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Horror ensues
when a mysterious man gives a hair studio,
where teenage girl Yoko works, a bunch of high quality
hair extensions. What no one knows is that the hair is
from a dead woman and that everyone who comes in contact
with it is almost certain to die. Meanwhile, Yoko is
struggling to balance between her career and taking
care of her niece who was abused by her deranged cousin.
Will Yoko be able to stop the cursed hair from growing
before her niece becomes the next victim?
Say what you will about the quality of recent Japanese
horror flicks, but if there's one director who stands
out in the crowded Asian horror business, it's Sion
Sono. This man doesn't care at all about horror movie
trends or making his movies mainstream. He takes his
visions and turns them into bizarre horror flicks that
no one else would ever have even considered making, and
for most of the time - it works. Exte pretty much
ridicules the current inflated trend with long-haired
ghost girls, and it does so with style and humour.
Not only is Exte hilariously funny, but it's also
packed with great special effects, some stunning
visuals and even a couple of scares. The story revolves
around Yoko, a typical Japanese teenage girl with a
bubbly personality. While studying to become a
professional hairdresser, she also has to take care
of her niece as her cousin has been anything but nice
to her. One day, a strange man walks into the hair studio
that Yoko works at and gives them a bunch of hair
extensions. Everyone is eager to put them on, unaware
of the fact that the hair has been cursed by the dead
girl that the man got them from.
The story may seem somewhat similar to the South Korean
horror flick "The Wig", but believe me, it's not. In
fact, there's no real ghost girl in Exte, there's just
a whole lot of hair that's gone on a killing rampage.
Sion Sono has also mixed in some elements of torture
porn in here, and even if there's close to no gore in
the movie, he manages to make the torture scene quite
emotional due to his impressive directing skills. The
acting is also top-notch and Chiaki Kuriyama gives us
her best performance since Battle Royale. Her character
develops and grows in harmony with the story and you
instantly root for her.
Exte is a spectacularly entertaining horror film and
the best thing to come out of Japan in several years.
This movie is without a doubt an instant cult classic
and I will definitely be watching this again. I am in
awe of Sion Sono as I didn't think that it was possible
to make a great horror movie about hair anymore as
the concept has been done to death - but if there's one
man who can do it - it's Sion. Grab this one as soon
as you get the chance as it's a whole lot of fun.
Some minor blood, some dead bodies and a lot of hair.
The christmas music set a good atmosphere but best of
all is the "My Hair" song. God damn that was funny.
Extremely entertaining horror flick with a sarcastic
tone to it, ridiculing all these pathetic long-haired
ghost girl movies coming out these days. If you're
expecting yet another generic ghost movie, you're
wrong, this is something you haven't seen before. You
don't want to miss this one - trust me.
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