Infection

Second to movies about zombies, are movies from Japan. The Japanese can make one hell of a fucked up movie that will give you nightmares and make you more afraid of long wet hair than you ever thought possible. I have several favorites from Japan, but the one that gets me the most is Infection. I have watched it at least 8 times and can still make no sense out of it, not for a lack of trying, but I don’t think you are supposed to really understand it you know?

The movie takes place in a hospital that is losing funding. Just a guess, but it may have to do with the fact that there are only 5 rooms in this hospital, 4 nurses, 2 doctors and a dude who can’t suture for shit. Anyway, an emergency comes into the hospital from an ambulance who is trying desperately to find somewhere to dump its patient who is suffering from an unusual rash. The doctor on duty that there is no more room and to take the man elsewhere, and is then called to one of the 5 rooms in the hospital for an emergency. He arrives to the room of a burn victim who rolled to the floor. I thought a burn victim had to be in a sterile room? Mental note, do not spontaneously combust in Japan. While trying to resuscitate the patient, a nurse makes a fatal error with the chloride that was injected into the man. They decide that this mistake will cost the rest of their funding, and decide collectively to cover up the cause of death by speeding up the blood chemistry.

At this time, they notice that the body from the ambulance was deposited in the hallway and was not removed after being refused admittance. A third doctor arrives and suggests that they should study the rash man’s symptoms as he is currently turning into green jelly. After some hesitation, they agree, but by this time, the goo guy has disappeared. And one by one, the staff begin to act unusually having succumb to the “infection” that was spread by goo guy. The events escalate and nothing makes sense after the first half of the movie.

Why do I like this movie so much? I have crappy taste I know, but it was so different from the other J-Horror I have seen. There was no stringy hair or guttural noises on the other end of a cell phone, and the US has not yet re-made this film. I thought it was visually disturbing and claustrophobic, the wonderful twist at the end which removed any possibility of understanding anything that I watched, just made this the perfect movie for me.