Entrails of the Virgin

This bizarre film relates the story of two sleazy guys and three really stupid gals who run afoul of some sort of demonic swamp rapist creature. Unfortunately, even at only seventy minutes or so, it seems to take forever to really do anything. The majority of the film is filled with vast amounts of soft core porn. I am uncertain as to the directors intent with these sequences as they are not erotic and seem to do little other than pad out the running time. I suppose there is some message concerning a societies preoccupation with "things of the flesh" but I don't really know. Luckily, the demonic swamp rapist creature finally shows up to start raping and killing. The gore effects are marginal, one scene with a spear impalement is very poor, another with entrails being removed is a little better. None of the characters seem real, the two males are such jerks that only the most vapid of women would ever be around them. That said, the three women are so stupid that you end up with no character to identify with on any level. The film does not try to be scary it is essentially soft core porn in the beginning and then attempted horrific violence at the end. I ended up giving this film two stars based on its supposed historic value and an amazingly insightful interview with the director. After watching the interview, one can easily see why his characters behave so stupidly as he comes across as a complete moron. View at your own risk.

The plot, what little there is of it: Three Japanese pornographers go out into the mountains to shoot photos. Due to the fog, they stop their van and decide to spend the night in an abandoned building, where they get drunk and sexually assault the photo shoot girls. Little do they know, there is a "swamp monster" lurking with similar sexual designs and murderous intentions as well.

As a horror fan, I was disappointed. There are no scares, the direction is sloppy, and the gore is minimal with maybe two exceptions. In three cases when a violent attack occurs, the camera cuts away to a "metaphorical" shot representing the violence, for example, a hammer hitting a piece of meat. I found the whole exercise pretty tedious to sit through for a pretty half-assed payoff at the end. Specifically in the last gore scene, latex that's supposed to be human skin stretches and bends with bubble-gum elasticity. Very fake.

Then you have the swamp monster, well, not really a monster, he's actually some Japanese guy caked in mud. When they finally show a good shot of him, he's got his hair spiked up in a muddy mohawk! Pretty laughable, and to call it a real horror film would be stretching the truth somewhat. If you take out the sex, you could probably edit this 72 minute feature down to a 15 minute short. However, I would even imagine most sex film fans would be disappointed with the digitally blurred genitalia that tames it down to softcore level.

Nothing is ever explained, really. It's all a rather incoherent mishmash of sex-rape scenes with the horror aspects emerging in the last 20 minutes or so. But by that time it was too late to generate any real interest. The confusion is somewhat explained by watching the interview with director Komizu. His nonsensical ramblings while chainsmoking gave me the impression of a week-long crystal meth binge. At least he seems like he had fun filming the movie.

I would only recommend this movie to diehard fans of Japanese sex films, or perhaps the heavily drugged. I generously gave it two stars, only because of the beautiful Japanese girls, and the two brief gore parts that actually worked, one involving the use of a severed arm (!) If you're looking for disturbing Japanese horror, try Organ, Evil Dead Trap, or something from the Guinea Pig series before resorting to Entrails of a Virgin!

So, if I told you that this movie had a scene with a woman sucking off a monster while simultaneously masturbating herself with a disembodied hand, would that make you pop the DVD into the player, or throw it across the room? Because that is the kind of question you have to ask yourself before buying "Entrails of a Virgin" ("Shojo no harawata").

Firmly in the Erotic/Grotesque genre of Japanese film, this is the directorial debut of Kazuo 'Gaira' Komizu (writer of Go, Go Second Time Virgin). Everything about this flick screams "the 80's", from the cheesy hairdos to the cheesier synthesizer music reminiscent of every sex/slasher film popular at the time. This film once had an infamous reputation amongst Japanese horror fans, both for it's rarity as well as for pushing the boundaries in gore and sex far beyond previous levels. However, since then the boundaries have been pushed so far that much of "Entrails of a Virgin" comes off as tame.

The story is the basic "cabin in the woods" motif. Three guys, three girls, it's a foggy and dangerous drive and they all decide to stop by a deserted house in the woods to pass the night. Everyone pairs off and the pants come off. Enter the monster.

For a Japanese pink film, "Entrails of a Virgin" does push some serious boundaries on sex and nudity. Far more than the occasional glimpse of T&A, all the gals here get very, very naked and look good doing so. Kizuki Saeko (Angel Guts), Hagio Naomi ("Wife Collector") and Kawashima Megumi (Onimusha 3 of all things...) all manage to lose everything they have, get raped by man and monster alike, and squeak as only Japanese actresses can in a pink film. There were a few shocking shots, stuff that I haven't seen in any other pink film, and the director clearly wanted to walk that fine line between soft and hardcore.

The gore scenes where a little more disappointing. The director obviously didn't have the budget or skills to make a genuinely sticky mess of things, but he gave it a good try. There are a lot of intercut shots of slabs of meat getting pounded that work effectively but are still somewhat of a cop-out. The giant mud-man monster elicits a giggle rather than a scare, but I think they did their best with what they had to work with.

Personally, cheese aside I enjoyed this flick a lot. It is about on the same level as Bloodsucking Freaks, an oddity with a few over-the-top scenes that deserves its cult status. Japanese films got gorier, starting with later flicks like Evil Dead Trap, but they rarely hit the sex boundaries like this again unless they went full hardcore. It would be easy to find a lot of flaws with this flick, but just as easy to have a good time.

The DVD is really well done, with fantastic audio and visual cleanness. There is an interview with the director, which is continued on the sequel Entrails of a Beautiful Woman. Also included is an essay on why Japanese films "fog" the genitals of actors, even when it is obviously a sex film. Very cool and informative for first timers into the pink film genre.