Dejitaru Debiru Monogatari Megami Tensei (1987)

... aka: デジタル・デビル物語 女神転生
... aka: Digital Devil
... aka: Digital Devil Monogatari Megami Tensei
... aka: Digital Devil Story
... aka: Digital Devil Story: Goddess Reborn
... aka: Digital Devil Story: Megami Tensei
... aka: L'histoire du démon numérique (The Story of the Digital Demon)

Directed by:
Mizuho Nishikubo

In March 1986, Ayu Nishitani released the first in a series of novels that would eventually lead to this popular 1987 OVA release and an even more popular role playing video game series, originally made by Namco for the Famicom, which we Americans know as the NES / Nintendo Entertainment System. The initial 1987 video game was followed by a 1990 sequel and then really hit it big with the release of Shin Megami Tensei in 1992, which was followed by a boatload of other games; some numbered sequels, numerous subseries' (like Devil Survivor and The Demon Summoner) and a number of other spin-offs. The series is still going strong to this day, with especially big fan followings in Japan and North America. The latest entry is slated for release on the Nintendo Switch sometime in 2021. This video release is an adaptation of only the first of Nishitani's three novels and runs a compact 45 minutes. Surprisingly, despite the popularity of the video game series, there have been no other film adaptations. At least not official ones that I'm aware of, though a few titles like the 1995 anime Tokyo Revelation, are clearly heavily inspired by Shin Megami Tensei.

Yumiko Shirasagi transfers to the secluded Juusei Academy. Upon being introduced to the rest of her class, she instantly recognizes the dark, deadly serious and brooding Akemi Nakajima. However, when she attempts to engage him in conversation, he says he has no clue who she is, swats her away and adds that she'd be better off not even bothering involving herself with him. Still, Yumiko can't shake the feeling that she knows him from somewhere...

Late at night in the school's computer lab, which ominously has a "Do Not Open" sign posted on the door, Akemi and some of his friends are busy conducting a demonic "holy ritual" that involves Mars and the Moon being in opposition, Pluto and the Sun being in opposition, a pentagram on the floor and, of course, computers. Akemi talks about the "World of Atziluth" (highest of four worlds in the Kabbalistic Tree of Life) and asks for help from the "Electronic Beast Cerberus;" the hell hound from Greek mythology that promptly leaps right out of a computer to help defend the ceremony once called upon. They even have a willing guinea pig in the form of teacher Mrs. Obara whom Akemi assures has a nice enough body "to satisfy Loki." Being the inquisitive type, Yumiko sneaks into the room to spy on them but she's quickly sniffed out by Cerberus. Akemi then comes clean about what they're doing.

It turns out the group have somehow summoned a demon via computer but it's currently trapped inside the computer and thus can't do any real harm... at least not yet. Through a piece of head gear, Mrs. Obara is able to "have fun" (i.e. have sex) with the demon, but that's not enough for Akemi, whose ultimate goal is to find a way for Loki to materialize in the real world. The demon demands human sacrifices, which the increasingly more obsessed student is more than glad to help him with. After all, Loki is now his Master. After enough sacrifices, Loki is ready to enter our world.

Before long, Akemi is chanting "Kill! Kill! Kill!" while Loki does his thing at the school. During an amazing bit, a computer monitor spits out a pink glob that eats the entire student body, erupts into geysers of blood and then transforms into Loki. Students get sliced with razors, are beaten, have their crotches eaten and more and it's extremely difficult to tell after awhile what's a nightmare / hallucination, what's a flashback / something from a past life and what's occurring in present day. Compounding the confusion further are Akemi's red-tinted visions, which seem to be flashbacks about a girl named Kyoko who led him on then had her muscle-bound new boyfriend humiliate him and then brutally beat him up.

As far as Akemi and Yumiko's connection is concerned, he's been having a recurring nightmare about an old witch coming after him in a cave and believes she and Yumiko are one in the same. That turns out to be somewhat true, though Yumiko was actually Izanami, the goddess of both creation and death, in her past life. So there's that. Once the demon has them trapped, another goddess informs Yumiko of her lineage. She is then able to fight Loki off with lasers, free Akemi and fly him away from the school. When they come to in a misty forest, the fatally injured Yumiko dies and the only way to revive her is to take her through the mountains to Izanami's grave. Using a laptop, Akemi is able to summon the hell hound to help transport them. Loki, who has a red, glowing literal third eye that forms on his forehead, tracks them down.

Back at the school, the possessed Mrs. Obara sends the pink glob after bank employees, presumably so they can rob them, though this isn't specified or even followed through with. We then return to the forest, where Akemi is attacked by Loki yet again. He's rescued by the heavenly goddess who brings him, Cerberus and Yumiko's corpse up to outer space (!!) where she encourages him to "Break through the darkness." Loki shows up trying to kill them with his pink glob stuff, which the dog can ward off with his green breath (?!), and it all ends in a battle taking place either on a distant planet or in hell. It's nearly impossible to tell!

