Popular reviews

• 

  Review by Ian West ★★★★ 8

  Hazy, creeped out mansion hallways and numerous moments so thick with atmosphere you can taste the dread. This Japanese gothic offering to the worldwide ‘Dracula’ craze of that time is very much a Hammer meets Corman’s Poe cycle jam—ripe with mood, bass heavy harpsichord sounds, House of Usher vibes, legit creepy moments, and one banger of an ending. This thing was so up my alley and I can’t wait to dig in to the rest of this arrow set!

• 

  Review by Rafael "Parker!!" Jovine ★★★★ 11

  Spooktober III: The Haunting of the Blood October

  A supernatural horror film with a seemingly mundane and limited plot that, like the film's secrets, conceals something far greater. In many ways, the film's simplicity is its greatest strength. Our vengeful spirit's design is simple but striking, notably its slightly original modus operandi.

  Even though the number of deaths is low, they will likely stay with you for quite some time, much like our ghostly killer. The actors are particularly good; the story has plenty of opportunities to veer into absurdity, but it avoids that trap altogether, instead maintaining a genuine air of unease and spookiness. Very good cinematography and smart use of lighting contribute significantly to the latter. A further…

• 

  Review by Marna Larsen ★★★★★ 1

  This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

  ...you know what, dad?

  Once upon a time there was a guy who returned from the war and didn't get what he felt he was entitled to so he murdered everyone except his former fiancee, and then she was forced to have his child, of fucking course, but as often happens in these stories, the child grew to be her only comfort in life, until she was killed in a terrible automobile accident/landslide, you know, one of those, and then her horrible father decides she doesn't get to die until HE says so. Finally, Yuko is no longer having any of his bullshit so at least it ended happily ever after.

  Yuko and her multiple action stabbing arm, contacts, and 60s baby blue dress is my new favorite ever. I want a doll of her!

• 

  Review by Graham ★★★½ 1

  A campy crossbreed of a film, with elements of the Giallo classics, I Spit on Your Grave and Hammer House of Horror, The Vampire Doll revels in its own unabashed fabulousness. Complete with haunted house, Hitchcockian birds and a terrifically entertaining soundtrack, the film flies by in no time at all.

  There's a line in the blurb for The Vampire Doll that I reckon sums it up beautifully:

  "For the sake of proper plot development, she doesn't believe Yuko's mother and fakes the car breaking down so that they can investigate what really happened."

  The film knows that it's as daft as a brush, but is not afraid to own it, and go about delivering its crimson payload while the viewer is wondering what on earth is happening. Cooky, fun and typically Japanese, this was a very fitting way to end this year's Japanuary.

  ではまたね

  ---
  Japanuary - 34. J-Horror

• 

  Review by sakana1 ★★★ 10

  Spoilers ahead.

  While I found The Vampire Doll only intermittently engaging, the ferocity of the masculine desire for control of reality within the film is unmissable, and far more frightening than the actions of the undead woman over whose entire life a man has extended jealous control.

  Starting with the refusal of Keiko's (Kayo Matsuo) fiancé Hiroshi (Akira Nakao) to believe her assertion that she saw the deceased Yuko (Yukiko Kobayashi) in the flesh until another man admits he believes such a thing is possible — at which point Hiroshi is suddenly willing to listen to Keiko's story — the world of the film trades only in the truths approved and created by men. Whether it's the (allegedly) deaf and mute servant…

• 

  Review by Matt Winfield ★★★★ 2

  🌜Daily Horror Hunt #27 (Sept. 2020)🌛
  [18] Let's watch a movie from Japan.

  An eerie old house lost in the overgrown Japanese countryside, a dead girl who just won't stay in her grave (and looks SO terrifying, those yellow eyes, that pale grin!), a maniac with a blade adding a bit of slasher chaos, plenty of hauntingly phantasmagoric moments, and a real suffocating atmosphere to boot. It's Michio Yamamoto doing his take on a Hammeresque gothic horror romp and absolutely killing it, getting that mood and vibe down to a real spooky science.

  This is the second film I've seen from his Bloodthirsty Trilogy, loved Lake of Dracula, but something about the traditional structure and twisted nature of this ghostly story just totally won me over. It's like all the essential classic horror vibes condensed into one tight 71 minute package, with not a second wasted. This is the cozy, warm blanket of horror flicks, just snuggle in and enjoy.

• 

  Review by Ethan Lyon ★★★★½ 3

  Hooptober 7.0, pt.24- East Meets West

  10/6 Countries- USA, Italy, Japan, Canada, UK, Norway, Spain, Greece, Mexico, Czech Republic/Czechoslovakia
  6/6 Decades- 1980s, 1970s, 2010s, 2000s, 1990s, 1950s

  2nd Michio Yamamoto (after Lake of Dracula)

  God, the Bloodthirsty Trilogy is just made for me. I though Lake of Dracula was good but this is just next level artistic and emotional delirium. Set in and around a crumbling European-style mansion, it first tells of a young man who goes to visit his girlfriend, only to find that she died two weeks previously in a car accident. But why can he see her wandering around the grounds of the mansion? And what is that wailing noise? Then, when he goes missing, his sister…

• 

  Review by RanchoTuVu ★★★★½

  Gothic style Japanese sensibility makes for a super eerie vibe not only in the well lit and awesomely color-coded mansion but even more in the visual impact of the undead young woman who actually kind of does look like a doll made out fine porcelain with eyes painted yellow and a dangerous smile. Plus there actually is a scene with a doll broken into pieces. Something telling about the title, there. And there's also a plot. It kicks in and melts into the style really well. It takes us back as far as the jungles of WWII because this film was from 1970, with a Japanese perspective, and then gradually develops its exposition and merges smoothly with the style and it all gradually becomes pretty eerie and shaded until it takes us to a blood-sprayed conclusion.

• 

  Review by Ben ★★★ 1

  Admittedly, I like the poster a lot more than I liked the film. Still, it's a solid, certainly underseen, Japanese gothic horror entry. Every frame oozes with eerieness and succeeds at making the viewer feel unsettled. The mansion and its inhabitants certainly help to sustain the creepy elements of the film for the film's duration too. For me, The Vampire Doll's main downfalls are that it lacks emotional weight which would help keep me engaged, and it doesn't have an interesting enough mystery to genuinely induce any anxiety. It's not particularly scary, fun, or moving, but it's not bad either. If anything, it's still worth checking out because it is refreshing to see a Japanese vision for this type of horror film. Try and watch this on a stormy night when you're all alone – you're bound to get the most out of it if experienced that way.

• 

  Review by Slig001 ★★★½

  This first entry in the Japanese "Dracula" series is short and sweet. An obvious ode to the Hammer films that were popular ar time; this film is an interesting spin on the vampire story. The plot is pretty basic and predictable but there's some interesting revelations towards the end. The Vampire Doll benefits from a consistently creepy atmosphere and an effective score. It is low on action and bloodshed but it's well worth a look. The titular character is weirdly menacing.

• 

  Review by Chris 🍉 ★★★★ 1

  I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again... all you need for me to love your horror movie is a woman in her nightgown walking through a field 💜

• 

  Review by Gentry ★★★½ 3

  “No external injuries, she looked beautiful.”

  Pure Maddy cinema. I liked when this turned into a murder mystery, with soft graves and dead birds and bloody cufflinks. Gorgeous vampire. Cursed family. One fabulous blood-spurting ending. More 70 minute horror films please.