Zombie Ass: Toilet of the Dead is like going to a freakshow. You’ll see vulgar and heinous shit, question if any of it is legal, and maybe feel a little sick when its over. These days, the freakshow can be streamed or bought on DVD and you wont get mugged either.
Zombie Ass: Toilet of the Dead is what you get when you combine the scatological humor of a Troma production, the fight choreography of a Ryuhei Kitamura action movie, and Stuart Gordon-style body horror. This is pure punk cinema and is the least pretentious film anyone has ever made.
A great man once said, “If they wanna eat shit, I’ll give them shit!”. That man was (probably) Noburo Iguchi, Zombie Ass: Toilet of the Dead‘s writer/director. With this film, he aspired to create the most filthy and entertaining horror-comedy. Did he succeed? Read on, in our Zombie Ass: Toilet of the Dead review!
Zombie Ass: Toilet of the Dead
Studio: Acrimboldo Y.K., Gambit
Publisher: Nikkatsu, Media Blasters (DVD)
Director: Noburo Iguchi
Release Date: September 2011
From start to finish, Zombie Ass: Toilet of the Dead is a wild ride that never slows down. It is a lean hour and 25 minutes that is packed with everything it promises.
Sexy gravure idols farting and defecating on fecal freak-zombies, tentacle penetration with massive parasites and of course, lots of farting are all on the menu. The filmmakers even managed to squeeze in some awesome gore and panty-shots… sometimes both at the same time!
For a movie that is so utterly sleaze and bursting at the seams with gimmicks, it is amazing that Zombie Ass: Toilet of the Dead manages to tell a story with developed characters at all. The tone does make attempts at character development which feels like its done as a joke, but the acting is way better than it should be.
While on a camping trip, Megumi and her friends end up in a scenario ripped from the mind of Lucio Fulci. While everyone is trying to enjoy themselves, Maki, the group’s brat, is pushing everyone to fish up some parasite infested fish for her to eat.
Maki is a vain and petty. She is played by gravure model Asana Mamoru, and it’s apparent that she is having a lot of fun in the role.
On top of being one of the best looking girls in the movie, Mamoru is a good sport and has to do some extremely embarrassing performances during the course of Zombie Ass: Toilet of the Dead.
Viewers get a full view of Maki’s butt and even gets an eye-full of her full-blown brown-eye. She does convincing stomach pain acting and even though the CG fart effect is weak, she manages to have the most dense and dark fart cloud imaginable.
Zombie Ass: Toilet of the Dead does have very poor CGI which is always disappointing, especially since most of the practical effects look hilarious.
From Maki’s bulging prosthetic eyeballs to the floppy oversized parasite tentacles that comically rape Megumi and her friend, the practical effects have a silly charm about them.
Weak practical effects still manage to look better than the weak CGI because even poor practical effects have a tangibility that CGI lacks.
When Zombie Ass: Toilet of the Dead has Aya’s butt smash a zombies head, it actually looks like Aya’s butt is smashing a fake head. Also, when the final form of the parasite queen gets a poisonous enema, the CG effect used to make the body ripple and explode looks like the smudge tool from Photoshop.
The CG blood used has no weight and doesn’t interact with anything. These effects do not work as intended and look lazy.
While it is valid that both practical effects and CG in Zombie Ass could be considered poor, the fight choreography is excellent throughout. Hits look like they connect and the editing is fast and stylish.
There is a lot of anime-style posing too, further emphasizing the absurdity of the action. The fighting styles vary with different weapons, keeping the battles different and interesting.
There is also some strong tension too since it seems like anyone can die in Zombie Ass: Toilet of the Dead. When Megumi is up against a psycho with two knives, she gets some wounds that would normally be lethal.
Zombie Ass: Toilet of the Dead has a simple plot with a driving story, but it is definitely not the reason why anyone would watch it.
The story is full of holes and even after Megumi is infected, it never gets resolved despite the fact that it has dire consequences for everyone else. This is the kind of movie to watch for its insane spectacle and with a group of friends.
This is not something to watch on a date or with your wife. Zombie Ass: Toilet of the Dead is intensely vulgar, crass, and frequently grotesque to a point that it might make some weaker viewers puke.
Sadly, there is no English audio because there are probably no English voice actors who are willing to read the script and have Zombie Ass: Toilet of the Dead on their IMDB profile.
A hammy English dub could have gone a long way in punching up the already outrageous dialogue. The default subtitles seem faithful and read naturally; there is no extraneous linear notes and sentences are concise.
Zombie Ass: Toilet of the Dead is a fast paced film that rarely pumps the breaks, constantly throwing wild imagery at the viewer. It’s a densely packed freak show of poopie, panties, gore and violence that rarely slows down. The few instances the film calms down, the director punctuates the moments with entertaining over-the-top acting.
If you got the guts (or the stomach), Zombie Ass: Toilet of the Dead is highly recommended viewing. In the oeuvre of Noburo Iguchi, this ranks high and is on par with the likes of Machine Girl. Zombie Ass is one of the few high concept movies that delivers on its insane promises and spectacle.
Zombie Ass: Toilet of the Dead was reviewed with a DVD acquired by Niche Gamer. You can find additional information about Niche Gamer’s review/ethics policy here. Zombie Ass: Toilet of the Dead is available on DVD and is streaming on Screambox.
