Search - The Last Coffin on DVD

Crossword killer

Zack Davisson | Seattle, WA, USA | 08/04/2008

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Japanese V-cinema can be pretty hit and miss. Low budgets and amateur actors and directors can make for either a muddled mess or cutting edge excitement. You really need a good story to pull it off, or else a director was such mad skills that they can create something from nothing. Neither of those is happening here.

"The Last Coffin" is much more of a suspense flick than a horror flick. It all starts with a cell phone crossword puzzle game, with each correct answer advancing you towards another "coffin". When you solve the last clue, a congratulations message tells you that you have reached "the last coffin", and then a big hooded man comes for you. Congratulations, you are now dead.

In the middle of this are two girls, both dropped off at an orphanage after suffering abuse, then followed up by more abuse at the orphanage. Somehow they are involved in "The Last Coffin" games and murders, and that is where the mystery lies. (No nudity or any real gore in this film, so don't get your hopes up!)

Good things about "The Last Coffin"? The film has a solid cast, including the very attractive Komine Rena (Sodom the Killer) and Shiro Namiki (Noriko's Dinner Table) playing a creepy doctor. The acting is good, and plays within the limits of the budget. Director Toru Kamei does some good things with digital filters and effects, and creates a suspenseful atmosphere.

Bad things are an overly confusing plot that is never quite resolved, a hair cut on the male lead that is almost a joke and disrupts from the feel of the movie, and some pretty cheesy special effects. Even on a budget you would hope they could do better. One can forgive bad hair and bad effects though, but it is much more difficult to forgive a muddled plot. It is never shown why the killer uses the cell phone game, why those targets were picked, and the characters reaction to having friends killed is pretty numb. The same cast and film style with a more focused plot could have been such a better movie."