Over Your Dead Body (2014)
Debi Moore
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Starring Ebizo Ichikawa, Ko Shibasaki, Hideaki Ito, Miho Nakanishi, Maiko, Toshie Negishi, Hiroshi Katsuno, Ikko Furuya
Directed by Takashi Miike
Despite the fact that famed Japanese horror director Takashi Miike has released so many watered-down and unmemorable films in the past few years and that it can be argued he has become the “Tyler Perry of J-Horror,” his failures have still at least shocked and awed due to his trademark controversial thematic elements throughout each film.
Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for his latest horror film, Over Your Dead Body. Although it features “look away” gruesome moments and an original take on a timeless ghost story, the slow-burning fuse fails to ignite.
Over Your Dead Body follows a group of theatre actors as they diligently rehearse for the nearly 200-year-old ghost tale Yotsuya Kaidan. For those unfamiliar with the play, Yotsuya Kaidan follows the story of a poor samurai who kills the father of his fiancée in an attempt to own his property. The samurai has a child with his wife and is miserable and resentful of her after remaining financially desolate for years.
Years later, a nobleman offers the samurai a prosperous position, but only if he marries his young daughter. Selfishly, the samurai plots the rape and murder of his wife and the death of his child, only to be haunted by his murdered wife, who returns from the dead to exact vengeance on the man who betrayed her.
The actors playing the samurai and the mistreated wife in the play are Lousuke and Miyuke (Ebizo Ichikawa and Ko Shibasaki, respectively). The two are real-life lovers off the stage, and they realize soon enough how their lives are mirroring the famous roles they are playing on stage as Lousuke mistreats Miyuke and blatantly cheats on her with their younger and attractive co-star (Miho Nakanishi).
As one can expect, life inexplicably imitates art with grisly results, and Lousuke learns first-hand the true meaning of the phrase “Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.” Decapitations, blood-letting and vaginal mutilation ensue in between the many wearisome scenes the film has to offer.
Miike, who is also an experienced theatre director, displays his strengths by showcasing brilliant set-pieces and imagery in the play within the film. Unfortunately, the filmmaker’s biggest strength is also his greatest detriment as most of the movie concentrates on the play’s rehearsal more than the horror quietly brewing off-stage.
While it is true that Over Your Dead Body has some similarities to Audition (one of Miike’s biggest accomplishments), regrettably it doesn’t succeed in keeping viewers on the edge of their seats but rather makes the audience welcome the offensive and controversial scenes with gory moments involving flesh-pulling and self-mutilation in between their stifled yawns instead of being horrified by the moments of explicit horror when they occur on the screen.
2 out of 5
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