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So a few years ago I saw a film called Uzumaki. It was a Japanese horror film, one of the creepier, more bizarre movies I’d ever seen. The movie was about a town obsessed with spirals; that odd, repeating pattern that occurs often in nature and human art. The movie featured a variety of weirdness, including a boy who turned into a snail, spiral-patterned cremation smoke and a girl whose hair curled and took on a life of its own. I slept with my head under the covers that night.

I picked up the original Uzumaki manga by Junji Ito because I liked the movie and was curious to see how it differed from the original three-volume story. It differs quite a bit. The plot is mostly the same, though cut quite a bit shorter in the film. The main difference is that the manga is far, far, far more disturbing than the movie.

Kurozu-cho is s small coastal town in Japan, unremarkable in every way. High school girl Kirie has lived there all her life. Her boyfriend Shuichi, however, has other opinions. He attends school in a different town and recently has begun making comments that, compared to the outside world, Kurozu-cho has a strange, oppressive atmosphere.

The town’s spiral obsession begins with Shuichi’s father, who starts collecting snails, springs and fish cakes and spends hours staring at them. Eventually he dies in a gruesome attempt to turn his own body into a spiral (the result is actually indescribable- you just have to see it). The horrible manner of her husband’s death drives Shuichi’s mother insane. She tries to get rid of every spiral she sees, either on or near her- so you can imagine what happens when she learns about the cochlea, the spiral-shaped bone that lies in the inner ear.

Now an orphan, Shuichi becomes convinced that spirals are somehow haunting the town and driving the population mad. He holes up in his family’s house, only popping out long enough to save Kirie from the various spiral-related threats that assail her as the manga progresses.

Kirie’s father, a potter, finds disturbing spiral patterns in his work that he didn’t put there. A high school boy who is teased for being slow transforms into a giant snail. Two young lovers separated by a family feud join together in a human spiral. The pond behind Kirie’s house, the center of much of the phenomena, becomes a permanent whirlpool. A boy is hit by a car and wrapped around the tire. An attention-seeking girl’s hair takes on a curly life of its own and dukes it out with Kirie’s hair, which is similarly infected. In a particularly disgusting incident, the town’s newborns have spiral-shaped umbilical cords, and a freakish intelligence. When they want to return to their mothers’ wombs, no one can stop them.

Kurozu-cho’s spiral obsession becomes weirder and more deadly with every page. After the town is struck by a series of hurricanes (a spiral-shaped storm), rescue workers pour into town, only to find themselves unable to leave. Every time anyone tries to walk out of town they become disoriented and end up back where they started. In a desperate escape attempt Kirie and Shuichi discover how, but the why of the situation escapes them right to the tragic end.

Ito’s original story is tight and suspenseful, though at three volumes it becomes a little monster-of-the-weekish. Luckily, the monsters are so bizarre they really can’t be boring. As with most modern horror stories, Uzumaki has its plot holes- for instance, how does the reclusive Shuichi know exactly when to emerge and save his girlfriend?- but these omissions are easily overlooked; horror, more than any other genre, doesn’t work on logic.

Horror fans will notice the influence of H.P Lovecraft in this manga- people turning into monsters, obsessions with certain objects; even the architecture of a certain setting is reminiscent of Lovecraft’s non-Euclidean geometry. Another obvious influence is Hideshi Hino, a famous and innovative horror mangaka. Hino’s influence is most obvious is Ito’s art- dark, bold lines, bulging eyes, twisted physiques. A spiral is a pattern that forced your eye to follow the swirled lines to the center. So does Ito’s art draw the eye, along grotesquely twisted limbs or curls of smoke, to the center. His character designs are nothing special; his true talent lies in his increasingly grotesque monsters. Ito tosses in some human horror- people resorting to murder and cannibalism to survive the hurricanes- but that’s nothing compared to his supernatural elements.

The characters themselves are regular people caught up in a compulsion they can’t control. You can’t help but feel sympathetic for Kirie; she’s a normal, good-hearted kid, trying to keep her family together as their hometown crumbles around them (and you have to admire how she hangs on to her sanity to the very end). Shuichi is rather creepy, but his characterization as a man obsessed with an obsession is intense.

People who are easily disturbed or sickened may not want to touch Uzumaki. But fans of J-horror will love this classic manga series. At least it will get you noticing the sheer abundance of spirals in your life- start by looking at your fingerprints.

Details

Publisher: Viz
Author: Junji Ito
Pages: 3 volumes
Format: Manga
MSRP: $9.99
Date of Publication: 10/16/2007
Buy: Buy it now!