‘This Man’ Is a Deadly Serious Horror Thriller, and It’s All the More Hilarious Because of It

Individuals are dying. Violent, merciless deaths. Some by chance, others by their very own hand, and essentially the most unfortunate amongst them are being brutally slaughtered by the folks they love most. Or by full strangers. Oh, and a few simply cough up blood and die. Ten folks. Fifty. 1000’s. It’s an epidemic of unexplained deaths, and the police can discover solely two connections between the victims. They’ve all undergone some extent of psychiatric assist, they usually’ve all dreamed about the identical man within the hours, days, weeks earlier than they died. Nicely, overlook concerning the psychiatry angle, however the man with the unibrow? Yeah, he’s the fixed. Haunting their desires as he hides of their mattress or stands of their kitchen peeling carrots. Yeah, that man. This Man.

Artwork is subjective, and there’s no more true assertion about films than that. Something any of us says concerning the films we love or the movies we detest is solely an opinion. Your favourite movie of all time is hated by another person, and that film you simply shit on is held close to and expensive by one other individual. It’s one of many many stunning issues about artwork, concerning the films, and speaking about these opinions — each shared and opposing — can typically lead somebody to discovering an appreciation that they didn’t initially really feel. There’s an actual pleasure that comes from that have, from opening somebody’s eyes to why you’re keen on a movie that they only didn’t vibe with, and from serving to them admire what they see as a “unhealthy” film as one thing good, entertaining, thought-provoking, and/or finally unforgettable.

I won’t be able to do this for you relating to the brand new Japanese horror/thriller, This Man. I wish to. Belief me, I actually and really need you to see this movie and to like it as a lot as I do. I wish to persuade you that every thing — from its flat performances and even flatter cinematography, to its nonsensical narrative and enhancing decisions that see each scene go on three minutes longer than they need to — that each one of it’s intentional, purposeful, and deserving of your reward. I wish to persuade you, to excite you, to encourage you to hunt out this unintentional masterpiece. That is my Plan 9 from Outer House (1959), The Room (2003), and Birdemic: Shock and Terror (2010). I don’t subscribe to the concept that a film might be “so unhealthy it’s good,” however This Man, a movie that appears incompetent at almost each stage, can be among the many most purely entertaining and hilarious films of the yr.

Author/director Tomojirô Amano most likely meant for his newest movie to be a critical horror thriller. I say most likely as a result of I’ve a sneaking suspicion, regardless of the film being performed straight by everybody concerned, that it’s truly a secret comedy. I say secret as a result of nobody else appears to be in on it, from the stone-faced forged to the cinematographer lighting each scene with the identical overhead ceiling fan. Whereas the movie’s themes halfheartedly discover our collective unconscious and ineffectiveness of authority, the ugly, underlying fact it’s laying down is a close to blackly comedian commentary that we’re essentially the most egocentric and self-centered species on the planet.

Individuals are dying by the hundreds — the federal government has even distributed suicide capsules so folks can move peacefully as a substitute of slicing their very own pores and skin off or no matter — and we uncover that this man’s “rampage” from the spirit world might be halted if only one individual sacrifices themselves and descends into hell with him. Only one. However no person bites, and the physique rely climbs to the tens of hundreds. A younger couple discover out {that a} fast, three-minute chant can transfer the curse off them and onto a stranger, they usually instantly say “do it!” solely to comprehend too late that this man’s unibrow was a monkey’s paw in disguise. Two feuding shamans in disagreement over who’s the strongest, reveal that they may have stopped this man chilly by merely placing apart these variations and sharing one other fast chant, however they’ll share fun about that later. Seems this man, the man elevating his one, caterpillar-like forehead to sign each emotion, is simply stating the reality that all of us already know. We suck!

That, or my second concept is that the individual tasked with creating the English subtitles went rogue. Tossed the script apart, perhaps didn’t even know Japanese to start with, and simply wrote among the funniest, most comedically deadpan dialogue to hit the display since Mel Brooks’ one-two punch in 1974 of Blazing Saddles and Younger Frankenstein. To be clear, This Man is neither of these movies. There are not any apparent jokes right here, no intentional punchlines or visible gags meant to elicit massive laughs and blissful grins, no comedically gifted performers incomes laughs from their mere presence. There isn’t a comedy in This Man.

Except there’s?

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Associated Subjects: Fantasia Film Festival, Horror

Rob Hunter has been writing for Movie College Rejects since earlier than you had been born, which is bizarre seeing as he is so rattling younger. He is our Chief Movie Critic and Affiliate Editor and lists ‘Broadcast Information’ as his favourite movie of all time. Be at liberty to say hello for those who see him on Twitter @FakeRobHunter.