LEFT HAND OF GOD, RIGHT HAND OF THE DEVIL REVIEW

Ryugangi reports that Shusuke Kaneko (the kaiju savant behind the revived GAMERA series in the late 90's) now has a release date for his gore film, LEFT HAND OF GOD, RIGHT HAND OF THE DEVIL. It's hitting Japanese screens on July 22.

The film is a supernatural slasher flick with oodles of gore, but no dead, wet girls with long black hair, and it's based on a tres bizarro manga by Umezu Kazuo. The movie manages to perfectly capture the mundane psychosis of Kazuo's source material. It's shot in a very simple style, with long, intricate set pieces of murder and mayhem that feel like budget bin Dario Argento, and the gore is generously ladled on with a free hand.

But after a rocky and somewhat threadbare start, the movie enters MARRONIER territory, dishing out the kind of imagery you might find inside a little girl's skull: frills and lace and dolls and pretty picture books.

Driven by a dreamlike logic it ends with the perfect set-up for a sequel and I'm game for one. It's weird, it's lopsided and wonky, and it comes complete with sugar and spice and decapitated heads.