Absurdity, comic horror, wacky characters and bizarre situations is probably the easiest way to describe director George Iida's 1989 satirical film. I haven't laughed as hard in some time, and had forgotten just how funny and clever this tale of a demonic kotatsu (electric heater), really is. From its opening scene, introducing us to the protagonist in a hilarious car accident that results in his boss using a taser-gun on him, to the electrocution of some elderly neighbours in bed - with said bed prepared as their literal 'death bed' just in case; there's hardly a slow moment in this hilarious film!
Set in a dark and dingy boarding house, where our leading man lives; a handy-man who brings home anything and everything with the ambition to fix it. Having removed a small metal-type seal on his new-found kotatsu, he frees the demonic force that houses itself in the old heater which soon starts to wreak havoc on the apartment block and its people.
Some of these neighbours include a punk-rock band (Bafuko Slump) who also give us a pretty cool musical number, the unfortunate pensioners, and a murderess who is in the middle of cutting up her husband with a carving knife so that her boyfriend can flush little bits of him down the toilet. And more and more crazy characters just keep coming...
For the most of it, Battle Heater is absolutely insane. It plays like a live-action cartoon which I love, but others may be put-off by. As the film rolls on, and the deaths mount up, the heater in question starts gaining fangs and more power, growing larger and deadlier by the minute. We watch via point-of-view of its plug, how it wangles its way around, feeding off the electricity, grabbing people by the ankles, and pulling itself across the room.
Over-the-top performances and insane comic situations run aplenty in a film I can only describe as unique. Think, The Little Shop Of Horrors meets The Happiness Of The Katakuri's directed by Mel Brooks, and you're close to finding out what goes on here. As Joji Iida's second film, its an incredible addition and a genre I only wish he would have stuck to, although pleased he gave us the great follow-up to The Ring, in Spiral, along with Another Heaven and, Dragon Head. He certainly is one of the more original directors I've seen from Japan of past, and I don't think we got enough of his talent.
The ending is as nuts as the rest as our hero turns up in an Aliens-inspired, home-made suit to tackle the monster, resulting in a one-on-one battle to save the day. Madness!
Overall: Lots of fun, lots of laughs, and completely crazy, Battle Heater is a fantastic film and worth a watch!
