in the Japanese village of Kurouzu. While on the way one home one day, she notices the father of her boyfriend, Shuichi filming a snail on the side of a building. Kirie mentions this to Shuichi who admits that his father has been acting weird, giving bizarre examples that all revolve around his father's sudden fascination with spirals. He eats them in the form of fish roll slices in his miso soup, incorporates them into his pottery, and actually collects spirals, sitting for hours surrounded by them and staring into the vortexes.

But it's not just Shuichi's father. The whole town is coming under the spell of the spiral and some truly strange scenes then play out. One boy with a crush of Kirie shows his affection by jumping in front of a coming car and getting twisted around the front axle. One popular girl in her school with beautiful curly hair transforms into a whirl of exaggerated spiral curls that leap out several feet from her head. One boy from her school slowly transforms into a human snail hybrid.

We see some utterly weird death scenes that incorporate this theme. One involving a clothes dryer, another with a spiral staircase, and a really eerie one involving the curly haired girl. Seriously, I'm running out of synonyms for the word "weird" here. This is a WEIRD film but such a refreshingly weird film. It's a delight to the senses in the most nightmarish of ways.

I cannot recommend Uzumaki enough. You do yourself a tremendous disfavor by passing on this movie. I can guarantee you will never see another movie quite like this one. Check it out and if you like it, pick up the three volume manga as well that goes even further down the rabbit hole than the movie.