Jigoku kozô (2004) User Reviews

"I Don't Know Why He Became A Monster, But The Police Will Not Let You Get Away With This!"

[Humdinger69 · 6/10 · 2 October 2018]

A doctor tragically loses her son in a car accident (quite graphically). A random old woman appears telling the mother she can bring her son back if she kills a boy the same age with a special tusk. She does so (again, quite graphically) and her son returns, but not as the boy he once was, but as a hideous monster who craves human flesh. She keeps him locked up in a cage and tries to find a way to heal him but he escapes and starts slaughtering anyone in his path. It's not long before a detective with a huge nose and violently loud sneezes is hot on their trail.

It's makes even less sense than it sounds like believe it or not, but by gawd is it entertaining. The charmingly cheap green screen effects are immediately striking. Then there's the surprisingly graphic deaths of children. Not since Beware! Children At Play have I seen so many gory child deaths depicted in such an unflinching manner. Then, there's the centerpiece of the movie - a jaw-dropping dream(?) sequence where the titular Boy from Hell goes "home" and wreaks even greater havoc. This sequence then returns later on for an even stranger climax.

This is the first film I've seen from Hideshi Hino's Theater of Horror series. Every other movie in this series sounds interesting to say the least (one of them is called Lizard Baby, another is about zombie dolls) so best believe I'll be giving them a watch.

Good horror flick

[zomberi · 6/10 · 17 September 2023]

A doctor loses her son in an accident. When she buries him, a strange woman tells her she can revive her kid if she pours blood from another kid over the grave. When she does do this, her son crawls out of the grave. As a few days have elapsed after his death, the zombie does not look like he used to. It is more like a dwarf with crooked limbs, swollen eyelids and misshapen dentures. The zombie also feeds on chicken and human beings. Her mother imprisons him in a custom-made crib but he manages to escape all the time. The police are on their trail even as the mother-and-son duo rack up more deaths.

The movie is quite face-paced. It did not waste time on character-building or sentimental scenes.

It is a good horror movie. Not so much of a thriller for those who are familiar with the genre. It goes on expected lines.

The story behind the damaged nose of the policeman was not explained. That is the only flaw in this movie.

Bad Movie

[marcorivas54 · 4/10 · 20 August 2017]

Boy From Hell is a live action adaptation of the manga of the same name. Daio (the boy) dies from a car accident and his mother brings him back to life. When he rises from the grave he is a deformed child from hell and wrecks havoc in the neighborhood. This film is extremely low budget with bad acting and obvious fake scenery and gore. The idea is good and the manga was probably good as I have not read it but I'm probably thinking the manga was 100% better. This isn't a film necessary for a J-horror fan to watch as it pretty much sucked with all the terrible fake gore and everything.

Extremely bad

[TrentReznor · 1/10 · 21 May 2006]

This movie is the worst movie i have seen in my whole life.

It have nothing to save, all is bad, the actors and the acting is comical, the make up sucks, the plot is totally predictable...nothing can be saved.

At least, the suffering ends after only 45 minutes, and seems that the director and the rest of the crew don't take the movie seriously.

I read somewhere that this movie is the first part of a hexalogy based in Hideshi Hino's tales...i hope the rest of the movies will be better...because if the are worst than this, this will be without a doubt the worst saga of horror films.

Bizarre and gory horror flick based on Hideshi Hino's manga.

[HumanoidOfFlesh · 8/10 · 15 June 2006]

"The Boy From Hell" is about a surgeon who brings her son named Daio back from the dead,only he's now a decomposing corpse boy with a taste for blood and human flesh.In 2004,Pony Canyon decided to adapt six different Hino manga stories,all of these shorts were made by different filmmakers using digital video.Mari Asato's "The Boy From Hell" is a grotesque and surprisingly gory horror flick.Daio looks truly creepy and actually resembles murderous babies from Larry Cohen's "It's Alive" series.The acting is fine,the cinematography is great and the use of colors is very Argentoesque.Overall,"The Boy From Hell" should satisfy fans of gruesome Japanese manga stories.It's not as sickeningly brutal and morbid as several "Guinea Pig" movies,but still packs a punch.8 out of 10.

