Probably one of the strangest trilogies you’ve never heard of, the Yokai Monsters series saw its second installment hit Japanese theatres a mere seven months after the first – the uneven but fun, 100 Monsters. The plot was fairly simple: a cluster of simple folk find themselves on the verge of being thrown out of their homes thanks to the greed of the local magistrate and other, unscrupulous rich folk – however, karma proves to be a bitch when their money grubbing ways leads them to order a local shrine trashed to make way for a brothel and thus incur the wrath of numerous spirits, apparitions and monsters who don’t take kindly to such shit.
However, while original director Kimiyoshi Yasuda plundered somewhat from his other justice obsessed monster movie, Daimajin, he wasn’t around for its “sequel” leaving Lone Wolf And Cub: White Heaven In Hell director, Yoshiyuki Kuroda, to step in and boss those goofy-ass monsters around.
Two treasure hunters discover more than they bargained for when their search of the ruined, Babylonian city of Ur awakens a green, vampiric demon by the name of Daimon. Choosing to make up for thousands of years of sleep, Daimon flies his way over to Japan, instantly sinks his fangs into the neck of samurai, Lord Hyogo Isobe and assumes his form after fatally sucking him dry. His daughter, Lady Chie, and fellow samurai, Shinpachiro Mayama, are noticably alarmed at the change in his demeanor and the fact that he grumpily slaughters the family dog without a word or warning, but matters get even more concerning when “Isobe” suddenly orders every shine in the house destroyed and burnt.
This incurs the interest of the Kappa, a reptilian water imp sleeping in a local pond who sticks his beak into matters and soon finds himself thrown off the property by a raging Daimon who proves far too powerful for one spirit to fight, so after getting his shell handed to him, he seeks out his Yokai peers and asks for help.
A group containing the wise, bao-headed Abura-sumashi, the two-faced Futakuchi-onna, the stetchy-necked Rokurokubi, the ball of living clay known as Nuppeppõ and the freakish, umbrella monster, Kasaobake, promptly inform Kappa that they think he’s bullshitting as they’ve never heard of such a creature as Daimon, but soon change their tune once the demon’s thirst for blood targets women and children.
However, defeating Daimon will prove to be no easy task – one of the Yokai is a fucking umbrella, after all – as the creature’s magic staff gives him near unlimited power to clone himself or even grow the size of a giant. Only a gathering of monsters the likes of which the world has ever seen can possibly hope to stop this blood sucking reign of terror.
If 100 Monsters had a visible flaw, it was that it went oddly light on the monsters, having them appear in stories, flashbacks or weird isolated incidents before having them show up in force at the end to right some societal wrongs like a horde of supernatural trouble shooters. In a total reverse of this, Spook Warfare chooses to shove a handful of Yokai front and centre and make them the main characters instead which ends up feeling like a bizarre pairing of Clive Barker directing an episode of the Banana Splits. While some of the monsters were portrayed as legitimately creepy individuals (the segment containing the giraffe necked Rokurokubi was legitimately eerie), here they’re all bumbling, loveable goofs who argue, bicker and eventually team up to eventually save the day like someone reimagine Nightbreed as a children’s panto.
Simply put, we’ve jumped straight into 70s-era of Gamera levels of ridiculous as these creatures straight out of Japanese folklore now are shuffled together to make a comedic supergroup like something out of a Saturday morning kids cartoon like the Groovy Ghoulies or the Drak Pack (remember them?) and it ends up being something of a trade off. While the movie is far more fast paced than 100 Monsters while certainly giving you more Yokai for your buck, the result is that all the cool ambiance and spookiness basically up and flies right out of the window as so you’re ultimately left with a movie no better or worse, but for wildly different reasons.
However, it’s genuinely refreshing to see a 60s era, Japanese, monster movie, sequel that simply isn’t just a total rerun of the previous movie that comes up with it’s own plot while still keeping true to the basics. While the green, chimney-headed villain, Daimon is utterly different from anything seen in the previous movie, his choice to possess various noblemen in order to flex his dictator muscles still manages to invoke the social injustice of the first while still doing something completely different.
However, despite its obvious, more child-like leanings, the movie still has the impressive production value of the first film, laying out a lush, period feel with expansive sets and atmospheric lighting. Yes, the Yokai themselves still look about as convincing as the sort of monster suits you’d get at a matinee show at a Butlins holiday camp, but they’re still striking designs despite the obvious costume work. Proving to once again be the most memorable is the flailing puppet work of the umbrella-shaped Kasaobake (still the the most outlandish thing the movies have to offer by far) and the limber neck of the Rokurokubi who even gets to go one on one with Daimon and get her prehensile appendage tied in a knot for her troubles. However, the Futakuchi-onna gets points for sporting a memorably strange second face on the back of her head which come complete with a ludicrously long nose with a hand on the end of it while the Nuppeppõ loses a few by simply looking like a giant bollock on legs. However, while the seams show and the creature performers struggle to emote with masks the size of beach balls on their heads, you can’t help but feel for this gang of misshapen misfits and there’s a genuine, childlike sense of triumph when they all team up to take out a Daimon who has grown to the size of King Kong.
If the humans of the first movie were overshadowed by monsters who barely showed up, then the humans of this second movie are now utterly overwhelmed by this entry that probably could have stood with having no humans at all for all the bloody good they do – however, you can’t say that Spook Warfare doesn’t earn its existence by cramming oddball ghosts into your face for the majority of the runtime. If you want scares, you’d be better off returning to the atmospheric creeps of 100 Monsters, but for an unabashed monster parade that’s a eerie as an episode of Nanalan, it’s fun enough.
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