User Reviews

"Stacy" is one of those films for which a critique is impossible. You can't discuss it on the same terms as a mainstream film, or even a b-movie. Filmed on video and populated with actors who range from passable to ridiculously bad, it plays more like a daytime soap opera. Think "Dark Shadows" with zombies instead of vampires, and Japanese actors. The gore effects are hideous but not realistic, and are not to be taken seriously for the most part (although some shots are horrific in their conception, like the top half of a body severed at the waist, dragging itself out of a barrel and crawling toward a victim, intestines trailing behind it). It's the kind of film where the "severed" hands that are supposed to be writhing around in a disembodied state are simply filmed in close-up for all the action shots; the decapitated heads that show realistic movement are all curiously sitting stock-still on tables big enough to hide an actor underneath.

It's cheaply made and acted, often technically crude, but damn, that STORY. In case you clicked on this review first, I will summarize: a worldwide plague has developed. Girls from ages 15-17 are stricken. They develop "Near Death Happiness", which makes them manic until they die suddenly. After death, they are resurrected as flesh-eating zombies, which are called "Stacies". Each Stacy must then be dismembered into 126 pieces in order to "Repeat Kill" it.

There are more details, such as the fact that the world's population is obviously drastically reduced due to this phenomenon. Each Stacy should be killed by someone who loves her, but if nobody can bring themselves to do this, the Romero Repeat Kill squad is called in. Countering this is a vigilante-type trio who call themselves "The Drews" because they worship Drew Barrymore. Still with me? I should also mention that "Stacy" is a love story. A lonely puppeteer named Shibukawa is 'befriended' by soon-to-be-Stacified Eiko. Eiko is already in a state of Near Death Happiness, and she enlightens Shibukawa's life by tinkling a little wind chime and gifting him with his own Bruce Campbell chainsaw to cut her up with when she turns into a Stacy. There's also a subplot involving the Romero Repeat Kill squad, who have suddenly decided that they can't tolerate the chopping up of Stacies and begin to weep during their job. Not enough for you? Throw in a mad scientist experimenting on the Stacies.

Already squarely in the realm of parody, "Stacy" truly veers off into the absurd near its conclusion, where the Stacies are finally understood. They reanimate because they seek love, and the eating of human flesh is a means to gain that love. Eiko goes off the deep end in a seemingly unending soliloquy about...well, see if you can figure out what her speech is about, I couldn't. All a Stacy wants is love, apparently. If you stick with the movie until the very end, you'll discover that they find it, too.

For some reason, this movie really sticks with you. Not only because it is so insane, but there's something else, too. One of Shibukawa's puppet shows (the only one we see, actually) involves a story about a little boy and his cat. It's oddly compelling, and when it was linked to the love between he and Eiko, I was really bummed for a second. OK, a split second, because then she went all Stacy, which looks really silly in this movie.

Heavily influenced by Romero's Dead trilogy and Raimi's The Evil Dead, but with a distinctive Japanese flavour all of its own, Stacy is a very bloody, but also rather confusing tale which combines two of my favourite things: hot Japanese schoolgirls and the living dead. Unfortunately, the unfathomable story and a few dull moments stop this from being the completely satisfying and outrageous gore-fest that I was hoping for.

For some unknown reason, girls between the ages of 15 and 17 are falling victim to a disease which at first makes them euphoric, but eventually turns them into flesh-hungry zombies, nicknamed Stacys. Special units are set up to deal with these walking dead—Romero Repeat Kill squads—although close relatives are also legally allowed to dispose of their reanimated shuffling loved ones. In order to stop a Stacy, one must chop them up into 165 pieces, a job requiring some pretty hardcore hardware (the top-selling Blues Campbell 2 chainsaw, for example).

This strange set-up is fun for a while, with lots of cute teenagers (in Japanese schoolgirl outfits) being shot, hacked up and reduced to twitching bloody body-parts. The plot then gets even more strange: a puppeteer falls for a girl already in the 'happy' stage, and is asked to be the one to chop her up when the time comes; a young man working in a complex that experiments on Stacys hopes to find one particular specimen (his girlfriend Momo) and take her away before she is operated on; three sexy girls set up an illegal freelance disposal service, using nunchakus, a machine gun and a samurai sword to deal with the dead; and a crazy scientist discovers the reason behind the whole epidemic—it turns out that love seems to be the cause of the problem.

I've no doubt that there is some subtext, message or moral behind this ridiculous plot, (as has been suggested in other comments), but I'm afraid it wasn't clear to me. I was left confused by the whole thing—a shame, because I really enjoyed the gratuitous gore scenes.

One thing that can be said for the Japanese: Nobody makes zombie movies like they do.

Sure, anyone can make a zombie movie. How else would you explain the horde of Godawful zombie movies that flood the DVD market. But the Japanese do it differently. Their zombie movies have a indescribable humor (maybe it's a cultural thing? I don't know.) They have a way with bloodshed. They have a manic sensibility. And most of all, they are different. Even a nearly unwatchable piece of crap like "Attack Girls' Swim Team vs. The Undead" (great title though) benefits from the fact that you can say "Well, that was different. Terrible, but different." That's exactly what "Stacy" is: different.

