Guinea Pig: Mermaid in the Manhole (1988)

Director Hideshi Hino brings his manga to screen as an installment in the notorious GUINEA PIG series, about a recently widowered painter who finds artistic inspiration in an unlikely location from an unlikely creature. For gorehounds and ONLY gorehounds. The special effects—albeit twisted—are undeniably impressive. Probably one of the only films that could make the viewer want to run to the bathroom and vomit—not counting hand-held-styled movies that causes motion sickness. Aside from the shameless nastiness, the story's originality should also be recognized because of how difficult it can be to pull off this type of horror without involving serial killers or monsters in the mix.*** (out of four)

I love gory horror films, and this one did NOT fail to disappoint! i can sit through most any film gore, but i must admit, this one had me actually gagging and cringing! im not going to go into plot details, as you can read it all in the other reviews, but i WILL share my praises and slight complaints.. lets start with the good! TOTALLY sick stomach churning gore, but with a MUCH more surreal, imaginative, and mysterious story and plot than your average gore flick. to me, there was actually some depth here. it's an incredibly bizarre and fantastic concept to begin with, and the fact that the ending leaves one with a question mark i love. the use of color is great, i couldn't take my eyes off of the screen, and it only got more disturbing and horrifying as time went on. good pacing. i didn't think, as some reviewers commented, that the artists acting was too over the top to the degree that it detracted from the film. and most importantly, the main reason my rating was so high: it was a TOTALLY UNIQUE viewing experience. as far as the negatives go, i think a bit more allusions to a happier past other than the brief dialogue snippets we get would have increased the impact of what follows. also, unfortunately, many of that dialogue comes from the neighbors, whose campy and quite bad acting also detract from the films impact. i do agree that the humor they add provides a kind of balance, and perhaps contrast that COULD have increased the impact, but their cartoonish delivery didn't work for me. either way, while by no means being a life changing or perfect film, or artistic vision, i will NEVER forget this film!

I saw this in the middle of the night, and it wasn't subtitled. Still, I figured out what it was about, despite the fact that I don't speak it's language. It's about what appears to be a painter who rescues an injured woman who begins to rot and spew pus. As she dies, he uses her goop as paint. The film's ending is depressing as it appears that he wasn't playing with a full deck.The overall tone of the film is bad enough without the bizarre situation, but the fact that the film literally doesn't race makes the outcome more of an effective idea that could be better implemented with a little less patience. Still, when the screen isn't drenched with guts and pus, it's pretty to look at. This is, i guess, a part of some strange series of films in Japan that deal with special effects gore and realism. This works in both areas, but also happens to have a little more to offer.

Hideshi Hino is famous in Japan for his violent graphic manga. He tends to touch on disease, holocaust, and WWII flashbacks. It shows here.Hino decided to make a GP film with an actual story. You have to wonder however if the artist in this story is a self-portrait. If so, I wonder if Hino has TOO MANY dark secrets.The main reason for this film, it seems, is to see how far it can go. Can we let the Mermaid get sicker just to keep painting? And did the FX guy get top pay? The grainy film and sub par editing add to the nightmare. Do NOT let your kids see this.