- 1 week ago
Here’s my review of the movie, Evil Dead Trap.
Thanks for watching and please subscribe. New content dropping every week.
For Exclusive Content:
https://www.patreon.com/filmsceneinvestigation
Rumble:
https://www.rumble.com/filmsceneinvestigations
Odysee:
https://odysee.com/@filmsceneinvestigation:e
Daily Motion:
https://www.dailymotion.com/Filmsceneinvestigation
Thanks for watching and please subscribe. New content dropping every week.
For Exclusive Content:
https://www.patreon.com/filmsceneinvestigation
Rumble:
https://www.rumble.com/filmsceneinvestigations
Odysee:
https://odysee.com/@filmsceneinvestigation:e
Daily Motion:
https://www.dailymotion.com/Filmsceneinvestigation
Category
🎥
Short filmTranscript
00:12what's up guys it's me beau i'm back here on the film scene investigation channel thank you so much
00:19for checking out this video in today's review i've got a quite an interesting movie
00:27a 1988 japanese horror entitled evil dead trap if you like gore if you like mystery even kind of you
00:41know supernatural kind of horror then uh yeah this may be the movie for you just before we get into
00:48it guys if you haven't already please do consider subscribing to the channel all the support is
00:55greatly appreciated so evil dead trap from may 1988 was a movie directed by the filmmaker
01:05toshiharu aikida and was written by takashi ishi the project was produced by japan home video
01:14a company more known for its adult entertainment rather than releasing gory horror films
01:23as for the narrative it focused on a tv presenter called nami who had her own late night variety show
01:32on japanese television she worked really hard and did her best to make the show you know as good as
01:40it
01:40could be but unfortunately for her the ratings were in decline something had to change or you know
01:48it could face possible cancellation in an effort to improve the ratings nami came up with the idea
01:56to encourage the audience to send in their home videos any interesting or peculiar footage would then be played
02:06on the show and while that you know might seem like a good idea to some this is where things
02:15turned ugly
02:15nami and her team started receiving loads of admissions but there was one tape specifically
02:24that stood out from all of the rest nami ended up watching the videotape and it showed footage of
02:32what appeared to be a woman tied up and being brutalized on camera it was just really disgusting
02:41but what was even more shocking was at the end of this videotape an image of nami appeared so
02:50this wasn't just some random killing no no no this was targeted this was a warning to nami i mean
03:00it's bad
03:00enough you know being sent a a snuff film someone being you know killed on camera but to then you
03:07know
03:07see your own face you know looking back at you uh yeah i mean most people would have at that
03:13point
03:14decided to you know call in the authorities but nami wasn't really scared if anything she was
03:22really curious to find out whether this tape was genuine or not the show's ratings were still in
03:31decline there needed to be an improvement or otherwise as i said earlier face cancellation
03:37but nami saw this videotape she saw this you know crazy footage and she thought that could potentially
03:46be the opportunity to help boost the ratings after speaking with her boss nami and her crew traveled to
03:54this disused abandoned army base the same location that was on the videotape in a quest to find this
04:04woman and potentially you know present this dead body as a tv exclusive to you know boost viewership
04:12given it was such a big place the team decided to split up individually and go on the hunt for
04:20this
04:21you know potential dead body but of course this was a huge mistake as very quickly things started to
04:30well go wrong for the guys i mean the actual place was just disheveled it was run down everything was
04:38broken and smashed up we had maggots literally like a maggots nest on top of the ceiling as they were
04:47dropping down one by one and also random snakes just slithering around now i'm not a big
04:55fan of snakes you know i'm not really a snake kind of guy so uh if i had seen that
05:03in and the snake had been
05:05slithering around my feet i uh would have definitely have uh backtracked and headed for home while all of this
05:15was cause for concern it didn't stop the crew from continuing their search as they wandered around
05:22these dark and dingy halls in search for this dead body nami in particular was very determined to
05:31try and find something you know some some sort of interesting footage that she could then broadcast
05:37on her variety show as i said she needed the ratings now when the crew eventually decided to
05:45up sticks and leave well that's when they found themselves surrounded by literal death traps
05:53nowhere was safe and everybody was in danger and we saw one of the girls called mako end up getting
06:02caught and tied up uh against this wall with a crossbow pointed at her the poor girl couldn't go
06:10anywhere you know she was tied up she was gagged she couldn't you know make any sounds she couldn't tell
06:16anyone anything and nami eventually obviously saw her and tried to help her friend but in doing so
06:23only made things 10 times worse she tripped on a wire which then triggered this sharp blade to come
06:32sliding down and hitting mako in the face literally killing her instantly it wasn't just gruesome but
06:42oh man it was so depressing i mean one minute you know you see your friend and you're trying to
06:47help
06:47them and then you inadvertently end up killing them i mean that kind of uh that kind of burden i
06:55mean
