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Stacy Director: Naoyuki Tomomatsu Number of Items: 1 Format: Color, Widescreen Audience Rating: Unrated Running Time: 80 minutes Studio: Wea Corp Product Group: DVD Release Date: 2003-07-22 Buy from Amazon

Customer Reviews: Total numer of reviews: 24 Average rating: 3.5 "An interesting new twist on the Zombie horror subgenre" "Stacy" is a movie that few people who watch it seem to really "get," and I can hardly hold that against them. It does hold a very interesting concept underneath its mindless gore and bizarre characters. A strange phenomenon is causing girls age 15-17 all over the world to die and come back as flesh eating zombies. Before they die, they are overcome by something called NDH (Near Death Happiness) which causes them to run around acting giddy and lovestruck, and giggling with delight at everything they see. After they die, their friends and family members are asked to chop them up into little pieces before they are brought back to life as something called a "Stacy." I'm not a great fan of Zombie horror. However, I can appreciate this as a new take on the whole thing. The zombie gore is fun, if you're into that sort of thing. But what made this movie so interesting to me was the whole reason why the teen girls became zombies, and that's that part that's easy to miss. Near the end, the mad doctor studying the "Stacies" says, "I finally know what brings you to life. It's love." If it sounds like I ruined the ending for you, I haven't. This seems like a big explanatory scene near the end of a horror film, except that it makes no sense whatsoever. But as you may know (and you probably do, if you looked up this title), Asian horror doesn't usually have an explanation for everything the way American horror does. And Stacy is no exception. There's much more to it than just that. The image of a young woman in a school uniform represents an idealized image of female sexuality that doesn't exist. The disease these girls suffer from is caused by (male) society's obsession with a feminine ideal. When the girls first become infected, they act like mindless bimbos, giggling and professing their love for any man who walks toward them. This goes on for a while, until this cultural stereotype kills them, and they are reborn, transformed from nearly mindless bimbos into literally mindless zombies. As it is stated over and over again in the film, the girls have a natural desire to be loved. As if forced by evolution, the girls move toward the mindless state that will allow them to be loved. In short, this film is a metaphor for idealized images of submissive women, and how dangerous those images can be to girls. Having said all that, this movie is incredibly goofy. I wouldn't blame you if you watched this and failed to see the depth I just described. But that's what I came away with. There are some fun zombie scenes, and the unusual premise makes for some wacky characters. By far my favorite were the three teenage girls who formed an illegal "repeat kill" agency they named after their idol, Drew Barrymore. They contact families who can't bring themselves to chop up their dead daughters, and do it themselves, for a fee. Their goal is to save enough money to pay their favorite star to "repeat kill" them after they die. The girls want to die by the hand of someone they love. When one of them giggles, someone makes a remark to her about "NDH," and she gets very defensive and belligerent. I interpret this, not so much as a fear of dying, but a defiance of what is happening to her. Despite the fact that this comes from a desire to be "loved," she does not want to become what a male dominated society wants her to be. NDH may be a certain "happiness," but she would rather live as a real person with real feelings and ideas. And since she can't, she wishes to be repeat killed, instead of living in a mindless state. I quite liked this film, although I can't give it a very high rating, because sometimes it just gets way too silly. The "I think I'm at my prettiest" speech just makes you go, "huh?" All in all, this is much better than average cheap, gross out special effects zombie movies. If you're one of those zombie purists who hates zombie movies that don't stick to the arbitrary zombie movie rules, stay away. But if you want a low budget movie with something different, I'd recommend it, because horror movies don't get much more different than this. "Schoolgirl zombies, roar." Stacy: Attack Of The Schoolgirl Zombies directed by Naoyuki Tomomatsu 2001, 80 mins. Stacy is a movie about, you guessed it, Stacy. Or well, Stacies, actually. Teenage girls, aged 15-17, somehow just die after experiencing some kind of Near Death Happiness. After dying, they turn into, yup, zombies. (the title didn't