Expanding upon his featurette of the same name, director Ken’ichi Ugana’s “Visitors (Complete Edition)” is a longer version of his monster movie, and it’s actually one of those rare times where the feature length movie is actually better than the short film. This wacky, bloody, gore-filled monster movie is billed as an homage to the low-budget horror comedy studio Troma Entertainment, and fans of their line of films are going to find exactly what they’re looking for here.
The plot, while not easy to describe, goes something like this: when they haven’t heard from a friend in a while, members of a rock band drop in unannounced to see what’s up. What they find is a world of violent monster mayhem, demonic possession, and a macabre situation that’s wholly bizarre.
Ugana borrows heavily from goofy Troma films of his childhood and incorporates elements from “Evil Dead,” “The Exorcist,” and low-budget zombie flicks. The film is set up like an anthology and is told in three parts with a story that is interconnected at different points in time. The story is told with a welcome brevity, because there’s not that much of an idea to fill a feature length time slot anyway. The film isn’t complex story-wise, but that’s not what it does so well anyway.
What it delivers in the most satisfying fashion is buckets of blood, gore, green slime, and homegrown practical effects that are nauseating and farcical, which earns the horror fan’s version of the chef’s kiss of perfection. Throughout the film I was both grossed out and laughing, often screeching “WTF?!?” in my head (okay, maybe even out loud more than a couple of times). Horror fans will agree, that’s a sign of a clear winner.
If you like micro-budget B-movies, jokes that are in poor taste, and genre films that are bursting with creativity, you’ll find it with “Visitors (Complete Edition).”
By: Louisa Moore
Screen Zealots 