The world is in a state of discord. Famine, wars and zero population growth have been caused by a pandemic which makes teenage girls turn into Zombies. Girls between the ages 15 to 17 enter into a state known as NDH (Near Death Happiness), an euphoric phase that lasts for one week before they die. They become covered with a substance known as  BTP (butterfly twinkle power), then rise again as "Stacies“. The undead schoolgirls can only be legally killed by their families, their boyfriends or the government's "Romero Repeat Kill Troops". The only sure way to kill a Stacy is to cut her into exactly 165 pieces.

A dolorous puppeteer called Shibukawa (Toshinori Omi), is followed home one day by a cheerful young lady by the name of Eiko (Natsuki Kato), who tells Shibu-san, as she calls him, that she has chosen him to be her executioner when she dies and returns as a Stacy, which judging by her constant cachinnation, is imminent. Meanwhile, Dr. Inugami Sukekiyo (Yasutaka Tsutsui), who has been experimenting on Stacies, makes a startling discovery as to why they return from the dead. 

As much as I enjoy the spectacle of some big budget Hollywood movies, the real gems of recent years have been from American, European and British indie film makers. For many years Japan, China and more recently Korea have produced some fine alternatives to Hollywood’s homogenised horror offerings, but with the massive interest by western audiences quantity has sadly replaced quality in many cases. As with the west, I look to oriental independents for something a little different. With  the promise of flesh eating schoolgirl zombies in Naoyuki Tomomatsu’s Stacy, my attention was piqued. Although the blood flows freely and there are some wonderful gore scenes, Stacy is essentially a comedy, albeit a very black and bizarre one.

There are plenty of heavy handed homage's to horror classics, such as the frequent Romero references and the "Bruce Campbell’s right hand 2" chainsaws, but this lack of subtlety adds to the film’s charm. There are some great characters here; my favourites being the Drew Barrymore obsessed "Drew Illegal Repeat Kill Troops", yummy schoolgirl mercenaries trying to muscle in on the Romero troops action to fund their own inevitable ”repeat killing“. Amongst all of the chaos is a strangely poignant love story between Eiko and the puppeteer that she chose as her eventual ”repeat killer“. Stacy is a splendid combination of humour, gore, romance and downright weirdness. 

Stacy.   2001

Directed by Naoyuki Tomomatsu 

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