31 days of Horror: Day Twenty Two - Yôkai daisensô (Yokai Monsters: Spook Warfare)

Yôkai daisensô (Yokai Monsters: Spook Warfare) (1968)

Sorry for the delay, this should have gone up yesterday.

In 1968 and 69 the Daiei Motion Picture Company, the company responsible for the Gamera film series and the Daimajin Trilogy, released 3 children's films based on traditional Japanese monsters called Yôkai. Yokai Monsters: Spook Warfare was the first of this trilogy, and it's as much fun as the poster suggests.

The movie begins as tomb raiders in what was Babylonia break into a tomb searching for treasure, and inadvertently release a powerful demon. The demon spares no time killing the two thieves, and heads out into the world to cause mischief. He causes a storm that sinks a ship, and then comes to Japan where he kills a local Lord, and takes his place. The formally good hearted Lord's newly malicious behaviour disturbs his daughter and the household. He kills his daughter's dog with his sword, when it barks at him, and immediately destroys the Shinto, and Buddhist altars in his house. When one of his servants questions his actions, he bites the servant's neck, drinking his blood, and taking control of him as well. The disturbance draws the attention of a Water Imp who can see the demon's true form, but is not powerful enough to defeat him. The Water Imp calls on the other Yôkai to go to war with the demon, lest he destroy the honour of Japanese spirits. Meanwhile the Lord begins taking local children prisoner, so he can drink their blood.

This is a fantastic movie. It moves along at a good pace, is chock full of bizarre creatures, and although it's a kids movie has some blood letting. The various monsters are amazing. They look like the bad guys from Power rangers. If you like this sort of thing, there are the two sequels, and Takashi Miike (Ichi the Killer, Audition) made a remake of sorts in 2005 with The Great Yokai War.

One last thing to note is the possibility that the Babylonian demon bad guy could be the first film appearance of Pazuzu (pictured below). There is even a scene where a Buddhist monk is trying to use an exorcism spell to drive away the monster, and is burned alive for his trouble. If it is Pazuzu, than we could see the Exorcist as an unofficial sequel.