Exhausting
Exceptionally convoluted and deliriously nihilistic, Genocide is appropriately harrowing and periodically bonkers if a little middling around the second act. The second of only two movies from director Kazui Nihonmatsu, having previously helmed The X from Outer Space, Genocide is all over the place with enough hair-brained ideas to fill two movies let alone a single 84-minute one, primarily the hallucinogenic bees being bred by an insane holocaust survivor. Nihonmatsu handles the film with considerably more skill than his prior effort, there's a wider variety of shots and a better building of suspense thanks in part to the photography of Shizuo Hirase and the passable score from Shunsuke Kikuchi. It's very much an accident of a film, suitably ambitious and apocalyptic in its finality, ultimately hinging on the potential detonation of a hydrogen bomb and the single mother who may have to single-handedly repopulate a country. Genocide is an exhausting yet very rewarding experience, showcasing so pretty damn good filmmaking for its small budget but, as noted before, has too much plot for its own good.Was this review helpful to you?