Perfectly captures the visual style of Hideshi Hino's manga work

[Wetbones · 10/10 · 29 May 2006]

THE BOY FROM HELL is the best cinematic representation of legendary Japanese manga artist Hideshi Hino's overall visual and storytelling style so far, even beating out 1988's MERMAID IN A MANHOLE, which was directed by Hino himself. While other entries into the HIDESHI HINO HORROR THEATER hexalogy of short films may be better films when viewed out of context, THE BOY FROM HELL stands as the single best adaptation in the series.

A theme that is almost always present in Hino's manga work is the isolation and suffering of the outsider, the freak. There is a brilliant scene in THE BOY FROM HELL where the titular resurrected monster happens upon a group of children playing ball. When he approaches them, wanting to join in, the run away screaming. Despite the grisly murders Daio has committed up to this point, you still feel sorry for him in that scene.

Another thing that director Mari Asato and screenwriter Seiji Tanigawa (working from Hino's eponymous manga) nailed perfectly is the mix of grotesque horror imagery and gore with pitch black comedy that permeates so many of Hino's comics. The most wonderful examples of this are the ridiculous fake nose they put on the detective and a birthday party for Daio, during which he is forced to wear a mask similar to that of Hannibal Lecter in SILENCE OF THE LAMBS to keep from from devouring the other little kids. Of course that doesn't work so well in the end ...

I hesitate to recommend THE BOY FROM HELL to the casual horror fan or even fans of Japanese horror. It is wildly different from the slow paced malevolent hair-ghost stories of recent years and hearkens closer to the ero-guro films of the 70ies, while also adding plenty of elements from campy fun splatter movies of the 1980ies. If you like those and/or are already familiar with Hino's manga publications (a fair number of which are available in English translations) then this is a movie you should seek out. Everyone else may come away confused and maybe disappointed.

Fun And Twisted Entry In The Hideshi Hino Series (and bonus review)...

[EVOL666 · 8/10 · 13 February 2010]

HIDESHI HINO THEATER: THE BOY FROM HELL

Daio is a stupid little kid who gets his head knocked off cuz he has it sticking out the car window and an oncoming truck knocks his dome off (and somehow inexplicably his whole body as well-as we see him stumbling around outside the car without his head ?!?!). While visiting his grave-a haggy old woman gives mom a weird fang and says that if she cuts the throat of a boy that's the same age as her son and pours the blood on his grave-then Daio will come back to life. Luckily-moms is a doctor and has access to a boy who's terminal and is expected to die within ten days-so mom follows the old bat's instructions...and it works! Only problem is that Daio is now a mutated looking freak who does nothing but make weird noises and crave human flesh. A detective with a deformed nose shows up at the mom's house when the old bag winds up dead at her doorstep. Nothing is made of this development at first-until mutant-Daio gets loose and goes on a feeding-frenzy. Mom tries to rectify the situation by giving Daio a brain-transplant (?!?!) which returns him to looking normal again...for a little while...until he inexplicably turns back into his mutated form-and reserving herself to her fate-mom goes on the prowl for food for her little monster...

This entry in the series is a good bit of splattery fun. Daio's make-up FX are somehow both ridiculous and sorta creepy looking at the same time-and it's obvious that mutant- Daio is being played by a midget who's quite a bit shorter than regular Daio. The storyline in this one is suitably twisted and there's all kinds of bizarre imagery that from the little bit of Hino's manga work that I've seen-is most representative of his stories as far as a film adaptation is concerned. I can't say that THE BOY FROM HELL is a 'good' film per se- but I enjoyed the hell out of it. If you dig campy, low-budget splat-stick style horror with a twisted edge-you'll wanna cop this one. 8.5/10

And since there's no listing on IMDb for this next entry in the series-I'll add the review here:

HIDESHI HINO THEATER: LIZARD BABY

A screenwriter with a pregnant wife is commissioned to write  a script for a horror- film...problem is, horror just ain't our man's bag. After going with his wife to get a sonagram-the writer gets the awesome idea to write a story about a woman having a lizard-baby!  The film-makers love the concept and give the thumbs-up for him to write out a full script.  All is going great-until...well...you can probably guess what direction this is going in. And if you can't-the title should be spoiler enough...

LIZARD BABY is another fun entry in the series that plays out like a sillier and campier version of IT'S ALIVE. This one isn't heavy on the gore-but the plot is fun enough and the lizard baby looks like some sort of mutated turtle. Pair this one up with THE BOY FROM HELL and you'll be in for a bit of cheezy J-horror mutationy weirdness. 7/10