Eko Eko Azarak: Misa the Dark Angel (1998)

I got the first three of these films in a set and thought this the big finale, but apparently more episodes have come out - I'm not sure why....Although the word "homoerotic" ought to include art concerning lesbians as well as gay men, it is usually used for the latter, so we will have to coin a new word here, "lesbo-erotic". The "Eko Eko" series is a lesbo-erotic witch story about a young white which battling the dark forces of Satan and his kin. Earlier entries had explicitly sapphic material, this operates a little more implicitly and will be more accessible for main-stream audiences.I also found the story easier to follow and easier to bear here. The series as a whole is amusing at best, but let's face facts - it's trash. Considerable effort has been made to duplicate the old Hammer Vampire films of the early 1970s. Well, there's nothing wrong with that, that's why this series is amusing; but "art"? The best horror film you're likely to see in quite a while? Afraid - not. Although the story is tighter than the other entries, the fundamental problem with these films altogether is their lack of coherence. You will get confused here - very confused.What the hell is Satan doing in Japan anyway? And how did H.P. Lovecraft's Cthulu suddenly pop out of nowhere here? And why am I watching a Japanese direct-to-video remake of Hammer horror films from the early '70s?well, I had a couple hours to waste....well, that's about it, folks; you could probably do worse, you can certainly do better.

In part 3 of the EKO EKO AZARAK movie series, Hinako Saeki plays the part of Misa Kuroi (also in a 1997 TV series around the same character). She plays the role quite well in my opinion. The reason why this episode of the series is clearly not as good as the others is the less convincing story, in which a group of girls practices for a theatre play, but the play is just a disguise for a magic ritual. Misa sceptically says in the movie, if it was a real ritual, she would have known, and the viewer involuntarily shares her lack of belief. Besides, the long winding finale which consumes no less than the whole last third of the movie needs editing. Its timing is poor compared to the dynamic climax in part 1, "Wizard of Darkness". Voted 7/8/5/6 for part 1-4.

I have never read the 70's manga by Shinichi Koga, so I cannot say how well the film follows its source.I enjoyed the first 2 films in the series much more than this and feel it is missing director Shimako Sato's touch. This film is possibly less scary than its predecessors. Atmosphere? Not so much, I also don't think cheesy lumbering people in cloaks is all that scary as done in this film, they look more like a group of Jawas who are tall enough to form a basketball team. The film might be less action-packed than EEA2, it sure felt like it at times.Combine the schoolgirls-in-peril in an institution of learning with a witchcraft-obsessed founder of "Suspiria" with the dimensional doors to dangerous forest real estate of "Troll" and add a handful of names referenced from H.P. Lovecraft Cliff Notes and you have this film. It might be as good as Troll but is far beneath the others I've referenced. At times it has more action than the first EEA film, but they have replaced Kimika Yoshino as Misa Kuroi (of EEA 1 & 2) with Hinako Saeki (Sadako from the mediocre Ring Spiral film "Rasen"), who had played the role the previous year in the EEA TV series.The surgeon uncle apparently from the manga series has his first appearance in the film series. Misa goes off to join a drama club after catching sight of their script and surprise surprise, someone around there has been dabbling in black magic and must be stopped.Mentioning the names of some Elder Gods from Lovecraft isn't going to get me all in a tizzy; anyone can make meaningless references to the Elder Gods in a film without doing anything interesting with the Cthulhu Mythos. The most mediocre of Stuart Gordon's HPL-inspired films is better than this. Likewise having a bevy of cute schoolgirls does not a good movie make. The sentimental moments of the drama club girls walking around 'bonding' towards the start of the film with lame cheesy background music did not help create a mood for the film and almost put me to sleep. The producers also tried to add implied lesbianism back to the film series (sans the nudity of said sequences in the first film) in a failed attempt to titillate the audience. The absence of those scenes from EEA2 actually helped that movie by making it seem less like cheap exploitation gimmickry. Overall, this film is less satisfying than even the first one. I rate them in the following order from best to worst: EEA2, EEA1, EEA3.Tokyo Shock's DVD is also seriously lacking in special features whereas the other 2 films both had a 'making of' feature, recent updated interviews and theatrical trailer and film premiere clip, possibly because no one cared much about EEA3 to bother producing said materials. They didn't even retain the original Japanese ending credits for the EEA3 DVD.***SPOILER WARNING*** I love when movie trailers try to make the film's plot seem bigger and more important than it is, like 'the future of the whole world is at stake'. A homunculus wanting to be human and planning to brutally kill off 7 girls to pursue those ends may be a tragedy, but it isn't going to end the world as we know it. Whether or not you are a fan of it, Lovecraft's work was often about cosmic horror that could have wide-ranging effect over the entire human populace in the event that the Elder Gods decided to turn their attention to our rather insignificant (to them) existence. Killing seven people and turning a female Pinocchio into a real boy isn't the kind of thing I imagine the Elder Gods bothering with and it's a bit insulting to throw them into this plot in such a lame way, even Lucifer would probably have more important things to do on his daily itinerary, like toying mercilessly with Dudley Moore's love life.

This has got to be one of the DUMBEST movies I've ever seen! Even for a cheesy Japanese splatter-flick it's bad! And it's not even a splatter flick - it sells itself on the "Maximum Gore Dangerous Little Gal" ticket but for all of its boasting I've seen bloodier episodes of Mattlock.In a nut-shell: Mix two parts Buffy The Vampire Slayer, one part Sailor Moon and a splash of IMPLIED oh-so-chic girl-on-girl action. Add a deserted school dorm, someone's overgrown garden and seven young gals who should have been in school that day and BINGO - you've got Misa: Dark Waste of Time.It's horribly shot. The music is dreadful. There isn't a character in the script. The plot is non-existent. And the 'actors' (and I use that term loosely) should go back to their day jobs.Basically a movie made to cater to Japanese salary-men and their unending desire to see girls in high school uniforms. If that's what butters your toast, go for it. If you expect something more - forget it!!