Auditon

In AUDITION, Japanese cult film director Takashi Miike (YAKUZA DEMON, ICHI THE KILLER) takes a romantic comedy movie plot about a lonely widower (Ryo Itabashi) trying to find true love by holding an ‘audition’ for a fake reality show and twists it into an unimaginable horror film which critics say, “makes FATAL ATTRACTION look like a simple misunderstanding.”

With this movie, Miike does a fantastic job of doing the near impossible. He builds a sense of dread; The kind that makes the hair on the back of your neck rise and your skin crawl. How does he do this? He makes you wait. He takes his time. He sets up his story. He introduces his characters and then begins a slow build to the movies gory climax.

Does a slow paced movie sound boring? It’s not. AUDITION will have you on the edge of your seat, making you slowly inch forward as the movie progresses. Clues are dropped, telling us all is not as it seems. The 15 minute climax of this one is a combination of shock, revulsion and outright horror.

Being a fan of Japanese horror movies, I was glad to see the care and attention to detail that Lions Gate/Maple Pictures lavished on this Uncut Special Edition DVD. The packaging and presentation are very well designed. The tri-fold liner notes look great and feature a Takashi Miike biography, a filmography and a slick montage of production stills. As for the DVD itself, the 16:9 widescreen film transfer is sharp, the Japanese 5.1 surround sound mix clear, and the English Subtitles are easy to read.

The special features include an introduction to the film by Takashi Miike (in which he warns the viewers to turn off the DVD if they are feeling sick), an in-depth interview with Miike, a disturbing scene-specific director’s commentary, an interview with the original author Ryu Murakama, a gallery of chilling photos, and finally a clip from Bravo’s 100 Scariest Movie Moments featuring Eli Roth and Rob Zombie.

Review by Chris Alan Turner