Reviewed by: Eric R. Lowther
Posted by: Root Rot
Stacy (2001)
Written and Directed by: Naoyuki Tomomatsu
Hey, kids! It’s Eric R. Lowther aka biguglyhairyscary popping back up on the Witch’s Hat Blog to tell you about the 2001 Japanese zombie film “Stacy”, or, by its original title, “Stacy; Attack of the Schoolgirl Zombies”, directed by Naoyuki Tomomatsu with the screenplay by Chisato Oogawara from the original novel by Kenji Otsuki. I enjoy seeing zombies in all stripes, types and national flavors, and this one certainly had a fairly fresh premise.
Though the movie focuses on Japan, for the last decade every girl somewhere between the ages of 15-17 the world over drops dead and becomes a flesh-craving zombie. The greatest minds across the globe puzzle over the problem while families and loved ones are forced to kill, or “rekill” in the movie’s vernacular, their teenage zombies. By the time we join the world ten years after the first zombie, or “Stacy” as they’ve come to be called, the world’s population has been halved, the birth rate is near zero and many countries have fallen into civil unrest. Japan, in their usual way, makes the best of things though. Laws are passed allowing only families and loved ones to kill their own Stacies. Those that can’t, or for times where a “free-range” Stacy is discovered, are handled by the “RRK” or the “Romero Re-Kill” <fuuuuuuuuck… there it is again, kids> division. These paramilitary troops are sanctioned by the U.N. (though I don’t know why that was necessary) and are responsible for destroying Stacies and cleaning up their parts and pieces. Japanese pop-culture, not to be outdone by real life, naturally jumps into the fray with products like “Bruce Campbell’s Right Hand V2” (I hear it’s a full pound lighter than V1), a short chainsaw that comes in decorator colors and is just the right thing to hack up your teenage daughter or girlfriend with style.
But though every nation on the planet has been working on the Stacy problem, they still know very little about it. It does help that blossoming Stacies do give off some clues as to when they will turn through a phenomenon called “NDH”, or “Near Death Happiness” in that 1-2 weeks before a girl becomes a Stacy she enters into a very obvious period of utter peace and happiness bordering on joyous delirium. We meet one of the main characters, Eiko, just as she enters this period. Though completely in thrall of her pre-undeath giddiness, Eiko has enough presence of mind to seek out puppeteer Shiburawa, a kind and good-hearted man, and gets him to agree to spend the last week or so of her life with him and ultimately rekill her when she turns. She wants someone that loves her to do the deed, a theme that ultimately becomes the driving force of the movie. Shibu is either easily love-struck or simply shares his country’s seeming predaliction for young girls in school uniforms and agrees with virtually no real thought. While this plot thread starts to spool out we learn we’ll not only have to keep track of Eiko and Shibu but no less than four additional sub plots such as; teen girls Nocome, Kanae and Tamae aka the “Drew Illegal Repeat Kill Troops” (named for Drew Barrymore, of course) who kill Stacies for those families that can’t bring themselves to do it, a commander of a RRK detachment, the nation’s leading doctor (okay, mad scientist) researching the Stacy problem, the story of sensitive Arita who joined RRK after the rekilling of his sister and the turning of his sweetheart Momo as well as another thread or two I’m leaving out that are sub-sub plots.
There’s a lot going on with all these subplots as they try to wind themselves together to create a cohesive whole, as well as a few good scenes of 2001-level physical effects gore (and a few rough ones as well) along with a few interesting scenes such as an almost touching and well-done bit when Eiko has a run-in with our RRK commander’s troops and the few scenes we get with the Drews’. All the threads start to weave and knot at the Rizuka Women’s School, a large campus located on a remote mountain, allowing almost all the various characters to come together for a climactic battle and heavy revelations. The threads come together far too conveniently for my tastes, but I’ll be the first to admit I’m a jaded ass when it comes to these things. Though the plot contrivances to shoehorn all of them together are a bit heavy-handed and far too coincidental (and in one case intended) they are still handled with an undeniable tongue-in-cheek style for the most part, and there’s plenty of gore and zombies shuffling around to keep genre fans interested. The climax is handled well within the confines of the heavy hand of plot making sure all the players are in the same place at the same time, and I was with them all the way up to the last 15 minutes of the movie. I can’t really describe my entire issue with the “epilogue” as some may call it (though my personal take is more “anti-climax”) without going into severe spoilers about the entire mythos of the movie, but I think it’s safe to say unless you’re a real student of Japanese independent cinema you may want to stop at the end of the big zombie bash (and you’ll know when that is).