really give that one away, did it?) They demand to be chopped up into 165 pieces to be 're-killed'. This is what the 'story' revolves around, although the story is not really of any importance, or so it seems. We see a girl who (unconvincingly) experiences the earlier mentioned Near Death Happiness and then goes on the look for someone to chop her up when she dies and turns into a zombie (uh). She finds a puppet-maker, Shibu, who agrees to kill her. Another (sub?)plot revolves around a guy whose sister has become a Stacy (he had to kill her after that) and therefore joins Romero, the special unit that kills the Stacies. It's quite confusing, and too pretentious by far, but besides all that, the movie provides a whole lot of fun. Tongue-in-cheek scenes (one involving some kind of TelSell advertisement where a 'Blues Campbell's Right Hand #2' is sold) help to keep your attention to it. The movie isn't really scary (read: not at all), but the gore and fun make up for it. A strong stomach is advised for some scenes, such as the one where a Stacy gets decapitated, and some others where people get devoured quite gruesomely (guts ripped out and such). Watch it if you like zombies, Japanese schoolgirls, or both. mos says: Scares? 0/10 Gore? 7/10 Japanese schoolgirl zombies? 10/10 Fun factor? 7/10 Hundred-n-sixty-five-pieces? Many pieces, but not 165/10 "Dawn of the Dead meets Japanese school girls" It looks very low budget and no its not really a B movie as IMO, B movies contain nude were this dosn't. I found this movie to be quite funny in a weird and confused way as a lot of stuff didn't seem to fit into the whole picture but it sort of explained in the end. Warning; this movie contains gore galor even if it does look quite fake. Faint at hearts please beware. "Thank you. Forgive me. I love you" There is a whole lotta love in "Stacy." It oozes from every open wound, gushes with every decapitated head, and every chainsaw bite is a kiss. You just know that all the people involved in making this B-Grade schoolgirl zombie flick, from the special effects gang to the director to the screaming ravenous schoolgirls, are fans first and film professionals second, if at all. After all, with "Romero Repeat Kill Squads" running around armed with "Bruce Campbell's Right Hand #2" chainsaws, it is pretty easy to see the influences. Unfortunately, while a film made by a bunch of fans has its charms, the quality isn't really up to snuff in most areas. Chainsaws rip through puppets with all the realism of an episode of "South Park." It looks to have been shot on digital video rather than film, which doesn't help the amateur look. The acting, with a few exceptions such as the lovely Natsuki Kato as Eiko, is pretty much what you would expect. If you can forgive all that, however, "Stacy" is a surprisingly charming and incredibly quirky love story mixed into a messy zombie flick. Much like Miike Takeshi's "Happiness of the Katakuris," which is also a zombie film, director Naoyuki Tomomatsu combined innocence and sweetness with splatter-horror in a winsome combination. There is a perverse sensibility in the story of all girls dying by age 17, after which they are reanimated as flesh-eating monsters. Like Peter Pan, these girls never have to age, never have to grow up. Of course, they are chainsawed into 165 pieces rather than fly around Neverland. But like all such stories, in the end, love conquers all. This is definitely not a film for hard-core zombie buffs, who are looking for some cruel carnage or nudity (of which there is none.) However, anyone who can appreciate something with this much love in it, both in the making and the story, will come away with a whole unexpected and sweet ending. "rent it for the gore" There's plenty. However don't try to make much sense of the story. Like a lot of Japanese horror films it goes off on a weird nonsensical tangent towards the end and I found myself saying over and over again "It's not over yet? It's not over yet?" as I fast forwarded through it. Outside of the buckets and buckets of dismembered body parts, zombies chomping on intestines and a mad scientist's experiments the film, whose last half resembles Day of the Dead, isn't really that good. What promises to be a fun, roller coaster ride of a horror film falls flat on its face focusing on one guy's quest to find his zombie girlfriend and another guy's last days with his soon-to-be zombie girlfriend who has possibly the most annoying laugh ever. Not to mention the irritating, glass bell she carries everywhere she goes. Also, the soundtrack is so inappropriately corny that it detracts from the movie. Instead of some eerie atmospheric music, we get cheesy soft jazz. Whatever! Fast forward to the gory scenes but nevermind the story, it's really not worth the effort.