Toshiharu Ikeda’s Evil Dead Trap is a film made by a horror fan. Despite its restricted budget, the work functions admirably and, in lieu of presenting nothing extraordinary, manages to keep its audience entertained throughout. Nothing more, nothing less–which is more than most can say during this cinematically atrophied day and age.
Nami Tsuchiya (Miyuki Ono), host of Late Nite, requests her “insomniac” viewers to submit home videos to aide in the passing of the wee hours. After a barrage of subpar presentations, she discovers a snuff film that appears to have been created locally. Sensing a potential story which might allow her to segue into primetime, she fashions a crew in order to instigate. After following the various video references, they find themselves at a retired military base. Shortly after entering, her employees are slain by a masked individual while one Abe (Aya Katsuragi) helps protect Nami.
The only substantive facet of Evil Dead Trap is in the figure of Nami, whose hubris permits her film crew to be picked off, one-by-one, despite the apparent dangers involved in continuing to follow the story. Unfortunately, though introduced, the notion is not expounded upon to any significant degree as it nevertheless carries us through the feature. Yet, shortly after the film commences, the fun to be had with Evil Dead Trap becomes apparent.
Ikeda makes it obvious from the offset that his work is a labor of love, for it is a feature made by one who, not only loves, but appreciates the history of the genre as allusion after allusion tumbles toward us. Yet, the director never executes any reference haughtily. Instead, every homage is just that: A wink-and-nod citation, a cinematic handshake if you will, to those that came before. For example, the film’s score is a hybrid of Paul Oldfield’s Tubular Bells, from William Friedkin’s The Exorcist, and the main theme from George Romero’s Day of the Dead as composed by John Harrison. The snuff video sent to Nami incorporates Michael Powell’s voyeur spike from Peeing Tom, which permits Ikeda to offer the viewer a Lucio Fulci trademark eye stab before Sam Raimi’s “Demon Cam” appears, followed by Dario Argento’s ceiling maggots from Suspiria. Moreover, we are witness to a Ridley Scott chest burst, à la Alien, and–before the climax–an amalgam of the central monsters from Larry Cohen’s It’s Alive and Frank Henenlotter’s Basket Case. In short, Evil Dead Trap is a Trivial Pursuit for horror buffs which will undoubtedly keep even the most well-versed aficionado busy for at least a handful of viewings.
But, aside from the placement of a–perhaps–haphazard synapses-inducing idea and a cinematic record of Who’s Who in Horror, Evil Dead Trap is to be admired for the matter in which it utilizes its meager resources. Almost primarily shot in an abandoned warehouse, the feature is fairly well-paced, shot, and executed from Scene One as two sequences in particular–one involving a crossbow booby-trap and another implementing a, albeit cliché, slow motion cut frame segment during the villain’s “one last return”–the film posits a commendable amount of tension-filled moments. Ikeda even makes time to install a horror spoof as we watch the trite escape van refuse to start before our soon-to-be-victim realizes the vehicle is in drive. Then, after “Problem’s Solved,” the director, all but wryly thumbing his nose to genre nay-sayers (after–What else?–a handful of false alarms), has his endangered figure drive off safely. So nah!
Many have criticized Evil Dead Trap for lapsing into what has become standard Japanese ambiguity by way of a head-scratching ending. However, I personally found the work, especially when its allusions are taken into account, to be a succinct, well-thought-out and presented, finale to an otherwise steadfast production. Granted, the avenue by which Toshiharu Ikeda takes us in order to arrive at his knowing ending sits apart from the familiar route of the standard horror narrative, yet in so doing he keeps us alert and involved, though to no essential degree aside from an escapist one. But, Ikeda must be given this: He does so during a time when most audiences could just as easily leave midway through a film as not. Thus, though nothing to write home about, Evil Dead Trap is an entertaining venture, particularly for the people in the know and, perhaps and just maybe, a smidgeon more.
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