Weird, narratively minor, and deeply Kaiju influenced, Henge would have made an interesting film five or six years before Shinya Tsukamoto's Tetsuo: The Iron Man. That it's now hitting festivals in 2012 seems somewhat ridiculous.
It wouldn't matter so much if this movie sported a real narrative. Instead, Henge lives and diesas a monster film. The film begins as a strange possession tale. A husband screams through the night as his put upon wife longs for some relief. He claims that something is taking over his body. Eventually this manifests with weird limb deformations, first in his leg and then in his arm.
All this stuff is kind of boring and shrill as it amounts to little more than the husband screaming a lot. The film picks up abit in its second part in which the husband transforms fully into a monster which the wife feeds by luring lusty men home, just like in Hellraiser. Why she would do such a thing never gets explained. Or maybe it does, and the film's horrible, strange English subtitles did not communicate it accurately. Either way, we at least get some action to gowith all the screaming here, though it's marred somewhat by ugly, ill-advised CG blood sprays and a stodgy monster design that fails to inspire either awe or interest.
After this part, however, the film really gets going as a full blown Kaiju. The creature still doesn't look like much, butat least he's gigantic. Better yet, his growth seems an involuntary reaction to anger like with FILM CRIT HULK. By the time the film ends, he's nearly touching the moon. So there's that.
Henge's just too slight to consider, not merely for its minuscule running time but forits random sampling of influences which it copies without comment or extension. Why build up to a Kaiju conclusion without using it? Especially when films like Big Man Japan already exist. Why even mess with Tetsuo like imagery when there's already a Tetsuo (three of them, in fact)?
About the Author: Evan Saathoff (known also by such aliases as Sam Strange and Tyler Perry)is News Editor of Badass Digest. He lived in Taiwan for two years and can order several food items in Chinese. Movies are fun,but he prefers Jesus Christ. Close personal friend to the Paranormal Activity Demon. Absurdly handsome. Weird wiener, though.
