Tonight I sat down to a nice relaxing evening in to watch DEATH TUBE, a low budget Japanese horror/torture film directed by Yohei Fukuda (CHAMBARA BEAUTY) where a group of strangers get killed in front of an audience of ambivalent and sometime cruel online viewers.

The premise for the film draws on the likes of the SAW and HOSTEL franchises, and also feels a little bit BATTLE ROYALE but unfortunately suffers from not having the budget or the cast that these films had.

However, I would have to say that hammy acting and lame gore aside, I enjoyed it. It had a definite 4chan internet troll feeling to it - I couldn’t help but think Jessie Slaughter’s dad would pop up at some point and say he was backtracing everything to report us to the cyber police, but that fact just makes the whole thing more engaging.

One of my favourite things about the film is how each “game” that the victims are forced to participate in is presented by cosplaying bears in a children’s TV pantomime. The creepiness of their choreographed dancing and slapstick fights offsets the torture.

Worth watching if you are a fan of Japanese horror DEATH TUBE is now available on DVD from www.play.com and all other major retailers.