By Jono Baron
Gargoyle senior editor
Posted Friday, Oct. 27, 2006, The OG, arts

“Versus” is the first and only film I've ever seen that features gun-slinging zombies, and that is what puts it on my list of great horror films.

In actuality, zombies aren't central to the plot of “Versus.” Rather, they're used as an entertainment device. They also represent the overarching concept of death's meaninglessness — at its core, “Versus” is a mix of beautifully choreographed fighting scenes, mind-boggling stunts, genuinely intellectual notions of reincarnation, honor, and duty. Even if it is just an attention grabber, the ground-breaking employment of zombies in the film does pull you in pretty hard.

“Versus” started primarily as Japanese director Ryuhei Kitamura's project to work on over the weekends with his friends. But as the favors started rolling in and Kitamura and his crew received costumes and weapons, they realized that they could actually make a movie. Kitamura's funds were initially so limited that he had to rent cameras to shoot the first scenes of the film. In fact, it wasn't until the second phase of filming that actors were even paid.

This didn't hamper Kitamura's creativity; it just proves the ingenuity of “Versus.” All special effects were done “analog,” meaning no computer generation or major editing was used. Everything in the movie appears as it was filmed. In the majority of the fight scenes, for instance, the lead actors were actually hitting each other, because most of them knew various martial art forms. Even some knife-play is done with live blades.

In other cases, the genius of the special effects work is what really shines through: It'd be a trick to film someone getting punched through the head, but Kitamura manages to pull everything together.

What's more, the acting in “Versus” is truly superb. At the beginning of the filming process, Kitamura was faced with amateur actors who didn't know what they were doing. In fact, Tak Sakaguchi, who played the lead role, was threatened with being killed off if his acting didn't improve.

Kitamura overcame this too, and since “Versus” was produced chronologically (that is, every scene was filmed more or less in order of its appearance in the final version), the actors' comfort onscreen beams at the audience — instead of being handicapped by their collective lack of major-league training, these actors were free of Hollywood-type inhibitions and just worked together naturally.

In the director's commentary on the DVD version, Kitamura even goes so far as to praise the various actors he employed as zombies (his dentist included). This gets back to the pure creativity Kitamura must have locked up in his brain. In “Versus,” the zombies aren't there to eat people or bring the apocalypse. Rather, they're being reanimated by the antagonist of the film for the sole purpose of violence.

While this isn't all that scary in and of itself, the way the zombies are portrayed is at least a little eerie. The entire movie takes place in a fabled “Forest of Resurrection,” and the characters fluently depict varying levels of fear in the misty depths of the woods.

The plot itself was originally planned as a rehash of “From Dusk Till Dawn,” complete with gangsters and escapees; Kitamura's initial strategy in making the film was to toss zombies in there for the fun of it. But the evolution of the movie took things in a more original direction. Sure, zombies reach out of the ground, grabbing at the main characters' feet; body parts and internal organs trail on the ground — classic characteristics of the undead employed flawlessly — but these devices just are an homage to the film's precursors.

In reality, “Versus” is much more than an action movie, and definitely exceeds the limitations of a regular hack ‘n' slash zombie flick. Its story is filled with profound existential questions and theories; philosophy is a bigger part of the movie than anything else.

“VERSUS”
— Click here for IMDB entry
— Released: 2000
— Country: Japan
— Runtime: 119 minutes
— Rated: R (cut version); unrated (uncut version)
— Director: Ryuhei Kitamura
— Starring: Tak Sakaguchi, Hideo Sakaki, Chieko Misaka