COLLECTOR'S CRYPT - THE DAY OF DESTRUCTION (SRS BLU RAY)

Much like any technological disruption, the internet fundamentally changed how we receive entertainment. A day or two ago, I was reminiscing about having to particular order a CD single from a local music store because it wasn’t available in the US. Those of you who are old enough to remember stores like Sam Goody, Musicland, Suncoast, and Tower Records (not accounting for non-chain stores in your local community) may also remember that you could special order things they didn’t carry. Before Amazon when the consumer internet was mostly AOL and chat rooms, getting access to hard-to-find movies and music was something that required patience and hope.  I’ve imported DVDs from Japan, CD singles from Germany, and box sets from other countries when now all I have to do is simply search google and within minutes I’m sure I’ll find what I’m looking for. This kind of convenience makes accessing harder-to-find film a thing of the past (for the most part), and it exposes us to a whole other world of entertainment that is fundamentally different but exponentially more accessible.  This kind of access also means that traditional distribution channels are making it a point to diversify their offerings. If you haven’t noticed, most of your favorite streaming services (Netflix, Amazon, Shudder, etc.) have a healthy amount of non-English content, and they are often trying to recommend it to you, even if it is the kind of content that is most similar to the stuff we have in North America. This brings us to today’s film for the crypt from 2020, THE DAY OF DESTRUCTION which SRS CINEMA has recently put on BLU RAY. Is this horizon-expanding horror a worthy addition to your international horror collection?

WHAT’S IT ABOUT?

A girl finds an old handgun in her attic and the symbolic object conjures a mystical scene of samurai gathering within the moss-grown location of Kasosan Shrine in Tochigi Prefecture. Jump to wintertime, and a man is investigating a mysterious monster that was found deep in a rural coal mine seven years earlier. Since that time, a mysterious plague has spread through the nearby small town, inflicting the residents with a strange mental illness. A young Shugendō, missing for some time, suddenly resurfaces, transformed, intent on exorcising the world from the monsters haunting it

HOW IS IT?

THE DAY OF DESTRUCTION wears its Western and Eastern inspirations on its proverbial sleeve. Invoking aspects of Lynch and Tsukamoto, it is more experimental than narratively driven and doesn’t handhold Western viewers by providing cultural context about the group of people the film centers around. In this way, THE DAY OF DESTRUCTION will absolutely appeal to those who prefer their cinema more avant-garde. People who enjoy horror when it is disorienting and foreign (literally and figuratively) are sure to find more to chew on than the average viewer, but that doesn’t necessarily make it a successful film. 

What’s important to note about the film and its characters is that they subscribe to a religion that is only prevalent in Japan called “Shugendō”. This is important since the film centers around characters who are followers of this belief system, and the film does nothing to introduce the concept to those unfamiliar with it. Not that it is required to enjoy the film, but it does provide some helpful cultural context under which to understand some of what is going on. I found myself pausing the movie a few times just to do some quick googling to see what is being referred to so I can better understand how it relates to the plot. What is important to know is that those who subscribe to “Shugendō” believe in the existence of two worlds; a natural/mortal one and a supernatural one. They also believe that the mountains represent the dividing line between these worlds, and that is about as far as I went with my research. Please forgive any oversimplification, and in hindsight, while this information is helpful it isn’t essential to viewing. That’s because THE DAY OF DESTRUCTION doesn’t really make a whole lot of sense to begin with. What starts as a basic story about a mysterious creature appearing in a mine shaft turns into an epidemic, possibly caused by the creature, that ravages the town and its people. There seem to be two things plaguing this town, the epidemic brought on by the creature and another issue of mental illness. It’s hard to tell if the two are the same or separate since the film never really clarifies that, and moreover, it’s hard to tell just why this all matters.

See, what THE DAY OF DESTRUCTION does well is it creates dread. The whole movie feels absolutely lathered in it, but that dread never seems to really go anywhere. Things happen that don’t make sense and aren’t explained, characters interact with each other but nothing meaningful seems to come of it, and there are parts of the film that stand out simply because they seem so out of place. Take the song that plays throughout the credits. The choice to subtitle the lyrics is not only intentional, but when you read the lyrics and then watch the movie you’re constantly wondering what the hell those politically charged lyrics have to do with what is being shown on-screen. In fact, so much of what is seen in THE DAY OF DESTRUCTION is visually interesting while being totally void of anything similar from a narrative perspective. Clocking in at just over an hour, there isn’t a whole heck to make sense of and as the credits rolled I found myself trying to recall what the hell it is I just watched. And that’s the thing, THE DAY OF DESTRUCTION isn’t a bad movie, it’s just one that I don’t really get. Interesting images and very ambiguous dialogue are not enough to grab the viewer and keep them interested. In fact, while I typically abhor how long movies are now, this is one example where lengthening the film wouldn’t actually clarify anything. Some of this could be due to missing cultural nuance that I don’t have, or maybe it’s intended to disorient. Either way, it’s hard to recommend THE DAY OF DESTRUCTION to anyone except for those who enjoy experimental and disorienting cinema.

HOW DOES IT LOOK?

If you haven’t heard of SRS CINEMA before, you’re probably not looking far enough into the underground. Self-proclaimed “ultra-low budget indie film distributors”, most of their releases are the kinds of gems you can find on Tubi or some of the more offbeat Roku channels. Personally, I’m only marginally familiar with them so I can’t really compare this release to others. That said, THE DAY OF DESTRUCTION is a relatively recent production so the video quality here is as good as to be expected of modern digital. In fact, it’s quite impressive just how high-quality the image here is. This is not as much due to SRS as it is to the production of the film, and it is presented with a widescreen aspect ratio of 1.85:1 in 1080p quality. Images from this release are used throughout this review and are seen below:

HOW DOES IT SOUND?

Much like the visual side of things, the audio here is solid if unsurprising. Nothing to write home about here on the audio encoding, but overall the sounds came through crisp and clear. Most of the film is dialogue and ambient noise, with a handful of action-oriented scenes. Nothing that will give your home theater a workout, but above average for the kind of low-budget release that this is.

ANYTHING SPECIAL?

There isn’t much in the way of special features here, with the main star of the show being a short film the director created prior called Wolf’s Calling. In some ways, Wolf’s Calling is a more approachable film as it dabbles in a more streamlined way of storytelling. Essentially, this is about a woman who finds an antique pistol in her home and we are treated to a flashback as to the origin of that pistol. It’s a surprisingly interesting take on something quite simple, and it shares some of the disorientation with the feature-length film on the same disc. Plenty of Lynchian and Kurosawa-like nods for those who seek to find them, and a full list of the special features on this disc is listed below:

• Trailers

• SRS Trailers

• Bonus Short

LAST RITES

THE DAY OF DESTRUCTION is a hard film to recommend to anyone who prefers films straightforward and acute with storytelling. For those that like to traverse the more ambiguous and obtuse sides of world cinema, there may be more to enjoy here, for the most experimental of collectors only!

THE GORY DETAILS

Thank you to the fine fiends at MVD ENTERTAINMENT for providing a review copy of BECKY for the crypt. BECKY is available NOW via MVD DIRECT

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