Hellish Love

Now I have to wonder, where do 'Pagan Films' find this stuff! Every time one of their releases pops through the door I'm treated to yet another unheard of gem of obscure cinema. This time round it's the DVD premiere of Chusei Sone's 'Hellish Love' (aka Seidan:Botandoro).

This 1972 erotic creepy yarn tells the tale of a wayward samurai who meets and falls for the daughter of an old samurai. Their love is forbidden in many ways and when her father discovers he brings their romantic interludes to an abrupt end. The young girl promises her samurai lover that she will come for him on a certain date, a date that he soon discovers is...the day of the dead!

'Hellish Love' is based on one of the oldest and most traditional ghost stories, but this in no ways takes away from the pleasure of this renditions telling. Sone's direction is pure class and captures the atmosphere of classic horror storytelling and mixes it with some very erotically charged moments of passion with great style.

The film is in every way not only very sensual but also a gothis masterpiece also. The feel of many of the spookier moments truly can be compared with some of the old Euro gothic films of the same vein. An excellent blend of eroticism and old school gothic horror in the Japanese setting - very nice indeed!

So, once again 'Pagan' deliver the goods bringing another fresh slice of cult cinema to the small screen and as always take great care to package the film very nicely on disc for your viewing entertainment.

The widescreen print looks just great with no signs of damage whatsoever and the Japanese audio is nice and clear too. The postionable English subtitles are clear and well translated and the limited extras do very well with their limitations considered. Pagan's use of the biography pages are always top notch, crammed with stacks of highly informative background information that would happily sate any inquisitive movie fans need for information and the still gallerys always include a gorgeous collection of related stills also.

A highly erotic Japanese gothic masterpiece that is well worth your time, and a solid DVD package that should be welcome in any collection.