There comes a time in every crook's life when he has to strangle a kindergartner. From PRAY.
adaptation of BOOTH, and the two films make sly winking refer- ences to each other, à la GRIND- HOUSE). Billed as the “Next Generation Thrillers,” these two films are the sort of thing PRC or Monogram might have been making if they were more into Japanese ghost stories than film noir. Small in scale, limited in ambition, these efficient B-movie programmers find their strengths in restraint. Of the two, PRAY is the less effective—which is ironic, since it has more going for it in terms of story and possible char- acter development; the bare- bones reductionism of THE BOOTH lends it a nervous en- ergy reminiscent of DETOUR or D.O.A.. Directed by former TV director Yuichi Sato, here mak- ing a feature debut, PRAY somehow manages to feel over- long—which, at 77m, is a bad sign. Nevertheless, it covers much the same territory as Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s SÉANCE in a fraction of the time, and with more severed body parts.
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There is some small confu- sion over the title. Like most contemporary Asian horror films, the title is rendered on- screen in English and, like quite a few, the original Japanese title is simply an English word writ- ten in Japanese characters. In this case, the transliterated word is purei, but given the fact that Japanese makes no differ- entiation between “l” and “r” sounds, this could be either “pray” or “play.” The DVD is sold as PRAY, and the onscreen title is (bizarrely) THE PRAY but, as Scott David Foutz has pointed out online, the title PLAY would have made vastly more sense. (I’d have called it “Origami.”) Tartan’s Region 1 release misidentifies the running time, but packages the film with the usual bounty of extras. Like THE BOOTH (reviewed elsewhere in this issue), PRAY was shot on digital video and treated in post- production to look more like film. The image is suitably sharp and colorful but still looks a tad
chintzy—some cinematogra- phers manage to make the faux- film look exemplary, but Akihiro Kawamura’s work as DP on both of the New Generation titles falls towards the weaker end of that scale. For the 21st century equivalent of Poverty Row, though, it’s pretty darn good.
SERENITY COLLECTOR’S EDITION
2005, Universal Studios Home Entertainment, DD-5.1/DTS/MA/ 16:9/LB/ST/+ , $26.98, 118m 56s, DVD-1
By Kim Newman
Once upon a time, a critically- acclaimed, fan-supported TV se- ries failed to find a mass audience and was cancelled after only a handful of episodes had aired. The stubborn creators refused to let their baby die and revived the premise in a feature which proceeded to become a major commercial success and have several sequels... but enough about POLICE SQUAD!
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