Customer Reviews

Living Hell: A Japanese Chainsaw Massacre

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I am a huge fan of Japanese horror. I try to get my hands on as many of these films as possible. One of the things I especially like about J-Horror are the originality of the ideas and the emphasis on truly scaring the viewer by taking the horror seriously instead of reverting to self-referentiality and comedy. "Living Hell" seemed to promise a different type of J-Horror; instead of subtlety and spookiness (with little blood) this one was advertised as a gory bloodbath, "the Japanese TCM" in other words. It also compared it to other modern horror chef d'oeuvres as "Evil Dead" and "Cabin Fever". Huh? Have I watched the same film? Frankly, "Living Hell" does not in any way approach the level of ferocious originality those films had and I fail to see the similarities.

2 brothers and their sister, all in their twenties, share the same house that is owned by their father, often away on business trips. One day they receive word that two distant relatives (a 70-year old grandmother and 22-year old granddaughter) whose family were murdered will be moving in with them. As they move in, we see right away that the two are mighty strange; the grandmother is senile and barely says anything, same with the granddaughter who is completely mute. Not only do they never talk but they are curiously devoid of any expression. Wheelchair-bound Yasu will soon discover there is something mighty wrong with these two and soon falls under the guise of their torture techniques.

The film started off okay, as we were presented to some very intriguing characters. You wouldn't think a 70-year old grandmother and her frail 22-year old granddaughter would look scary...but they are! The way they just stood there looking like ice statues totally devoid of expression, except for a trace of madness in their eyes definitely creeped me out. You just know something seriously bad is bound to happen. They are about as unlikely a pair of killers as you're going to get and that's part of the problem; I never believed for one bit that these two could be so dangerous. For one, none of their victims even try to defend themselves and these are two frail and physically weak women! The worst is Yasu, who is one of the wimpiest guys I've ever seen in a horror movie. I kept wanting to scream at my TV "Get a backbone for pete's sake!". I realize the poor guy is in a wheelchair but how about using your upper-body to ward them off...But no, he just spends the whole movie whining and wimpering while they torture him.

I don't speak Japanese so it's hard for me to truly gauge quality of acting but that didn't stop me from noticing how poor it all was, just by the intonations of voice, wooden expressions and awkward movements. To people fluent in Japanese, it must come across as a real turkey. As for the gore, yes this movie is gory but not in a splatter sense, most of the gore is related to torture and I must admit that several of these scenes were especially creative (Root canal, cockroach, etc.). Too bad the creative ideas of gore were not supplemented with creative storytelling. To top it off, the film takes a further nosedive due to a completely nonsensical ending. It tries to be clever and tie up the illogical aspects of the story but instead drives it ever deeper into its grave. If you love Japanese horror as much as I do, you might still want to give this a try as it is mildly entertaining at times and due to the gore. As for me, I would gladly take those 90 minutes back.

Either the people that praise the gore in this flick don't know what real gore is or I rented a cut version of this flick. I gave it two stars for originality and for atmosphere (Very spooky.) I was very dissatisfied with the make-shift ending and terribly dissapointed with the effects. Don't bother.

It should be a crime to compare this with Tobe Hooper's classic Chainsaw Massacre. This is a terrible movie and a complete waste of your life.

If you want to see a strange and violemt Japanese horror film, pick up All Night Long instead. It is miles above this garbage.

This movie is not so bad you'd turn it off,but it was
so typical of most(75%)horror films today.After seeing JU-ON
(by far the best horror film made between 2000-2006)I really
had my hopes up,which I admit it's not fare to compare this
with that masterpiece(dare I say that,well in 10yrs JU-ON
will be considered that, it's that great!)but I was let down.
I'm not going to go thru a lot of writing,just look at James
& Morado reviews there really good and to the point.Why 2 stars
the old womans daughter was the only thing,and I do mean the
only thing good about this picture,she was freaky looking
but o.k. we need more,like music,the soundtrack was as if
the director bought a keyboard from K-MART.Music is so
important to a horror film just watch CARRIE(76)HALLOWEEN,
CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST,JAWS,DEEP RED,THE BEYOND,THE SHINING(80)
and of course the best for last THE OMEN(76)and it's very
obvious that the reviewers who scored this picture so high
probably have not seen any of these.NOTE:Amazon buyers it
is not to late to get these horror masterpieces typed above
they have them all(YES!CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST TOO.I KNEW MY
AMAZON WOULD NOT LET ME DOWN,YOU ARE REALLY THE BEST!)so buy
the movies above and stay away from this.

Went in with high hopes...It had creepy moments, especially the old woman and the young girl. The lead character in the wheelchair was miscast in my opinion. Too much, too little? A surreal "family" gathering near the end is well shot and captured, but doesn't save the overall "not scary" feeling I left with. Decent effort, didn't blow my skirt up... ;-)

Subtitled in English.The movie starts off really slow and with it being in Japanese it just makes the movie slower.If you don't like Subtitled movies this is not for you.

It has everything in terms of atmosphere and the way torture is shown. They wanted to create a masterpiece, but it just does not come across convincingly. The ending is a bit of a cliché -- too clever -- and it basically does itself in. However much I would want to love this film, it doesn't make the cut.

if you like dark asian horror then this is for you this starts out with and ends with the darkness of the asian filmakers
and the end is a shocker
think you know the woman who are putting the star in pain
you dont

When most people think of Japanese horror films, they tend to think of supernatural tales such as "Ring" and "Ju-on" rather than slasher fare. "Living Hell" may be an illustration of why. I received this movie as a Christmas gift after reading several (inexplicably) favorable reviews of it on various horror websites. The premise of the film, that a young man in a wheelchair is a prisoner in his own home and is subject to the cruel tortures of a mysterious old woman and her eerie young caregiver, is quite intriguing on paper.

Indeed, for an all-too-brief while the film looks as if it may live up to the hype as the opening moments transition smoothly from grisly gorehound fare to a somewhat more brooding atmosphere. That being said, this film is nothing if not unsubtle. The foreboding mood lasts only a few minutes before being cast aside. The potential for psychological terror is there, but seems to be ignored in favor of one (supposedly) shocking scene after the next. This all reaches a crescendo in the final 20 minutes or so of the film, with a couple of "twists" so obvious that I actually thought the film was building up for a "swerve" that would suddenly take it in another direction and leave me wowed. Alas, the obvious plot twists take place exactly as expected with nothing but a couple of gross-out scenes at the end to keep even a modicum of your attention.

For all I've said, "Living Hell" comes dangerously close to being a watchable movie (hence 2 stars instead of 1), but the howler of an ending will leave most viewers in the cold.

I don't know if this film is an independent film or film that actually had a decent budget to work with, but it sure look like one of those really bad independent film. I rented this movie, because it looked like a very scary movie on the front cover of the rental box. But, I tell you, I was bored to death watching this film. This film has some of the worst acting that I have ever seen. The film is not scary and the gross parts were very amaturish done, any college or high school students could do that. I will not consider this film even stupidly funny, it's that bad. Skip this trash! It does not even come close to the regually American version of the Texas Chain Saw Massacre. Negative 10 stars!