With October in full swing, you may be looking for some of the best horror movies to stream. But beyond the classics and the creepy new movies, one of the top streaming services just dropped a contender for my favorite horror series of the year, a pitch-perfect adaptation of Junji Ito’s manga. Uzumaki. After being let down by the 2000 film (which is available on Prime Video in the US and Shudder in the UK), it’s refreshing to finally see it done well.
Uzumaki: spiral into horror is a four-part adaptation of Ito’s Frankly enormous manga that throws you into the deep end from the first episode alone. The show is streaming on Max and Adult Swim in the US and Channel 4 in the UK. No time is wasted establishing this terrifying world, where citizens in the city of Kurouzu-cho are plagued by spirals. As surreal as the concept is, it immediately grabs you, with this obsession and paranoia around spirals that resemble those of a disease. People are terrified of it, to the point where seriously crazy things happen. It’s grainy, that’s what it is darkand Max really delivers that tone, especially if you watch DC hit The penguinwhat we compared The sopranos, and rightly so.
I was also happy to find that even people who have never read the manga could be drawn into it. My partner watched the first episode with me and since then he has been keen to tune in when it airs each week, and ironically we found ourselves increasingly as invested in the spirals as the people on screen. While of course less horrible things happen.
Junji Ito’s lines come to life on screen
What strikes me most is how beautiful this is to look at. It’s the reason the manga captivated me too. I found myself desperately wanting to get to the next page to see what gruesome, albeit beautifully drawn, thing would greet me this time, and watching the TV adaptation is no different. Sticking to the original black and white design, it’s like watching a moving version of the manga. This is exactly where the film failed in my opinion, because it was a full color live-action version of the story and it just didn’t work. Ito’s terrifying world is best when it has no color at all, I say let’s keep it that way.
The art is beautiful. It’s also the worst thing you’ll ever see. I’ve left out a few really terrible images so as not to spoil it. If you’ve already read the manga, you’ll no doubt be anticipating certain famous moments, and even when I knew what was going to happen, I still cringed. From transformations to mutations to people having psychotic breaks as a result of the spirals, nothing can fully prepare you for it. If you’re wondering, yes, it’s even worse when it’s animated.
Uzumaki has been in the making for a long time, and I’m glad they spent so much time making it as accurate to the source material as possible. There’s little point in deviating too much from it when Ito has given us such a great story. It’s up there with some of the best anime shows you’ll see.
Once you’re done here, there are plenty of other spooky offerings to sink your teeth into. I also recommend James Wan’s Teacup and some of these indie horror games (Cult of the Lamb is my favorite!). But until then, please step into the gruesome world of Uzumaki. You won’t regret it.