Versus (18)

Versus is a very strange Japanese horror film which comes across as a strange concatenation of Reservoir Dogs, Highlander and Evil Dead 2. It's part horror, part Tarantino gangster film, part martial arts/Samurai film and part supernatural sci-fi thriller. Oh, and it's rather camp at times.

It's about an escaped prisoner, taken to a forest to await rescue. Except he finds the gangsters sent to retrieve him have also kidnapped a woman, and neither he nor the woman can remember anything prior to the forest. A fight erupts and a gangster is killed and arises from the dead, which is when chaos breaks loose. The next hour or so is gangsters running around in the forest fighting zombies, each other and their escaped prisoner and the girl. The girl slowly begins to remember things and indicates some strange mystic connection. Then a man with a briefcase turns up who appears to have superpowers because he moves quickly and can catch bullets.

Soon we discover that he needs both the prisoner and the woman, in order to open a portal to an alternate dimension so he can gain special powers. A fight to the death ensues to see who will become the master power.

I'm not really sure what to say about this film. It's hard to follow yet engaging, at times funny, and in places where I don't think it was meant to be funny, and it has a very very dark ending. There are some good fight scenes, some weird gory moments, and but for the fact it seems to imitate so many other classic films, it's rather unique.

If you're a fan of Japanese horror and martial arts, you'll probably like this; if not it will probably leave you scratching your head and wondering what on earth you've just watched.