Unexpected horror gold: Crevices is a Japanese horror short which has sort of a Hounds of Tindalos thing going on...

BLOT: (20 Aug 2012 - 10:36:25 PM)

Unexpected horror gold: Crevices is a Japanese horror short which has sort of a Hounds of Tindalos thing going on...

I was looking for the video where Simon and Lewis of the YOGSCast played through "The Crevice" in Minecraft, but what I found was, well, that video. The second thing I found was this video, which is a short, 10-minute horror film from Japan called "Crevices" (or, I think, "Sukima" un-translated). By the power of Youtube, I'll embed it!

I could quite literally write a blog post about it longer than it would take to watch it, so I'll try and not do such a thing. The gist is a landlord calls in a man to see about his friend's apartment, after said friend hasn't shown up for three months to pay rent and such. The apartment has red tape applied to just about every crack, crevice, opening, and edge. Man sets about cleaning it up, finds a video tape that hints at what is going on and shows the fate of his friend, and then he realizes what depth of deep dookie he is in, and there you go.

If you have ever read "The Hounds of Tindalos", then you'll see some similarities. Like there, elements of edges/angles are important to the creature and represent the weakness of the apartment dweller. Also like there, presumed stalwart defenses are found to have a breakdown due to material causes. If you have not read "Hounds", then you probably should. I would put it in the top ten non-Lovecraft Lovecraftian stories, though there is a bit of a religious moralizing that seems strangely at odds with the fact that right angles allow evil to enter our universe and a cross is nothing if not four right angles, you know.*

I'm stopping here, but damn I do love the use of angles and spaces and perspectives to generate horror. Really wish it was used more. Go and watch "Crevices"! Click it! Oh, and the collection it comes from, Dark Tales from Japan, seems to be kind of hard to get non-used and non-Region-3, but apparently "Crevices" is generally taken to be the cream of the crop from it, anyhow. The other one that got love was "The Spider Woman", which I have not yet watched.

* Note, it has actually been a few months to a year since I have read "Hounds", I might be making up the moralzing bit. But I am pretty sure it is in there.

Horror

OTHER BLOTS THIS MONTH: August 2012