Manga
Round like a circle in a spiral
I have always found horror fiction interesting although I prefer psychological horror over the visceral variety (gore and violence). While the splatter genre of horror presents the frailties of the human body, psychological horror, on the other hand, plays upon the frailties of the human psyche.
I have learned recently of yet another subgenre of horror, Lovecraftian horror, which emphasizes the fear of the unknown (or the unknowable). I was reading about this at Wikipedia when I came across the article for mangaka Junji Ito, whose works are said to have Lovecraftian influences. One of his works intrigued me: a story of a town haunted by a pattern, the spiral. I looked it up and slowly I was drawn into the vortex that is Uzumaki.
In Uzumaki, we follow high school student Kirie Goshima as she witnesses the strange occurrences that befell upon the small town of Kurôzu-cho. First, her boyfriend’s dad develops a morbid fascination towards spirals, to the point of contorting his own body into that shape. Things soon become more and more bizarre: his wife mutilates her own cochlea, people turn into snails, and a typhoon falls in love with the protagonist. It’s as if life’s banality is slowly being stripped away, revealing a reality so sinister it defies all logic.
Uzumaki does not rely on traditional horror elements (demons, monsters, aliens and what-have-you’s) and although there are some body horror, the manga evokes fear through the unknown and the unexpected. After all, who would’ve thought that the simple spiral could bear a curse?
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8 comments for “Round like a circle in a spiral”
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The Rotating Blogroll
That’s some pretty creepy visuals nonetheless. ^_^
Always glad to see someone speak highly of horror.
The feeling you describe is often the only one that truly scares me when I watch horror — not just that what is on the other side is unknowable, but also completely unstoppable. Nothing humans do will be able to help them escape their fate; we’re ant-sized in our ultimate influence over a universe that is uncaring about us.
Not every horror story with non-human, unstoppable forces is scary (the Final Destination flicks, for instance, are just retarded lol), but when a story nails the cold inevitability of a cruel, dispassionate fate, it is truly chilling.
There’s one moment in Mononoke’s final arc I always think of (which is the only moment in anime to have scared me recently): Show ▼
I got chills just writing about it!
Your first paragraph absolutely nails why I enjoy psychological ‘headf***’-style stories but get bored to tears by teen slashers and shockers. Ito’s take on horror I think works very well because it uses such innocuous things and has such simple premises that make you wonder why nobody thought of them first. Simple yet oh, so effective!
I found Uzamaki to be more datisfying than Gyo, mainly because it’s more inventive and less reliant on the straightforward gut reaction of disgust and revulsion. The Riddle of Amigara Fault, on the other hand, is very short but fiendishly clever…not to mention wonderfully creepy.
I had no idea Ito’s style is ‘Lovecraftian’…guess I ought to read some Lovecraft, then. ^_^
@Ryan A
Yup, the visuals are pretty and creepy indeed!
@Shinmaru
According to Wikipedia, helplessness and hopelessness is a theme of Lovecraftian horror. The protagonist may temporarily run away from the horror but in the long run, no matter what they do, there is no escape from it. That is the case with Uzumaki, Kirie and the other characters were able to survive some incidents but in the end, they realize they are completely powerless against such a grand force.
Man is wont to finding solutions but situations depicted in these kind of horror drives the realization that man is all too frail.
And yeah, Final Destination may have the same premise but it is retarded. Besides, it focuses more on the gore than the futility of escaping fate.
@Martin
I definitely agree! Simple, ubiquitous things provide unexpected yet effective sources of horror. I will check out The Riddle of Amigara Fault and other of Ito’s works. Can you recommend any other manga that has the same feel as that of Ito’s?
@absolute0: iirc Ito was inspired by Kazuo Umezu, but sadly I haven’t read any of his work so can’t vouch for any similarity. I’ve read some reviews of the Drifting Classroom though, which is apprently a classic of horror manga. I think that’s a good place to start.
I love this, I’ve never read a manga by Junji Ito that I dislike! A friend leant me a copy of Uzumaki in Uni, the movie is pretty good too!
i love this