Can’t believe we’re finally doing this, but after post-poning it for years and basically featuring every other Noburo Iguchi film, it’s time to go deeper into the septic tank with one of the lesser known films from the well known (among the expected circles) gonzo gorefest-pink film-tokusatsu extraordinarie director, his Zombie Ass: Toilet Of The Dead.
What a fuckin title. Can’t say you didn’t know what it was about when you walked in.
I would love to play the “what has this blog gone to?” bit more but i was this close to feature Monsturd in a previous Spooktacular Eight, but didn’t, not yet, hope this literal zombie shit fest will do as i also consider it kinda the “cut off” film for Iguchi, even though he didn’t actually stop making films like these, heck, the same year as Zombie Ass he also directed the aptly titled segment “Fart” for ABCs Of Death, and his last movie is 2023’s romance anthology Tales Of Bliss And Heresy.
So while his career didn’t die, i guess the foreign fan and specialized press interest around japanese horror gorefest with ludicrous premises, excessive displays and absurd special effects kinda petered out around that time, and i would assume this would be the case in Japan too, though that didn’t stop other directors to put out similar stuff like Bloody Delinquent Chainsaw Girls live action adaptation (which i didn’t know got two sequels in 2019, taking notes).
Enough foreplay, what is Zombie Ass: Toilet Of The Dead about?
Curiously, not so much toilets but indeed the “Ass” part is quite correct.
The premise see the usual absurd gaggle of hyper teen stereotypes that would never be together go on a camping trip, with the protagonist girl, Megumi, trying to use this to move over her sister’s death, while the model wannabe bitchy queen actually wanted to go near a stream so she can get tapeworms from river fish in order to “help her diet” and be even more boobs than bones.
As lack of luck has it, they stumble upon zombies in the forest, whom seems to be either emerging from the actual septic tanks, smell like and literally flinging shit at their victims (when they don’t play grab ass and try to depants the female characters), forcing the group to seek shelter in a nearby village that turns out to be full of “shit zombies” and try to survive the foul smelling undead, that are literally attracted by farts.
There is surprisingly more than one would expect from the plot, as the zombies are actually made via a species of ass-to-brain burrowing tapeworm parasites with fanged teeth like the Dune worms (but also sporting little brains as a sort of snail shell on their brack, so they do remind of the killer brains from good ol’ Fiend Without A Face), that a resident mad scientist/doctor is actually using as a way to cure his sickly daughter’s ailihing’s health, by swapping new parasites and basically using the village as a human farm to keep the parasites population stable.
Yeah, this does sound like a Noburo Iguchi plot, and yes the lead girl happens to be proficient in martial arts, as she dedicated herself to karate to try and cope with her sister’s death, and what can i say about a movie so farcical it does the “anime tragic flashback of a dead relative” bit, with the main girl sister killing herself because she was bullied and had to humiliate herself before the bullies by farting, when her big sister hesitated.
Do you feel any stupider reading this? I do trying to explain the lore of “ass alien tapeworms zombie” that is Zombie Ass, which as expected tries to be even more juvenile and repulsive than usual by resorting to the fart jokes, scatological humour and more moons than Saturn.
And even that is kinda half assed as the shit kinda subsides after the first act, despite plenty of rectal weaponry and nasty tapeworms with heads that drill through the ass to peek out of the anus and control the hosts to bare their bums, though the final battle has the lead passing gas to the point it’s a mecha stile rocket booster (or a Dr. Slump’s Suppaman gone rogue) that enable her to do an epic mid-air bout against the usual absurd monstrosity the villain transforms into, as it usual fare for Iguchi brand of live action horror-chanbara-action stuff.
The characters are so deliberately stock they’re funny, so is the overacting (especially by the nerd guy), even the tragic backstory is a literal fart joke, the effects have the usual combination of decent-to-good low budget practical gore effects alongside ubercheap CGI ones seen in other movies of the director (and this kind of japanese horror gorefests), all played for laughs, like the junkie dying like a First Of The North Star fodder enemy that Kenshiro slightly caressed on the head to get the attention of the gang’s leader.
To be honest, it’s oddly kinda tame, all things considered, it’s more repulsive and disgusting than usual just because of its scatological theme, but otherwise it’s not even that inventive and out-there in ideas or crazy creature designs (or nudity, which is there a bit of here but nothing compared to stuff like Dead Sushi’s flaming vaginas, for example), this is just pretty standard and kinda banal for Noboru Iguchi’s output by this point in time, i gotta say, and it doesn’t help it feels longer than its 84 minutes runtime, leaving one surprised to see what felt like the climax but isn’t, despite being aware that there are still 10 minutes left of film.
It’s still enjoyable if you can stomach movies like Tokyo Gore Police and actively seek out to see movies called The Machine Girl with bum-gatling guns toting Japanese actresses pretending to be teen students in unform, and there are some stand-out moments, for one i’ve never seen a zombie movie (or any movie, for that matter) where a zombie head is crushed by the sheer potency of an accidental buttslam. They know it’s incredible because they do an emphatic double instant replay, which is funny but doesn’t fix the pacing issues and lack of inspiration.
Zombie Ass if not the worst of Noburo Iguchi’s films, its one that feels like his heart isn’t into it that much anymore, sleepwalking even through generic “insane japanese gorefest scenario” and settling for the cheaper disgusting-revolting option, the low hanging fruit of comedy, so while fans of the genre will not quite be bored, they will be left kinda disappointed, even the ones with the thematically bound fetish.
You can do worse, but you can also do much better.
Wise Cafe (International) 