Hey kids! Fun fact; Norman Englund appears for all of 15 seconds of the movie in an infomercial hocking “Bruce Campbell’s Right Hand V2 (a whole pound lighter than V1!) and he’s given top billing in related media and promo materials for the movie in the United States and Canada even though many of the Japanese cast members are quite popular in their native productions and have long bodies of work. Aside from a few “man on street/in bar/just plain man” roles, his primary claim to fame is as a post-production English language subtitlest. Are we Americans so crass that unless we see an English-sounding name in the cast we won’t watch a foreign movie? On second thought, don’t answer that…
And now we go for the nuts and bolts of the thing. It’s obvious they didn’t have much money to work with, but what the makers had they spent on the key budget areas of any good zombie movie; effects and props. The physical effects range from “okay” to “pretty good considering the budget”. While the Stacies themselves are just pale with some blood rivulets from their eyes and mouths the gore effects have a lot of heart and some obvious skill behind them. The static effects such as barrels and piles of severed limbs etc look pretty good, but the effects when bodies are in motion harken back to lower-budget 80’s fare. There are a lot of severed heads floating around, too, though there seems to be no middle ground with them; either they’re very well-done or they’re just plain bad. The movie looks good when outdoors and in closer-in shots, but wide shots and angles tend to be a little washed out and less-effective. Tomomatsu’s direction is steady and consistent and even manages a few surprises here and there, allowing him to go on from this project to cult hits like 2006’s “Zombie Self-Defense Force” and the 2009 convention favorite “Vampire Girl vs Frankenstein Girl”. There’s no English-dubbed version available to my knowledge, so unless you speak Japanese you’ll be relying on the subtitles to get you through, though at least they seem to be a fair representation of what’s going on in the dialogue. The movie was well put-together overall and has held up with the look and feel of indie examples of today in terms of technical quality.
So, we go on to the real question; is it any good? First, if you’re a fan of Japanese surreal genre fare you’ll probably get more out of it than others, but anyone that’s a zombie fan will probably have a pretty good time with it for at least one viewing. As I mentioned earlier, the plot threads come together in a very heavy-handed and forced-coincidence way, but some of this can be forgiven when you consider the satire elements present. The movie is also a representation of the Japanese affectation for school girls in uniform, and after viewing to the end you’ll see more of what I’m talking about. I should at least note that the bulk of the girls (and there are an absolute shit-ton of extras playing zombies here) are wearing blazers and at least knee-length skirts and not the “Sailor Moon” style of uniform. If that’s a Japanese schoolgirl deal-breaker for you, then you’ve been warned. If that’s what you’re looking for, I should probably also tell you there are no tentacles, either.
There are several huge plot holes that I found I can ultimately forgive if I take that same satire view of the movie, such as; why in a world where teenage girls are guaranteed to turn into zombies do they still have all-girls schools that are schools and not lock-down facilities? Why are people so surprised by a girl turning into a zombie when the NDH gives them a week or so warning that it’s coming? And, my personal favorite, there’s a scene near the beginning of the movie meant to establish a character. This is a teenage girl that is babysitting three small children. Did ya catch that? A mother, in this movie’s reality, leaves her three small children in the care of a teenage girl… Anyway, the movie is a fun watch for genre fans overall, and though I’m a little non-plussed at the message of the piece as I perceive it there will likely be fans of the Japanese horror/satire genre that won’t see it as I do. Either way, I think it’s worth a watch for genre fans or for those that like surreal satire and dark comedy. If this sounds like your cup of sake you can find it at Amazon and your usual online outlets for anywhere from $5-$20 (new and used) and is available for rent through Netflix (though not streaming) as well. Unless you are a confirmed fan of the genre I’d recommend trying to rent or borrow it before buying a copy for your collection, though.
Well, that will do it for me for now. Make sure you’re checking out the Witch’s Hat family of podcasts and stop over at our forum hosted by the good people at Killer Reviews to talk about the shows, the blog, see stills from Kreepy Kyle’s adult film career and to let me know what movies you’d like to see or hear me review. So with a tip of my imaginary hat to Mr. Rot, Keeley, Misfit Boy, Kreepy Kyle and all the rest this has been biguglyhairyscary saying, see ya, kids.
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