Door review.
Screambox scares up an underseen Japanese horror gem. Door is a consistently intense and harrowing home invasion movie. A classic waiting for you to discover it.
Classic movie reviews will contain spoilers.
Streaming exclusively on Screambox October 24.
Door
Directed by Banmei Takahashi
Written by Ataru Oikawa and Banmei Takahashi
Starring Keiko Takahashi, Daijirô Tsutsumi, Shirô Shimomoto, Takuto Yonezu, Masao Ishida and Yoshihiro Shimada
Door Review
We tend to think of home invasion movies as one specific thing. A story where a person (or group of people) infiltrates someone’s home and threatens them with violence. Inevitably…the hostage(s) fight back. There are, of course, variations on this…but for simplicities sake…that’s about the long and the short of it. Many horror films employ this concept. Obvious examples like The Strangers and The Purge make the whole film out of it. Others utilize it as a piece of a larger puzzle. Scream begins with Drew Barrymore’s Casey Becker dealing with a home invader. The Texas Chain Saw Massacre’s first half includes a reverse home invasion…as teens in search of gas infiltrate Leatherface’s farmhouse. Door eventually becomes that kind of home invasion movie in its final act…but it does something more interesting and unsettling with the concept before it gets there.
Yasuko (Keiko Takahashi) is a stay-at-home wife and mother. Her husband is often away for work and her son is a bit of a handful. The bigger issue is the relentless annoyances of solicitors and salesman that call throughout the day…or knock on the door. When Yamakawa (Daijirô Tsutsumi) is a little too pushy, trying to jam pamphlets into Yasuko’s slightly opened door, she slams his fingers in the door. Now…her troubles have just begun.
We always preface our movie reviews with a note about spoilers. Traditionally, movies released more than six months prior to the review will be full of them. There’s rarely a reason not to treat them as such. These retrospective reviews are more about discussing a classic film’s place in genre history than providing a recommendation. Door is a little different. Despite the warning about spoilers in the introduction…we’re going to do our best to avoid them in the body of this review. That may seem strange for a 35-year-old movie…but Door has not traditionally been available in the United States. At least…it hasn’t been easily accessible. Screambox brings it to western audiences for the first time…complete with a fresh remaster.
It doesn’t take long for Door to introduce the slow building tension that it will create throughout the movie. After getting his hand slammed in the door…Yamakawa repeatedly kicks it. Loud banging over and over as Yasuko cowers in fear on the floor of her empty apartment. It’s a long, lingering image accompanied by a soundtrack of anger and violence. As mentioned, Door will inevitably get to the invasion aspect of its home invasion. It spends the first two acts infiltrating Yasuko’s mind instead.
If you read anything about Door prior to watching it for yourself…you’re likely to see people talking about the last 20 minutes of the film. There’s a good reason for that. The final act of the story is Door at its most violent and action packed. The payoff to the build providing what’s expected of a home invasion movie…with a lot of style and memorable imagery. With respect to the film’s great finale…it works so well because of the hour that precedes it.
Yasuko is relentlessly harassed by Yamakawa. Not in a physical sense (at least not yet). In a psychological one. Due to the door between them, Yasuko doesn’t know what her stalker looks like. Yamakawa knows much more than that about his target. He repeatedly taunts her over repeated phone calls with his knowledge of her, her husband…and her son. He’s always watching her. He knows her every move…something he never hesitates to let her know.
Yasuko has more to worry about than her own safety. She must protect a son who doesn’t understand what is going on. He won’t stay quiet when the situation calls for it…he won’t even stay in the safety of the apartment when he would rather keep a playdate. With her husband away on business (and not helpful anyway) Yasuko is completely trapped. Her stalker takes every opportunity to make her feel uneasy. Graffiti on her door, constant phone calls, letting her know he’s always close by when she is simply trying to bring in the morning paper.
Door is as relentless as Yamakawa is. It doesn’t take a break to make you think things are going to calm down for a while. Once that banging sound starts…Door doesn’t let up until its blood-soaked conclusion. Takahashi spends much of the movie alone on screen…reacting to her antagonist’s latest taunt. Trying to hold things together for her son. She turns in an incredibly realistic performance. Tsutsumi matches her with a patient, menacing performance that you know will inevitably explode into something more unhinged.
And it does. In that final act that deserves every bit of the credit that it received. There are some filming techniques here that appear to be far ahead of their time. Think the overhead view of a recent John Wick scene. They also borrow some from other films (see: The Shining) but it has an energy all its own. A fittingly wild conclusion to the simmering thriller that precedes it.
It also has a chainsaw. Every movie should have a chainsaw.
Scare Value
Door is a true uncovered gem. It grips you early and builds relentless tension. When it finally boils over in the final act…Door pours on the violence and brutal imagery. Two standout lead performances ensure that this relatively small film lands big swings. One of the best home-invasion type movies ever made. It just happened to take 35 years for western audiences to get to see why.
4.5/5
Door Link
Streaming on Screambox
