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‘BAKEMONO’: Stunning Japanese Creature Feature Seeks Funding For Additional Practical Effects
If you read enough horror reviews or listen to enough horror podcasts, you’re bound to come across someone bemoaning the shoddy digital effects present in so many modern genre movies. As cranky as it sounds, it also makes sense—practicals are rare, violence is often digitized rather than staged, and CGI blood has unfortunately become the rule as opposed to the exception.
Luckily, every year brings us a handful of horror films that value (fake) flesh and blood over ping-pong balls and pixels. It happened in 2019 with Color Out of Space, it happened last year with Saw X, and it’s happening now with Bakemono. Written and directed by Doug Roos, this uncompromising creature feature follows several different guests at a Tokyo airbnb, all of whom must contend with the jaw-dropping monster of the title. Taking a note from Memento, the film is told out of order and explores the city’s dark underbelly and issues of gender inequality. Roos was even able to shoot it on location—another rarity in modern horror.
Despite its Japanese roots, the beast in Bakemono is more reminiscent of the antagonists in The Thing and The Fly (1986) than Godzilla—ever-changing and on a ruthless quest for assimilation (the title loosely translates to “changing creature” in English). Most impressive of all is that Roos’ effects (both the creature design and heaping piles of gore) are entirely practical, with nary a drop of digitized blood in sight. Reviewers have already begun to take note at festival screenings, with Voices From the Balcony describing it as “if Hellraiser had been directed by Lucio Fulci.” Anton Bitel of Projected Figures praised the “astonishing practical effects,” reporting the creature to be “all inverted skin, externalized bones, clawed fingers, shiny appendages, and eyes and teeth where they should not be.”
Bakemono premiered at the Another Hole In the Head Film Festival and was awarded Best Creature Feature. Now, Roos is hoping to get into high-profile festivals such as Fantastic Fest and South by Southwest, in hopes of securing distribution. But first, he’s looking to raise an additional $20,000 on Indiegogo to offset festival costs, increase the marketing around the film, and of course, shoot additional effects footage. It’s a move reminiscent of Jaws, when, after viewing an early cut of his future masterpiece, Steven Spielberg decided to up the scare factor by inserting a new scene of Ben Gardner’s waterlogged corpse.
It’s well known that many Indiegogo projects never come to fruition, even if they raise the funds. But Bakemono stands out for already being complete. This isn’t about funders trying to launch something from scratch; it’s about making an already unique and unnerving film even better, and helping more people see it in the process. By donating, they’ll also receive an exclusive cut of the movie that contains more gore, creature effects, and nudity.
Here at Bloody Disgusting, we believe that practical effects make the horror genre a much more interesting place, and films like Bakemono ensure a heightened sense of creativity and imagination. Roos hopes that, if the film is successful, he can make more practical creature features right in Japan.
Watch the teaser trailer below and click here to become a crowdfunder. The Indiegogo campaign also contains a ton of fascinating information about the cast, production process, and where Roos wants to go from here.
A luxury team-building trip descends into a bloody fight for survival against a vengeful retreat leader in Corporate Retreat, out today in theaters. It’s the latest entry in a cathartic subgenre of workplace horror that examines every harrowing aspect of job employment.
No job is safe from horror, either, from babysitting to even the most white-collar gigs. But if you work an overnight shift? All bets are off. Vengeful co-workers and bosses aside, the night shift is likely to come armed with witches, creatures, demons, and all manner of things that go bump in the night. Even deadly outbreaks.
Corporate Retreat, along with these five horror movies centered around some of the worst night shifts, will make you glad the weekend has finally arrived.
The Autopsy of Jane Doe
Passenger director André Øvredal goes full throttle for the scares in this quiet little chiller that sees a father and son coroner team stumped over the bizarre mysteries contained within the body of an unidentified young woman during an unexpected night shift. Well-executed scares, clever twists, and earnest performances by Brian Cox and Emile Hirsch give this supernatural haunter serious heft. While the narrative bides its time unveiling the truth behind Jane Doe’s battered body, it’s heavily steeped in witchcraft. In other words, The Autopsy of Jane Doe presents a new take on the subgenre. More importantly, it’s seriously scary.
Cold Storage
COLD STORAGE, StudioCanal 2023
A lethal, mutated fungus breaks free from confinement deep within the bowels of a storage facility. At the frontlines of the madness are Teacake (Stranger Things’ Joe Keery) and Naomi (Barbarian‘s Georgina Campbell), two employees thrust into the middle of the chaos when they investigate an alarm beeping somewhere deep within the building. Director Jonny Campbell (Netflix’s Dracula), working from a script by David Koepp based on his novel, helms the goopy madness with workman efficiency. This lighthearted, goopy horror comedy romp makes the deadly night shift a bit more bearable.
Graveyard Shift
Graveyard Shift follows new hire Hall (David Andrews) tasked by his mean boss Warwick (Stephen Macht) to assist with the insane rat infestation beneath their mill. They find something much most monstrous as the cause. Though the film was panned, it’s a fun creature feature with an always welcome appearance by Brad Dourif as the intensely eccentric exterminator. The film also opts for a happier ending, whereas (spoiler), the story sees both Hall and Warwick getting devoured by the mutated rats, the crew in the upstairs mill none the wiser.
Last Shift
‘Last Shift’
Rookie Officer Jessica Loren (Juliana Harkavy) has been assigned to watch over a closing precinct on its final night of operation…alone. With nearly everything already moved over to the new station, including rerouted 911 calls, it should be a pretty quiet night as she waits for a Hazmat team to arrive to remove biohazardous waste. Instead, it becomes a waking nightmare as she’s forced to deal with unsettling visitors. Last Shift, co-written by Scott Poiley and director Anthony DiBlasi, brings the scares.
Intruder
The overnight stock crew of a local grocery store finds themselves falling victim to an unseen killer in this highly infectious late ‘80s slasher. The deaths are delightfully gruesome and inventive; look for this killer to make excellent use of grocery store items as weapons. Frequent Raimi collaborator Scott Spiegel directed this bloody slasher, which means a lot of overlap with the Evil Dead II. That means putting Sam Raimi in front of the camera for a change, along with Ted Raimi and Evil Dead II’s Dan Hicks. Look for a cameo by Bruce Campbell as well!
Corporate Retreat releases in theaters today; get tickets now.
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