Product Details

• Format: Color, DVD, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Language: Japanese
• Subtitles: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.77:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: Unrated
• Studio: Cinema Epoch
• DVD Release Date: July 13, 2010
• Run Time: 62 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B003GOOZQW
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #180,950 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

SCREAM GIRLS - DVD Movie

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars No Screams But Still Disturbing!, November 1, 2011

By 

P. A Clark "pacanime" (San Jose, CA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Scream Girls (DVD)

Scream Girls was a troubling horror film at times, but not for the reasons you might think.

The film starts when a female jogger happens to find a severed arm of a boy near the Tenjin River. Later four female high school students Asami, Risa, Tomomi and Kaoru learn about the news. They actually host a website that talks about an Urban legend where a woman named Hikiko died near that same river. The urban legend basically states that Hikiko will attack her victims then drag them around until there bodies are unrecognizable.

Anyway Kaoru seems to have the strongest fixation on the story and she believes Hikiko was responsible for the boys death. However,the other girls are not as convinced about it since they mostly host the site for fun. As the film goes on however, its discovered that the boy actually died in an accident and a suspect, who tried to cover the crime up, is arrested. Once that happens the website gets a lot of complaints about the death and people post comments that the website is in bad taste. The other girls seem to want to end it. Karou disagrees however,and seems to think Hikiko is still responsible somehow.

As time goes on, the other three girls begin to break ties with Kaoru, as she keeps deleting the complaint messages which makes all of the girls look bad for keeping up the Hikiko story on the site. Eventually Asami's little sister is attacked and killed while playing in a field near the river with no suspects found. Prior to that her sister claimed to have seen a cut woman in the field chasing after her. Kaoru is convinced it was Hikiko, Asami however believes that Kaoru did it just to keep the story alive,or posabably she thinks Kaoru is just too mean for suggesting it was a ghost. In any case, Kaoru becomes a target for just about every girl in her class once she is accused by Asami. They begin to tease her calling her Hikiko at first but eventually turn to physical bullying. Kaoru becomes an outcast and is subjected to bullying reguarly such as beatings, having a frog smashed under her shirt while being held down, being forced by four girls to sit on a seat full of nails as they taunt her, and having a pin pushed between her finger and finger nail just to name a few. To make matters worse, we find out that she's also being abused at home by her father who is a heavy drinker and he takes it out on her when he's in a bad mood.

Risa, and Tomomi seem torn about the bullying at first, although Risa feels pressured to join in while the bullying happens sometimes. The film progresses as Kaoru identifies more and more with Hikiko because of the bullying and being unable to stop it. Some twists and turns take place, along with some back stabbing until the film finally comes to a conclusion. I won't spoil it for you.

Well Scream Girls did bother me to some degree, but the horror aspect wasn't the culprit. Kaoru taking the beatings at home while she's also bullied at school made me feel sorry for her. She's a pretty girl and it was tough to see he going through that sometimes. Her mom, also afraid of her father, does nothing, while the girls at school seem to get a real thrill out of tormenting her, even when she cries, "stop it." It makes me wonder if bullying is really that bad in Japan as I have seen other programs with similar themes. I do know that Japan tends to be a culture that prizes conformity, so from that perspective, Koaru's refusal to stop the Hikiko business, also fuels the bullying, which probably seems acceptable to most of the girls doing it to her.

Although Koaru seems to be presented as a victim in the film overall, the story also seems to leave open the idea that Kikiko is in fact affecting her somehow. Some incidents seem to suggest that. I'm not sure if she was really being affected, or if the abuse just pushed her to identifying with Kikiko more. It would be an interesing debate. But I'll leave that for you to decide for yourself as I don't want to spoil the plot for you.

As for the tech aspects, the film is in Japanese only with optional English subtitles. There are a few other film trailers and a behind the scenes extra along with a stills gallery. No English dub.

Overall I gave the film a three. I thought the girl who played Kaoru did a good job, the film had a good basic story to it and it did make me a little uncomfortable at times. The horror aspect was lacking in my opinion though and the ending could have been executed better with more attention to timing, and just generlly setting it up. It seemed too convienent for me, a sell out to wrap things up. A good movie though if you like cute school girls in uniforms being mean, but it's not the best choice if you're looking for a well developed horror film with a satisfying ending. I'd say most people could probably rent it and be satisfied.

3 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Not too bad., October 26, 2010

By 

B. Elazier (Detroit, MI USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Scream Girls (DVD)

As low budget Japanese horror flicks go, Scream Girls wasn't too bad. Cute school girls, bullying, and a twist at the near end, makes it worth the price.