Advanced Search >
Help Me Search

Movies

Weekend Box Office
Film Awards & Top 10s By Year
All-Time High Scores
All-Time Low Scores

Wide Releases
Now In Theaters

sort by namesort by score

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

Limited Releases
Now In Theaters

sort by namesort by score

58 (Untitled)
96 35 Shots of Rum
56 Adam
72 Adela
39 Adventures of Power
78 Afghan Star
61 After the Storm
66 Afterschool
xx All the Best
58 American Casino
72 Amreeka
48 Antichrist
73 Araya
62 Art & Copy
55 As Seen Through These Eyes
76 Baader Meinhof Complex, The
86 Beaches of Agnes, The
13 Beautiful Life, A
70 Beeswax
35 Beyond a Reasonable Doubt
71 Big Fan
66 Black Dynamite
51 Blind Date
xx Blind Pig Who Wants to Fly
76 Bliss
35 Blue Tooth Virgin, The
26 Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day, The
57 Boys Are Back, The
45 Brief Interviews with Hideous Men
81 Bright Star
70 Bronson
45 Burning Plain, The
xx Carriers
55 Casi Divas
57 Chelsea on the Rocks
62 Cloud 9
65 Coco Before Chanel
69 Cold Souls
59 Collapse
44 Confessionsofa Ex-Doofus-ItchyFooted Mutha
82 Cove, The
75 Crude
82 Damned United, The
67 Departures
xx Dil Bole Hadippa
71 Disgrace
xx Do Knot Disturb
70 Earth Days
24 Eating Out 3: All You Can Eat
85 Education, An
55 Endgame
xx Eulogy for a Vampire
xx Everyone Else
xx Fatal Promises
56 Fifty Dead Men Walking
62 Five Minutes of Heaven
74 Flame & Citron
49 Food Beware: The French Organic Revolution
80 Food, Inc.
28 Free Style
xx From Mexico with Love
50 Fuel
25 Gentlemen Broncos
50 Give Me Your Hand
58 Gogol Bordello Non-Stop
72 Good Hair
89 Goodbye Solo
52 Grace
64 Harmony and Me
81 Headless Woman, The
xx Heretics, The
63 Horse Boy, The
73 House of the Devil, The
xx How to Seduce Difficult Women
74 Humpday
94 Hurt Locker, The
29 I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell
16 If One Thing Matters: A Film About Wolfgang Tillmans
75 In Search of Beethoven
83 In the Loop
61 Intimate Enemies
42 Irene in Time
70 It Might Get Loud
46 Killing Kasztner
19 Labor Day
xx Laila's Birthday
41 Little Ashes
41 Little Traitor, The
66 Liverpool
34 Looking for Palladin
80 Lorna's Silence
83 Maid, The
xx Ministers, The
59 More Than a Game
67 Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers, The
34 Motherhood
62 My One and Only
xx Mystery Team
48 New York, I Love You
73 Night and Day
66 No Impact Man
47 Ong Bak 2: The Beginning
34 Other Man, The
xx Painter Sam Francis, The
54 Paper Heart
xx Paradise
68 Paranormal Activity
68 Paris
44 Peter and Vandy
35 Play the Game
77 Precious: Based on the Novel by Sapphire
xx Pretty Ugly People
65 Providence Effect, The
76 Rembrandt's J'accuse
69 September Issue, The
79 Serious Man, A
40 Shrink
61 Skin
77 Skin Too Few: The Days of Nick Drake, A
xx Skiptracers
46 Splinterheads
39 St. Trinian's
89 Still Walking
50 Stoning of Soraya M., The
55 Storm
65 Tetro
70 That Evening Sun
72 Thirst
xx Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas 3D (re-release)
61 Trucker
xx Turning Green
83 U2 3D
66 Unmade Beds
66 Unmistaken Child
70 Visual Acoustics
55 Walt & El Grupo
67 Way We Get By, The
69 We Live in Public
64 Wedding Song, The
64 Where is Where?
xx White on Rice
74 Woman in Berlin, A
69 World's Greatest Dad
70 Yes Men Fix the World
69 Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg
xx You, the Living

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

Uzumaki

EMAILPRINTTwo Boots Pioneer Theater

Uzumaki reviews
62
7.0 User Score:

Generally favorable reviews

Based on 9 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

Based on 12 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >

Movie Info

Genre(s): Mystery

Written by: Kengo Kaji
Takao Nitta
Chika Yasuo
Junji Ito (manga)

Directed by: Higuchinsky

Release Date:
Theatrical: May 1, 2002
DVD: July 6, 2004

Running Time: 90 minutes, Color

Origin: Japan

Summary

RATING: Not Rated

Starring Eriko Hatsune, Fhi Fan, Ren Osugi, Hinako Saeki, Masami Horiuchi, Taro Suwa, Eun-Kyung Shin, and Sadao Abe

A horror film about the residents of a small Japanese village that become obsessed with spiral-shaped objects.

