I was so drawn to these movies because not only was there a female villain, but it was a given that in each movie Tomie would win. And there are eight movies total and a TV show, so there are plenty of interpretations of Tomie out there.

Tomie’s look in the manga stays the same but for the movies, she is portrayed by a different actress each time. Never did I think I would ever describe a movie as “Jason crossed with Emmanuelle ”. It’s okay though, because Tomie is an immortal abomination straight from Lovecraft country that can heal herself from the tiniest molecule or even replicate herself from a chopped off pinky finger.Īh, Tomie. Things usually end up going badly for Tomie as her suitors are eventually driven so mad that they end up ripping her to shreds or burning her. Something we should all aspire to, I think. Tomie is a beautiful but cruel young woman who seduces men (and sometimes women) into doing her bidding, usually for petty if fatal gain. I surfed on a lot of shady websites and sat through a lot of iffy fansubs for Tomie.įor the uninitiated, Tomie was originally a manga series by that giant of horror manga Junji Ito, also of Uzumaki fame. This was my something different, a female villain that was equal parts Cronenberg body horror and Camp Crystal Lake slasher, with a dash of societal commentary to boot. With every synopsis I read, I grew hungrier to see these cult favorites for myself.

It was during this time I was introduced to the Tomie movies. Then, once all the mainstream-approved movies were exhausted and there were no exploitative sequels or remakes to make, this too became stagnant. Of course, this boom came with unique issues like localization and translating folklore for an entirely unintended audience. The Asian Horror boom of the early ’00s satisfied US horror fans’ pitiful cries for something else. I watched my first Japanese horror movie in 2000 and I distinctly remember thinking to myself, “Man, this is on some other mess.” The movie? Audition. Anything different, even if it’s the Same Ol’ Thing just…new. When we’ve exhausted all our supernatural slashers, ghost stories, and revenge thrillers, we start looking for something different. Horror genre has a real “grass is greener” mentality, you know. As Spooky Season reaches its peak and we enter the transition into cider and “should I turn the heat on now?” season, allow me now to take you on a nostalgic journey through one of my favorite J-horror franchises, the Tomie series.