Based on a popular manga by Ito Junji, Uzumaki is a one of the most eccentrically entertaining horror movies to come out of Japan in the last few years. The small town of Kurouzucho has fallen under the power of the ‘vortex', spirals holding the local community in thrall, a man climbs inside his spin dryer turning himself into a ‘Mr Whippy', his wife mutilates herself trying to escape the spirals within her own body, school children are mutating into human-snails and subtle helical CGI pepper the scenery. Higuchinsky uses all the tricks he has learned making pop promos to great effect creating inventive and original split-screens, shot transitions and editing. The performances are gloriously over-the-top and the photography lends the film a fairy tale quality where fantasy and reality merge into one macabre landscape. If a young David Lynch got together with Darren Aronofsky, circa Pi, and took some acid they just might have made a film as loony as Uzumaki… but I doubt it.