Blind Beast 2004 Horror Movie Review

Blind Beast opens with a montage of black and white photos of the statuesque second rate model Shima Aki. Unable to find fame through its normal veins, Aki becomes a fetish model for a photographer named Yamana whose photos, mainly consisting of a nude Aki wrapped in chains, bring Aki the fame she desires and her name soon becomes popular amongst the young men of Tokyo. However, it seems that her popularity has brought some unwanted attention as well. One day, Aki goes to the exhibition of her photos, and notices that there is only one man there, a blind man. Of course ignoring her photos, the blind man is busy fondling a statue of Aki until it reaches the point that she can feel his hands on her own flesh.


That night, Aki calls for a masseur whose technique tends to be a bit too touchy on her curvy areas. It is soon revealed that the masseur is the same blind man whom felt up her statue and he and his mom knock her out with a chemical and kidnap Aki. Aki wakes up in a dark room that turns out to be the studio of the blind man. However, instead of normal art, the man has created grotesque, enormous works of sensory organs, eyes, ears, noses, and mouths, and breasts of various sizes and two gigantic figures of women, one supine and one prone. The blind man, Michio, wants to make a statue of Aki: the perfect statue, his life’s work. She, of course, rejects him and plans her escape through manipulating him. However, as time goes on, affection grows like a mushroom in the dark, and deep, hidden desires burst loose encompassing all.


Being that Blind Beast is based on a work by the mystery/horror writer Edogawa Ranpo, and being that it is a film by the controversial director Masumura Yasuzo, I knew that I was going to be in for something twisted and dark, and I was definitely right on that account. However, there is much more to the film than that. It delves into psychology, the mother’s control of her son, and the manifestations of twisted perversities that can be found in most human beings, but remains hidden. Blind Beast brings there perversities to the fore in graphic detail until it is almost painful to watch. While no for the squeamish, Blind Beast makes for a great psychological brain scrambler.