Helldriver

Released by: Well Go USA
Released on: 11/22/2011
Director: Yoshihiro Nishimura
Cast: Minoru Torihada, Eihi Shiina, Yumiko Hara
Year: 2010
Purchase from Amazon

The Movie:
A mysterious ash spreads across northern Japan, turning everyone who inhales it into a flesh eating mutant/zombie. A small band of badasses are sent by the government of the uninfected southern half of Japan to destroy the queen zombie, who just so happens to be one of the badasses' evil mother, who was the first mutant/zombie. She was just about to kill her daughter, Kika…well actually she had just ripped Kika's heart out through her chest, when a meteorite punch a hole through her own chest. The mother then put Kika's heart in the hole in her chest and the heart took root. Then the ash thing happened and turned all the people (except Kika) into the mutant zombie whatever things, and the zombie queen can communicate and control them with the weird little antennae they all grew out of their foreheads when they turned to cannibals.

There're a few other secondary stories that play into the film. One of the group members is looking for his sister, who is in some sort of slave racket. Another is a man who mysteriously shows up and saves everyone and then joins forces with them because he's ready to die. And a third guy in the group harvests the weird antennae the mutants have because when ground up they are a highly sought after drug. But the main story is between Kika and her zombie queen mother, who murdered Kika's father right in front of her before the ash took over half the country.

The semi-story, combined with an incredible amount of gore, some amazingly whacked out ideas, and creative ways to go for the insane, makes for a balls-out thrill ride. It's basically a non-stop assault on the senses that gets crazier and crazier as the movie unfolds. Crammed full of flying body parts, impossible arterial spray (and in geysers), and even a boob here and there, Helldriver is just plain, stupid fun.

The special effects are a combo of physical and CG, and there's no effort made to blend the two, which gives it a crazy stylistic look and a comic book-like atmosphere. At times the computer effects are just so horribly done that they're laughable, which in all honesty just adds to the surrealism of the picture. Yoshihiro Nishimura's directing style and visual imagery seems influenced by the likes of Sam Raimi and Peter Jackson in their earliest movies, but with the frenzy bumped up a few notches.

The only serious trouble is the running time. Way too much time is spent in flashbacks, and it feels like this was two movies crammed into one. So much time is spent telling the story of Kika before the government sent her to destroy the zombie queen, that its easy to forget it's a flashback until the movie jumps to the present again, and all the back and forth may get confusing. In fact they don't actually start the story of them going after the queen until the half-way point, and that's when they roll the opening credits, which is weird. At any rate, a lot of the exposition could have been reduced pretty easily. None of its slows the movie's pacing, but it does feel like a two hour movie. 80 or 90 minutes of this gonzo movie would be plenty.

Bloody as hell, completely bonkers, bound to offend some, and most certain to please lovers of bizarre cinema, it's the type of movie Hollywood is afraid to make. Seriously, imagine Universal putting out a movie that has a maniacal zombie-mutant guy with a swastika burned into his head driving a car he made out of flying body parts as he was chased a vehicle while on foot. Not going to happen.

Video/Audio/Extras:
The disc provides a great looking image, very clean with a lot of detail and good black levels, with no signs of artifacts. The 1080p HD picture is shown with an aspect ratio of 1.78:1 and is anamorphic. When they aren't using CGI and making the world look cartoonish, the colors are represented well and look great, as do the skin tones. The blood comes across very red, as it should of course, and there's plenty of opportunity to check on that. Two audio tracks: one a 2.0 Dolby Digital and the other 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio track, both in Japanese language with English subtitles. The 5.1 track makes good use of the technology and provides lots of ear candy. The music sounds immense, and the effects come from all over the room. Plenty of subwoofer action and a metal soundtrack really add to the insanity of the film.

For extras: Three short films in the same vein as the feature can be viewed, running from 11 to 20 minutes in length each. Just more fun from the director really. You don't really get anything more out of the feature by watching them, but those who dug the film should get a charge out of what they see. Next is the 20-minute “Sushi Typhoon Invades Tokyo” which is a meet-and-greet affair with interviews by those involved in the movies and company. Not a bad watch, but there isn't anything significant. There're some trailers here to. One for the feature and four for other Sushi Typhoon projects: Yakuza Weapon, Mutant Girls Squad, Karate-robo Zaborgar, and Deadball. Oh and the Blu-ray comes with a DVD version of the movie too.

The Final Word:
You don't even have to read the subtitles to know what's going on. Recommended for fans of off-the-wall splatterfests. It's crazy, fucked up, and fun.

Note: Images taken from the DVD, NOT the Blu-ray.