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

91

Portland Oregonian Kim Morgan

It's creepy, but it's not horrifying. Still, the movie has its distorted, haunting moments that will stick with you, and it's stunning to look at.

Read Full Review >
83

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Sean Axmaker

A mix of H.P. Lovecraft madness, David Cronenberg biological mutation and David Lynch small-town weirdness, it teasingly dangles explanations never delivered and escapes never sought, while diving into one of the most gonzo horrors to twist onto celluloid in years.

Read Full Review >
80

Film Threat Ross Williams

Unfortunately, this horror gem won't even receive the same fate as a crappy "Children of the Corn" sequel, that of ending up on the back shelf of the local Blockbuster. This all but guarantees, that some kid won't accidentally come upon it and scare the crap out of himself. And that's just sad.

Read Full Review >
70

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

This deliriously unsettling film evokes H.P. Lovecraft's exquisitely creepy stories of encroaching madness -- not so much in story terms but in its perversely spooky ambience -- with a subtle dose of David Lynch's dark sense of humor.

Read Full Review >
70

Village Voice Edward Crouse

With playful, compelling gore having slowed to a near trickle stateside, Uzumaki demands attention.

Read Full Review >
70

The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias

Higuchinsky turns the screen into another giant vortex, drawing the characters and the audience deeper into a dark, captivating spell.

Read Full Review >
60

The New York Times A.O. Scott

Perhaps the most gripping thing about the ultimately disappointing Japanese horror film Uzumaki is the patient way the picture develops mood.

Read Full Review >
50

Chicago Tribune John Petrakis

Like many horror films, it loses steam as it gets more graphic.

Read Full Review >
38

New York Post Megan Lehmann

At some point, all this visual trickery stops being clever and devolves into flashy, vaguely silly overkill.

Read Full Review >

What Our Users Said

The average user rating for this movie is 7.0 (out of 10) based on 12 User Votes

Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

C gave it a5:
This really didn't capture the feel of the manga for me. I highly recommend any of Junji Ito's comics if you like Japanese horror. I get sort of sick thinking about his work, but I think that is the point. The film adaptations don't do that for me.

Karl J. gave it a4:
I didn't like it. Not scary, not good looking.

Autumn C. gave it a 10:
I loved this movie the first time I saw it! I have just recently started reading the manga for this movie, they are good as well!

Yoon C. gave it a 4:
Genuinely eerie premise spirals into nonsensical effects and pointless horror. An interesting twist on horror films such as Invasion of the Body Snatchers, a vision of a world where everyone seems to be falling under the spell of some disease that might be called spiralitis, psychologically and physically succumbing to spiral visons and shapes. At its most fascinating the movie seems to suggest that the world is a conspiracy of patterns and that we're all helpless in the long run against funneling into an hole into another dimension. Yet, like so many other Japanese horror movies, the idea lacks investigative depths and stops at second rate effects.

William Y. gave it an 8:
I felt compelled to rate this movie highly for it's sheer uniqueness. It really does summon a Lovecraftian mood with it's sense of unknowable horror and images of people going through grotesque physical changes, but it also evokes Clive Barker and Tim Burton. Many of the images resemble Barker's artwork, although I don't know if that was intentional or if I'm only making the connection myself. Yet despite these perceived influences, Uzumaki is definitely it's own creature, with a lot of imaginative force lent to it by the entire creative team. At times, it seems a bit too ornate, the acting a bit over-exaggerated, but these seem to have been stylistic decisions and they ultimately work well at establishing the appropriate surreal flavor for the piece as a whole.

Mandi A. gave it a 9:
Hugely enjoyable, beautiful on the eyes and the heart, full of stunning imagery and hilarious shlock-shocks - a total winner! I would suggest also reading the original Junji Ito manga, which focuses a lot more on horror and less on laughs...

Michael S. gave it a 7:
If someone came to your home and delivered the cheese and the silliness, you would consider that person to be a very good pizza-man, and you'd tip him generously. That's about how UZUMAKI works. It is funny, has a few genuinely disturbing moments, and while I admit that it peters out, it manages to entertain on the basis of its own audacity. (How many films are there in which a town is menaced by a design motif?) UZUMAKI is a bit like Tim Burton-does- J-Horror, and as such it is stylish, disposable, and well worth your time.

Read more user comments >

Popular on CBS sites: SEC Football | NFL | Video Game Cheats | iPhone | Video Game Reviews | Notebooks | Antivirus Software

About CBS Interactive | Jobs | Advertise

© 2009 CBS Interactive Inc. All rights reserved. | Privacy Policy | Terms of Use