06:55that would just kind of make anyone go crazy i think and with nami in a way i don't think
07:02she could
07:03even really contemplate what was going on around her all this stuff just happened so fast seeing all of
07:10that play out really did usher in this feeling of impending doom like there was literally no hope
07:18for anyone all the rooms were booby trapped at any point you could trip and fall and you know end
07:26up
07:26killing yourself it was yeah a crazy situation to be in and there you had nami kind of just sitting
07:34there scrambling for a way to you know escape now first and foremost evil dead trap was a very well
07:43made movie especially considering its limited budget i mean the filmmakers didn't have vast amounts of
07:51money to spend but you know they worked within their limits and poured in all the resources they had
07:59now one of the best parts of this film was the inventive kills that were created by effects artist
08:07shinichi wakasa now first off we had the videotape itself of the poor defenseless woman being brutalized
08:16on camera very grainy you know handheld camera for you know pov from the killer's perspective very
08:23interesting stuff and of course kind of difficult to watch since you know this was a defenseless woman
08:29that you know needed help and nobody was there to rescue her it was yeah it was some ugly stuff
08:36but
08:36undoubtedly the most craziest visual the most shocking part of it all was seeing the woman having
08:43been stabbed literally in the eye socket we had this extreme close-up of the blade penetrating
08:52the iris as all this fluid started uh you know coming out i mean yeah i mean yeah it was
09:01disgusting but
09:02uh honestly when i first saw that play out i was just more impressed maybe i've just seen too many
09:09films but uh you know because i'm watching films and i'm kind of analyzing them as you know they play
09:16out in front of me and immediately i just thought you know a shot like that you know extreme close
09:21-up
09:22that level of detail the blade and the puncture wound that would not have been easy to create
09:30especially for you know back in the late 80s where things were a lot more primitive
09:36so yeah the filmmakers the effects artist everyone involved they pulled it off and uh i was just very
09:44impressed and yeah credit to them another really inventive kill that totally caught me off guard
09:50was the death of rye a woman who was well impaled by four massive spikes that came out from the
09:59ground
10:00and these spikes just came crashing through the floor straight into her body
10:05yeah and what made it kind of worse was the fact that this wasn't some instantaneous kill
10:13the girl was very much still alive when the third and fourth spike you know penetrated her body and uh
10:21yeah just uh very gruesome stuff eventually she did pass away and then we had the camera slowly
10:28pan back as we saw all these spikes just you know coming out of everywhere and
10:33yeah it was um definitely a very violent death but once again practical effects just yeah brilliant
10:43brilliant stuff also i have to mention the death of the character ray one of the girls who had already
10:51been assaulted inside the van but once she left there was this metal noose that came flying out of
10:56nowhere caught her and then dragged her across the other side we got this extreme close-up of the metal
11:04tearing into the girl's flesh it was brutal it certainly looked very real and uh once again from a vfx
11:15you
11:15know practical standpoint it was very impressive i was just wondering where did the metal noose come from
11:24anyway like where was it hung up from um it literally just came out of nowhere like it was like
11:29floating in
11:30the air but yeah um still very inventive i guess thematically the movie evil dead trap did criticize the
11:41immoral tv culture of the time as you had the tv presenter nami doing her best to find a dead
11:51body
11:52in an abandoned army warehouse so she could film that broadcast it on her show and boost ratings
11:59in an era of sensationalism nami's i guess obsession to gain some ratings and improve her show
12:11well that basically cancelled out all of her morals she didn't care about what was right and what was
12:18wrong she just wanted the end result and in a way that kind of mirrored the tabloid and tv culture
12:26you know that landscape that we saw we see it less so now but definitely back then it you know
12:32it was
12:32dominated a tragedy boosted viewership as i said earlier you know i came across a snuff film if you did
12:41likely we would uh you know call the police or call you know not just hmm let me this looks
12:48very
12:48interesting let me go and investigate this because i could always you know monetize like that's that's
12:54the the the criticism i guess that was the criticism that the film was showing that someone like nami
13:01was too in her own head to see right from wrong now i can't stress enough just how awesome the
13:11cinematography was for evil dead trap with the shadows and the heavy use of blue lighting it really
13:20did create this atmospheric environment that uh i absolutely loved the cinematographer masaki tamura
13:28i can't praise him enough he did a fantastic job you know all of his efforts it all you know
13:34it paid
13:34off it really did it were left with a very beautiful and interesting film that um especially films you
13:44know from that time you know the late 80s definitely the filmmakers were pushing the boundaries there was
13:52just a lot of tension in the air a lot of unpredictability that at any moment you could turn a
14:00corner
14:00and suddenly you could get hung or you could fall down you know a hole or yeah you could get
14:07stabbed or
