Directed by Takashi Miike (1999)
by Sandy DeVito

This review may contain spoilers

Audition lulls you into a dreamlike sense of false security, then rips the carpet out from under you in the last hour with a horrific turn that leaves you bewildered and sick. Simply put, one of the best horror films of all time, predecessor and influence to countless stomach-churners that followed it (Hostel, The Devil's Rejects), this movie has far more nuance than 'torture porn', and succeeds in a horrible sense of dread that goes far beyond the disgust of physical violence. The viscera is just a mask for the more terrifying demons that lurk in the human psyche.