This is yet another manga adaptation into film. You guys can try a little harder over there, can't you? I'm just saying...
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The film begins with another kid being killed at a High School that is getting a strange reputation. Apparently, five mysterious deaths in one place tends to do that to you. This happens right around the time that a brand new student enrolls. She quickly earns a reputation as a witch, which is questionable at times and obvious at others.*
I should mention that there is a subplot involving a molesting teacher and a bit that leads up to some light sapphic activity. It is nothing like Attack Girls' Swim Team vs. The Undead though, unless you consider how superfluous it is here too. I like to picture this movie's script being put through an assembly line. We have murder, schoolgirls and Satan. What else is missing? Soft-core lesbianism, of course.
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The actual plot involves a bunch of students being forced to retake a test after school. Their teachers goes off and gets killed, leaving them free to misbehave. Their fun is ruined by the realization that an evil force has trapped them inside the school. A number magically appears on the chalkboard that happens to be the number of students left. "Oh my God, we're trapped in a mish-mash of Jack Brooks: Monster Slayer and Detention! Run!" That plan only ends up getting more of them killed. The best laid plans of men...
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After numerous people die, our witch hero finally manages to do some good. Better late than never. She manages to save the day...for those left and leaves the school. So, after being given almost no back-story and having just as much given later, the movie ends. I guess we don't really need to know anything about our protagonist, apparently. The End.
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Basically, this movie plays out like a Japanese version of Buffy with just as much necessary lesbian activity in it. Overall, it's not really that bad. My only big problem with it is that the story is so derivative. I'm not a Japanese film connoisseur, but even I have seen similar plots in Attack Girls' and Yo-Yo Girl Cop, not to mention Stephen Chow's Fight Back to School films to some extent. In addition, the tone is a bit erratic. You get humor at times, pure fright and flat-out gore in others and angst in others. Pick a tone, please. This film has actually spawned two sequels and a prequel- which is labeled as Eko Eko Azarak 2- in the ensuing years. If we have six Leprechaun films, why not?
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We'll return to Japan later. For now, we get to look at some odd movie monsters. Stay tuned...
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