Beautifully, colorfully and stylishly animated, quite gory and with some interesting ideas scattered about, this also boasts a few wonderful individual scenes and surreal visuals but is a colossal failure when it comes to coherent storytelling. I guess that's what you get trying to cram as much of a novel into a 45 minutes anime as could possibly fit. This would have worked much better as a longer series instead of a standalone as it needed more time to explain its various plot points and try to tie them all together.

Outside of its release in Japan, there were releases in France, Spain and (an English subtitled version) in the UK on the Kiseki Films label. A soundtrack album was also available.

★★

Venganza diabolica (1990)

... aka: Diabolical Vengeance
... aka: Evil Revenge

Directed by:
Francisco Guerrero

Going into this I was only familiar with the director's crazy punk exploitation flick Intrépidos Punks / "Fearless Punks" (1988), which has gone on to a small following in recent years due mainly to the awesomely 80s makeup, hair and wardrobe, so this mild, talky and non-sleazy horror tale is about the exact opposite of what I was expecting! Businessmen Humberto (Noé Murayama) and Rubén (Juan Valentín, who's also a Grammy-nominated ranchero singer with #1 hits in Mexico) leave their wives and kids at home and go out to celebrate the retirement of an older colleague named Julian (Carlos Pouliot). However, Julian, a practitioner of the occult sciences, doesn't appear to be having a very good time as he's already foreseen his own death, which will be happening sooner rather than later. After attending a little get-together with other co-workers to listen to music and drink, the men get even more drunk with some "cabaret girls" (prostitutes) at a brothel. While driving home late that evening, Humberto strikes a man crossing the street and kills him. The collision has also knocked out the falling-down-drunk Rubén and injured Julian. In order to cover his own ass, Humberto slides Rubén over into the driver's seat to make it look like he's responsible, kills Julian by bashing his head against the window repeatedly and then runs away from the crime scene.

Rubén ends up getting blamed for the deaths, is thrown in the slammer and faces upwards of thirty years behind bars. His wife Lilia (Marisol Cervantes) refuses to let their young daughter come visit because she wants to spare her the indignity of her father being locked away in such a scuzzy environment. To make matters even worse, the sadistic main guard beats him, treats him like dirt, pisses all over his hands while he cleans the toilet and then makes him eat his dinner with his urine-soaked bare hands. Things start improving considerably once he's introduced to his new cellmate, Roman ("Francisco" / Paco Mauri).

Roman is in prison for murdering one of his lovers. However, he seems to believe his bitter / scorned ex Lizbeth (María Rubio), who still loves him but was unable to have him, is responsible for using black magic to force him to kill. And he's right. Lizbeth loves him so much that she'd rather see him locked up than with another woman. And now that he's in jail, he's all hers as she's the only one who wants to visit him. Clever. Rubén now sees the perfect opportunity for revenge, granted Lizbeth, who only used her powers helps those in need under special conditions, is game. Roman is able to convince her. She first warns that there are potential consequences for using witchcraft for revenge purposes and it could very well comes back like a boomerang to hit him. Still, he consents. Lizbeth goes home, does some kind of ceremony and then transfers a vengeance-seeking spirit into a blonde, blue-eyed doll. Rubén then gives the doll to his wife after a conjugal visit and instructs her to give it to Humberto's daughter, Annie (Karla Talavera), for her birthday.

The evil doll starts trouble right away, starting by making little Annie pass out at her own party before she can even blow out the candles on her cake. Its eyes move, sometimes glow red and sometimes are shot with a white band of light across them just like Lugosi's Dracula. More interestingly, the doll's stomach swells, worms crawl out of it and then enter the little girl through her ears, making her take on a sickly, deathly appearance.

Startled by the changes in their daughter, Humberto and his wife Magdalena (Cristina Michaus), who also happens to be Lilia's sister, call in their doctor friend Eduardo (Fernando Pinkus) to help. Even though she's developed under eye bags more befitting a 80-year-old than an 8-year old and her face starts breaking out in ugly dry patches, the doctor assures them that, though she may look like utter hell, physically there's nothing wrong. He recommends either shipping her off to Europe or seeking spiritual help since science can only do so much and he suspects she may have been hexed. Importing in another doctor (played by producer Roberto Lozoya) to look at her doesn't offer any answers. Is it too late to save Annie?

There's a nightmare sequence, a death premonition, a pink-filtered, round doll's eye POV shot and a few occult rituals but what we really have here is an old-fashioned, faintly competent and pretty standard morality tale where everyone involved is hit where it hurts by the tragic ending. While nothing stands out as being blatantly bad here, the problem is nothing stands out as being all that memorable either. The budget is low, the photography, direction, production values and doll effects are all pretty basic and unimpressive and there aren't really any notable stylistic flourishes, impressive special effects or exploitation elements. Passable writing and strong acting (especially from the two male leads) manage to keep things watchable but this is one of those movies you'll completely forget about a week after watching it.

As was very typical for the time, this was misleadingly packaged for Mexican home video as some kind of action movie with images of a police car and helicopter, plus a jail break-out insinuation (none of which are actually in the movie). Most sources claim this is 90 minutes, though it's actually only 80.

★★