Short Takes

A flick this WEIRD should be easier to like. Japanese schoolgirls succumb en mass to fatal giggle fits only to rise as zombified nuisances, oddly dubbed "Stacys," who loved ones must "repeat kill" with do-it-yourself "Bruce Campbell's Right Hand" brand chainsaws or the government aid of "Romero Repeat Kill Troops." Those wacky Japanese, eh? Well, there's also a squad of Drew Barrymore wannabes who deal in illegal, discount Stacy exterminations and there's the requisite mad scientist who stores quivering schoolgirls innards (and outards) in overflowing trash cans whilst probing zombie babes on his "operating" table. Somewhere amid the over-the-top-and-back-over-the-top-again gore is a bizarre Love Story-esque plotline with an obnoxiously perky tinkerbell and a thoroughly perplexed PUPPETEER in the Ali MacGraw and Ryan O'Neal roles. No breasts (unless one counts puppet nipplage). 62 corpses. Caning. Decapitations and clawing disembowelments. Pixie dust. Bunny suit'd babes. Gratuitous porno music. CGI shenanigans. Multiple machine gun battles. A kitschy TV commercial chirps: "Men, take up your arms! Kill your own daughters and we'll take care of ours!" (2001, 80 mins, 1.78:1 anam, DD 2.0, Original Japanese with optional English subtitles, Liner notes, Trailer. Note the cover design's strategic tear to avoid the dangling eyeball of the original photo, which is printed on the disc.)