14:08whatever danger was everywhere and you as a viewer watching that you you got that sense also i did think
14:16it was a great decision for the filmmakers to use real world locations taking the production
14:23outside of the studio system and yet shooting on location the army base itself the abandoned army base
14:32it's not a place that i'd want to you know hang out in but um absolutely for a horror film
14:39you know
14:39horror film setting perfect it really just uh it almost actually was kind of like its own character
14:48within the film you know this place that was just full up with you know death traps here there and
14:55everywhere and could you escape you know and this goes back to what i was saying earlier about the
15:00filmmakers working within their means pulling the resources they had at that time and yeah just a
15:08great idea great idea to use a real world location especially a setting like that
15:12the abandoned disheveled tingy army base it just evoked evilness so to speak as for the soundtrack
15:25composer tomohiko kira produced a very interesting and unique electronic score that definitely suited the
15:34visuals that we were seeing on screen it was very 80s very much of its time but that's not a
15:42bad thing
15:42and i don't know whether it's a good thing or not but if the filmmakers wanted to heighten the
15:52intensity and the horror even more then perhaps they may have they shouldn't have used any soundtrack
15:59whatsoever but the fact that there was a soundtrack it did help i think because
16:07seeing those gruesome visuals you know people's blood coming out of their brain splattered
16:15that in itself is difficult to watch but at least with the soundtrack it kind of reminded you that hey
16:23guys it's just a film don't get don't get too worried now because obviously the visuals were so
16:29kind of real and that's the realism that's what the filmmakers were going for so in a way i'm kind
16:35of glad there was a soundtrack because no soundtrack whatsoever it would have freaked me out a lot sooner
16:40when it comes to the performances i thought all the actors involved you know ensemble cast i thought
16:46everyone did a really good job i can't say there were any standouts of like oh man that person was
16:51terrible or you know that was crap but that being said the lead star the actress mayuki ono who played
17:01nami she was a standout and yeah i thought that she did a fantastic job playing the tv presenter you
17:10know she needed a scoop and no one was gonna get in her way so yeah even if it meant
17:16you know her
17:17friends getting killed around her i mean unfortunately that's that's what happens you need scoop
17:21but uh in that sense you know that mindset that nami had she was kind of punished for that she
17:29was
17:30careful what you wish for you know that's true right because i'm sure she never would have guessed
17:38that she would be in that predicament that she found herself in for the most part nami was very
17:44headstrong and it was only after repeatedly seeing her friends die in front of her that i think finally
17:52she started to understand that the show's ratings weren't all that important ono did a lot of the acting
18:02using her facial expressions as she reacted to the horror that unfolded around her and this was a great
18:10attribute to have because when there wasn't any dialogue you know going on in terms of the
18:17storytelling she guided the viewer in accordance to what was happening and uh it felt believable
18:24it didn't feel forced like it was an overreaction like no no it felt genuine what i do know is
18:31that even
18:32though this character in a way could be seen as a villain like she was so determined to boost her
18:37audience viewership on her show that she kind of disregarded other people's safety with that said
18:45the actress there was there was this likability that she had and so i personally didn't hate her
18:53and so dislikes for evil dead trap from 1988 now when it comes to dislikes the one scene that kind
19:04of
19:04bothered me was when we saw nami who had the availability had the chance to escape but decided
19:14to go back and avenge her friend's deaths she had made it back to the van and in all intents
19:23and
19:23purposes the killer the man behind all these evil dead traps he had allowed her to go you know he
19:31was done
19:32with terrorizing her and nami all she had to do was get in the van and drive and you know
19:39just before
19:40she was about to leave she has this change of heart you know she looks around and she goes actually
19:48i want to get some revenge you know to me that felt kind of silly in reality
19:59you know you know you and me we'd have we'd have gone we'd have been we'd have got on the
20:03car
20:03rev the engine and you know plowed through that gate that's what we would have done any any person in
20:09their right mind would try to escape and then you know call for help but i don't know seeing nami
20:20kind of disregard all of that and suddenly thinking that she was gonna take out the bad guy
20:29i don't know i i just it it just didn't feel right to me now in fairness it could be
20:37argued that
20:38nami wasn't thinking straight i mean she had seen multiple dead bodies you know her own friends
20:45she was obviously irrational in shock understand all of that but
20:53to me it doesn't really excuse the poor decision making you know all this time we'd seen nami you
21:02know do her best to try and navigate her way out of the building and you try to escape find
21:08the van
21:08and leave but once she was given the opportunity she desires to go back and confront the killer and
21:16i don't know it just kind of it kind of took me out the story and that's a shame because