The plot deals with an epidemic of schoolgirls being infected with N.D.H., or "Near Death Happiness." Any schoolgirl who encounters this is indescribably happy-and then they become nearly unstoppable flesh eating zombies, or "Stacys." Still with me? I hope so, because it gets stranger.

Anyways, there's a girl with N.D.H. named Eiko (Natsuki Kato) who befriends a puppeteer named Nozomi (Tomoka Hayashi), who agrees to sleep by her side until she gets the munchies for brains. Oh, and there's references to "Day of the Dead" and "The Evil Dead" trilogy (there's a hand chainsaw called "The Blues Campbell's Right Hand 2, which is modeled by a girl in a bunny suit,) a team of renegade Zombie Killing schoolgirls called "The Drew Illegal Repeat Kill Squad" (named so because they love Drew Barrymore), a doctor (Yasutaka Tsutsui) with some serious issues, and more.

I did not make any of that up.

While the references to other horror movies can get old, and the whole thing does get too goofy for it's own good, there is something oddly endearing about "Stacy." It's got tons of gore (none of it convincing, but it still has it's charms), a really odd sense of humor, an fun rock score, and an infectious energy to it. In a lot of ways, this is one of the most Troma like movies that studio never made. It's the exact movie flicks like "ThanksKilling" and their ilk keep trying to do, but can't get right.

It's also a satire of Japanese Pop Culture. The whole thing essentially plays like a rip on Japanese teen entertainment, and the overly sentimental, mushy clichés that plague it. Proclamations of love and syrupy rock music are interrupted by a swipe of a chainsaw and plenty of gore. There's little here that's sentimental at all in fact.

It may not be perfect, and it might not translate well to western audiences, but "Stacy" is something that must be seen to be appreciated or believed. You may or may not enjoy it, but it sure is different.

A lot of people hate on this film, but I enjoyed STACY for what it is - a goofy and uneven Japanese zombie film that makes pretty much NO sense - bit is still kinda "fun". The story-line is uneven and nonsensical, the acting is typical (bad) for this sort of low-budget splatter, but the gore and gags are plentiful, and there is a "carefree"-ness to the whole production that makes it a breezy watch...

The basic plot is that 15-17 year old girls all over the world are inexplicably turning into zombies that are referred to for some unknown reason as Stacys. No real reason is ever given for this epidemic - but really, who the hell cares? Anyone who has seen a lot of Asian horror films should know not to question these things. STACY centers mostly around a shy puppet maker and a young soon to be "Stacy" who requests that Puppet-man kill her when the time comes for her to turn into a zombie, which she says will happen in the next week or so. As they "pal around" together waiting for the inevitable "change" - they grow a deep bond, but know that their love won't last because zombie/human love can be a messy thing...There are some other "sub-plots" involving a zombie killing assault team, and a group of young pre-Stacy vigilante girls who also kill zombies (albeit illegally...) - but the main focus of the film is Puppet-man and his future Stacy "girl-friend"...

There's plenty wrong with this film, so I can't fault the people that don't get into it. The plot is ridiculous and often makes zero sense or contradicts itself entirely, and the love-story angle often takes itself a little too seriously given the overall "goofy" tone of the film. But there are plenty of decent things as well - the gore is strong, with heads being blown off, severed limbs, gut munching - basically all the things you would expect from an Asian zombie film. There are some funny references to some classic American horror films - like the Bruce Campbell chainsaw, and the Romero Repeat-Kill team. Not a "great" film by any means - but a fun way to blow an hour and a half. Recommended to gore and Asian horror fans. 7.5/10

Like most online reviews, the Synapse DVD packaging describes Stacy as a comical splatter-fest in the vein of "Evil Dead 2" an "Brain Dead": a basically good-natured belt of ghoulish bad taste delivered on a dollar- store budget. Zombie schoolgirls vs. chainsaws, what's not to like?

While that description is generally accurate, it misses some crucial subtext, normalizing and underselling a remarkably strange film. Stacy may trade in the mechanics and visuals of a traditional zombie flick, but its primary goal seems to be a disturbing sort of social satire. Director Naoyuki Tomomatsu uses his zom-com framework to explore the fetishized image of the "schoolgirl" in Japanese popular culture, ultimately seeming to suggest that there's little distance between pedophilic adoration and murder.

In Stacy's world, all teenage girls have become infected with a mysterious disease. This condition initially manifests itself in "Near Death Happiness", a honeymoon period which causes the afflicted to behave in a deliriously happy, seemingly love-struck fashion. After a short time, however, she suddenly dies, only to rise again as a flesh- hungry, undead "Stacy".

