You know, as I was trying to decide what film I’d watch next on Cultober, a thought came to mind. There just wasn’t enough anime trash for this year. And that is where 1987’s Wicked City comes in. This marks the first animated horror film I’ve talked about on here, and what a one to start with. I would have gone with Vampire Hunter D, but how could I pass on the chance to talk about the film that may have started the genre of tentacle hentai……. Oh, what’ve I gotten myself into



Taking place in Japan because of course, the human world coexists with an alternate dimension known as the Black World, where humans with disturbing abilities that allow them to change their bodies and shapes in horrifying body horror fashion exist. A peace treaty is prepared to bring peace between the two worlds, but a Black World terrorist group known as the Radicals plan to stop that. In the human world, a group called The Black Guards exist in the hopes of stopping them and making sure the peace treaty goes off without a hitch, following the human Black Guard Taki, and his partner, a Black World woman and victim of a lot of messed up rape scenes, Makie, as they deal with the dangerous group of Radicals. And this film is very, very… erotic. And not in the arousing way.
A lot of sex goes on in this movie, but never in a pleasing way, let me tell you. Nine times out of then, the end result of most sex scenes are a Black World Radical trying to kill a human, either by their vagina turning into a mouth with teeth, a woman sucking a man into her melted body, and a giant fleshy mass using its tentacles on a woman… Yeah, this film is fucked. I mean, I can admire some of the creative ways the entities morph their bodies to kill their target, but it’s mostly hidden behind a lot of disturbing sex scenes. Maybe the film was going for a sort of fear of sex, like how Jaws made the water scary or how Nightmare on Elm Street made sleeping scary, so perhaps Wicked City would make sex scary. But we already have a film like that. It’s called It Follows. Thankfully, there are enough grotesque body horror without sex scenes to at least keep you interested, like eyeballs growing mouths and rib cages being used as giant bear traps. It’s pretty neat how far they go, so that’s well done.
That being said, the writing for this film isn’t that great. The romance between Taki and Makei is the typical Romeo and Juliet forbidden love story. If you’ve seen one, chances are, you’ve seen them all, and Wicked City doesn’t exactly do anything new with it. And then there’s this one old man character that they have in the film that is just annoying as can be. He does serve a purpose, at least at the last minute of the film, but a majority of it is him being a rude asshole who creeps on women and just leaves the area to do his own thing and make problems for everyone else. And the villain is probably as uninteresting as they get. Like, come on, you couldn’t have done anymore than that?
Wicked City is a decent neo noir horror film, if you are really that hungry for a collaboration of the genre. It’s scary enough, the animation is impressive, and it can be enjoyed on a level where the basic writing and plot won’t get in the way too much. Just be prepared to stomach a lot of messed up sex scenes, because this movie has a lot of them. If you’re looking for a change of pace in your October movie marathon, consider giving Wicked City a try.