Uzumaki (2000)
Average Rating: 6.1/10
Reviews Counted: 24
Fresh: 13 | Rotten: 11
Uzumaki uses its creepy, David Lynch-inspired atmospherics to effectively build a sense of dread, but ultimately fails to do anything with it.
Average Rating: 4.4/10
Critic Reviews: 8
Fresh: 2 | Rotten: 6
Uzumaki uses its creepy, David Lynch-inspired atmospherics to effectively build a sense of dread, but ultimately fails to do anything with it.
liked it
Average Rating: 3.4/5
User Ratings: 6,232
Movie Info
Based on the phenomenally popular horror manga by Junji Ito, Uzumaki is the debut feature of Japanese music video director Higuchinsky (born Akirhiro Higuchi). Something strange is going on in the small town of Kurozu-cho. Kirie Goshima (Ericko Hatsune) notices Toshio Saito (popular character actor Ren Osugi), the father of her longtime friend, Shuichi (Fhi Fan), videotaping an extreme close-up of the spiral pattern on a snail's shell. Shuichi explains that his father is acting strangely, and
May 3, 2002 Wide
Jul 6, 2004
Cast
-
Ren Osugi
Toshio Saito -
Hinako Saeki
Kayodo Sekino -
Keiko Takahashi
Yukie Saito -
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
ADVERTISEMENT
All Critics (24) | Top Critics (8) | Fresh (13) | Rotten (11) | DVD (8)
Pic duly places less emphasis on narrative than on the sort of surreal set pieces that might have worked better in the graphic-novel form.
Top CriticAdapted from a horror comic by Junji Ito, this debut feature from Japanese music-video director Higuchinsky begins eerily but doesn't take long to descend into silliness.
Gussied up with so many distracting special effects and visual party tricks that it's not clear whether we're supposed to shriek or laugh.
Required viewing for horror fans, Japanese-cult-cinema fans, and anyone who digs settling in for an unsettling David Lynch evening.
Ultimately the, yes, snail-like pacing and lack of thematic resonance make the film more silly than scary, like some sort of Martha Stewart decorating program run amok.
At some point, all this visual trickery stops being clever and devolves into flashy, vaguely silly overkill.
A brilliant horror film with an original idea and style to spare.
'Uzumaki is a masterfully rendered living portrait of warped, apocalyptic art...'
Mostly the film creates an infectious feeling of apprehension that slowly crawls up your spine.
Special effects can be tastefully managed even on a shoestring budget, but here they are merely ludicrous.
Succumb to its creepy charms, and you'll never see inner-ear anatomy diagrams, umbrellas, or escargot in quite the same way. You might even hand over laundry chores to someone else.
Eerie and slimy enough to give Tim Burton nightmares, Uzumaki is a superb piece of fantasy cinema.
A somewhat satisfying, because of its uniqueness, but ultimately empty horror chiller.
... less a story than an inexplicable nightmare, right down to the population's shrugging acceptance to each new horror.
Uzumaki's interesting social parallel and defiant aesthetic seems a prostituted muse...
Beautiful, cold, oddly colorful and just plain otherworldly, a freaky bit of art that's there to scare while we delight in the images.
One of the film's strongest achievements is the way it manages to get so much mileage out of such a simple concept as spirals.
Got a David Lynch jones? Then you'd do well to check this one out because it's straight up Twin Peaks action...
A surreal fairy tale that coils in on itself like a slow-motion whirlpool and achieves an atmosphere of sublime creepiness without ever precisely making sense.
Audience Reviews for Uzumaki
Super Reviewer
Super Reviewer
Discussion Forum
There are no discussion threads for Uzumaki yet.
What's Hot On RT
John Goodman's Best Movies
Woody Allen in San Francisco
Naomi Watts stars as Princess Di
Pictures from a zombie nation
Fresh Links
Featured
Movie: ID: 98832011 Title: Uzumaki Release Date: 2002-05-03 00:00:00.0 MPAA: 1 Status: 1
Family Movie Mistakes
Even the best family entertainment experiences a few blunders now and then...
The Looks of Johnny Depp
To celebrate the star's birthday, BuzzSugar looks at the many faces of Johnny Depp.
10 Egregious Product Placements
Rolling Stone wonders if The Internship goes too far... then provides 10 examples of movies that did.
10 Bad Movies That Look Great
Sometimes even terrible movies can be beautiful; here are 10 of them, from HitFix.
50 Most Classic Movie Moms
In celebration of Mother's Day, TimeOut offers up 50 iconic matriarchs from the big screen.
Promos
Follow RT on Twitter!
Spice up your feed with hourly Tomatometer updates!
Featured on RT
- James Gandolfini: 1961-2013 9
- Total Recall: John Goodman's Best Movies 23
- In Pictures: Zombie Nation! 0
- Video Interviews with Cast & Crew of Monsters University 0
- Digital Multiplex: 21 & Over, Quartet, and More 3
- RT on DVD & Blu-Ray: Jack the Giant Slayer and Quartet 23
- Box Office Guru Wrapup: Man of Steel Sets June Record 110
Top Headlines
-
Has Brad Pitt Ever Made a Successful Blockbuster?
1
-
Pacific Rim Set Visit Report
0
-
Shailene Woodley Cut from Amazing Spider-Man 2
0
-
Star Wars Casting Breakdown Reportedly Leaks
0
-
Universal Picks Up Dumb and Dumber To
0
-
Sam Taylor-Johnson Directing Fifty Shades of Grey
0
-
The Logan's Run Remake Has a New Writer
1