Near Death Happiness (or "NDH") is our first clue that Stacy is not quite so one-dimensional a film as the crude horror comedy trappings suggest. To put it simply, NDH makes young women behave like representations of the "magical girl" character type in Japanese manga and anime. Those exhibiting the condition laugh and giggle constantly, twirling their skirts and flirting with childish naivete. Their skins exude a "Butterfly Sparkle Powder" that makes them glisten in the sun and glow in the dark. They wear ridiculous lolita-fetish finery and carry supernatural totem objects symbolizing their innocence. In other words, Near Death Happiness transforms ordinary teenage girls into mindless reflections of mediated desire.

Around this core, the filmmakers string intersecting riffs on girl-love, transgression and murder. Although Stacy is organized in the scattershot manner of a sketch comedy program, every plot thread eventually becomes a love story. Every character is motivated by a desperate hunger for affection, and this hunger typically resolves in murder - murder either of or by the beloved. Much of this is funny, some of it oddly touching, and certain moments (such as a scene wherein a heartbroken mass murderer of little girls is forgiven by the ghosts of his still-devoted victims) are deeply disturbing.

At the heart of the film, separate from all the bloody zombie action, is a stand-alone narrative arc that traces the growing fondness between an older man and a 16-year-old girl. This story functions as a sort of framing device, providing structure to an otherwise digressive collection of asides. In this mini-film, we follow a clearly pedophilic - yet chastely platonic - relationship from its inception to the moment where the man can no longer hide his forbidden feelings. At this point, he takes the girl into a public garden (at night) to "tell her" the secret. His climactic revelation is presented as a an absurdly overstated act of heroism and triumph: beautiful, soaring and oddly tragic.

In the morning, however, the little girl is (somehow) dead, and her would-be lover is left to tidy the mess of his failure. Stacy presents all this as a polemic of sorts, an impassioned commentary on the destructive consequences of repression - with the corollary suggestion that confession permits positive change and transformation. Within this ostensibly inspiring moral, however, lies the revolting suggestion that pedophilic desire necessitates murder, and that this isn't such a bad thing, really. Though any film so slapdash and deliberately perverse will always remain open to interpretation, Stacy seems to imply that homicide is the most authentic form of love-transaction that can exist between older men and little girls.

Sort of... The filmmakers toy with a number of interesting (and unnerving) ideas, but the end result is a complete mess: a ramshackle assemblage of juvenile jokes, lurid shocks and cheap provocations. Stacy's tongue is always firmly in cheek. As a result, any attempt at "serious" interpretation is probably doomed from the start. Which is fine. I prefer that my examinations of cultures and dreams remain a bit inconclusive. Seems more humane that way.

Anyway, I dig it. Funny, gross, clever, stupid, surreal and even strangely moving. Stacy is creepy in ways that most movies (hell, most art forms) wouldn't dare touch with a ten-foot pole. The final moments blatantly suggest that a happy utopia could be achieved if only men were allowed to love "Stacys" (i.e., teenage schoolgirls) in peace, without harassment or shame. Then they wouldn't need to murder in order hide their affections. How's that for a f**ked-up "moral" in a zombie- splatter-comedy?

In the near future - 20XX? - every girl between the ages of 14 and 16 years old begins to experience NDH - Near Death Happiness - a period of immense joy before dying and becoming a Stacy, or a zombie, which must be chopped into pieces in a process called Repeat-Kill by the garbage truck driving Romero Repeat-Kill Troops, so you know exactly where this film's tongue is at.

Loved ones are also the only people legally allowed to Repeat-KIll a Stacy and they're being marketed to by companies who make a chainsaw that fits right on your hand, the Blues Campbell's Right Hand 2.

This movie has way more heart than I thought it would. It also has barrels full of body parts.

Director Naoyuki Tomomatsu also made Kyûketsu Shôjo tai Shôjo Furanken (Vampire Girl vs. Frankenstein Girl) and Kimi Wa Zonbi Ni Koishiteru (Bite Me If You Love Me), as well as Scissorpenis and Future Century Amazons, which I just watched and umm...yeah. It's something.

School girls die and turn into zombies that require repeat killings. Ergo we have the Romero Repeat killers (George Romero) who are authorized to do repeat killings. There is the Drew Illegal repeat kill girls named after Drew Barrymore. A good weapon for repeat kill is the "Bruce Campbell Chainsaw Right Hand 2."

The movie includes severed body parts that quiver and move about. Campy by design.

Guide: No f-bombs, sex, or nudity.

Okay, so here's your premise. A bunch of nubile Japanese girls running around in the stereotypical schoolgirl outfits with lots of potential for violence and teen sex: how could you screw this idea up?!

Well, look no further than Stacy, a movie built more around odd voice overs rather than the typical tenants that drive the zombie film genre. The idea was there: girls turning into flesh-eating creatures coupled with dark sinister overtones of Fascism and pre-apocalyptic tension. Unfortunately, the production had the budget of a film school short and relied heavily on ridiculous single-shot scenes that dragged on forever. The production looked shabby at best, and the acting was hammy even for a foreign film.

To make matters worse, the ending absolutely made no sense, and the bad gore scenes couldn't make up for all of the downfalls to the film.