21:21up until that
21:21point i had been fully immersed now i understand what the filmmakers were going for here they were
21:29trying to challenge the social norms in the sense of trying to make nami or give her agency that a
21:37man would you know making her a strong individual now this was filmed in 1987 came out in 1988 this
21:46is
21:46a late 80s movie so the things that the filmmakers are trying to implement here which i've yeah i kind
21:54of see what they're doing i can see the their plan and yeah okay fine but if we take this
22:02or if you're
22:03watching this movie now in the 21st century ultimately what they were trying to do to simplify
22:09things is the filmmakers were trying to make nami a sort of girl boss someone that well yeah she's
22:18going to take her revenge and you know no one's gonna get in her way now obviously back then that
22:26was you know as i said challenging the social norms that was going against the grain nowadays you know
22:33how many girl bosses have we seen throughout the years just you know box office flop after box office
22:39flop and women also don't want to see other women in those types of masculine roles so yes i understand
22:49what the filmmakers were doing here i understand that at the time of filming this was a new concept
22:57so yeah i can understand the context of that the nuance
23:05but still as you guys know i'm not into it's why i do film scene investigations while i you know
23:13celebrate movies from the past because these days nothing hardly any film is worth even you know
23:22spending your time watching it and so yes the girl boss trope is that's what it is it's trope
23:29that's been played out done to death so looking back it looks kind of dated in that sense
23:35i'm kind of rambling on but you get the point i'm making here still i thought and don't get me
23:42wrong
23:42i think you can still have the the the final confrontation that we had and that we saw in
23:48the the film the killer finally uh being revealed who he is and nami you know with her gun trying
23:57to
23:57you know take him out okay that's fine and you can still have that and i wouldn't have changed that
24:03would not change that i just would not have had nami make it to the van in the first place
24:11if she wants to have that kind of
24:15moments you know that self-reflection i thought you could have easily have had that
24:20inside the building i don't think you needed to have her on the cusp of escaping and then suddenly
24:27actually you know what i'm gonna kick that guy's ass you know like okay sure but
24:35it just took me out you know as i said i'm watching the film when it comes to dyslexia it's
24:40always about i'm watching this film and i'm fully immersed i'm enjoying it i'm enjoying it i'm enjoying
24:45it and then boom something you know something happens that makes me start kind of analyzing the
24:52film rather than kind of just trying to follow the story and once that happened um yeah i i i
24:59was then you
24:59watching the the remainder of the movie and in my head like processing you know that decision from
25:09nami so i just didn't like it so ratings for evil dead trap from 1988
25:19i'm going to be rating this movie a solid 6.9 out of 10 evil dead trap was a unique
25:29japanese horror film
25:30that blended supernatural elements with gore and psychological terror like i mentioned earlier
25:39the practical effects were outstanding you know for its time if this movie were to be made now you
25:48just know that there would be so much cgi fake you know gushing blood everywhere and
25:56practical practical effects they just can't be topped unfortunately i don't think they can i mean
26:03cgi has got better over the years but still there's just something tangible about
26:10practical vfx and um yeah i just was amazed and that's definitely i guess the best kind of feature
26:20or attribute this film has that the cinematography is fantastic the colors pop
26:28there's such some really unique kind of locations within that within that building and yeah i just i
26:36just loved it i also thought now having watched the movie that aikida the director definitely drew or
26:46was inspired by the gory italian horror of the 70s specifically the director lucio falci now he
26:56obviously directed the movie zombie flesh eaters which i've reviewed on this channel and of course
27:04that movie has a very memorable scene where a woman's eye is you know pierced and stabbed through
27:11and seeing that and then watching evil dead trap i noticed the similarities so i'm assuming that's
27:19where he kind of got that inspiration from if you've seen evil dead trap then please let me know
27:25your thoughts and memories in the comment section below it's always good to hear your guys opinions
27:33as for those out there who haven't seen this one yet it is a recommendation from me not only i
27:40guess in
27:41terms of style and substance the style is more than the substance but this film still has some you know
27:50some interesting themes and messages going on i just really liked it it was it was fresh even though
27:57certain ideas were a little bit kind of been there done that the girl boss thing it was still very
28:03unique
28:03and i just you know i watch this film i'm just like i just there is no filmmakers out there
28:10right now
28:11who can make this type of content it just can't be done and for that it makes evil dead trap
28:21a standout in supernatural horror and well that's all for me today guys i do hope you've enjoyed
28:28this review of evil dead trap from 1988 i'll be back next week of course with another review if you
28:36haven't
28:36guys please do consider subscribing to the channel it really means a lot and of course take care
28:45you
Comments