Incomplete Chairs, playing at Brooklyn Horror Film Festival, is a film on par with Audition; it’s uncomfortable and disturbing, ensuring it’s a one-and-done watch, if that. Aside from the shocks, the movie is little more than a twisted man on a killing spree. Honestly, that plot has been done to death, and shocking dismemberment and butchery do not change that. Incomplete Chairs is interchangeable with any other torture porn horror over the last couple of decades.
Directed by Kenichi Ugana (The Curse, Extraneous Matter Complete Addition), the movie follows a serial killer, Mr. Kujo, played by Ryu Ichinose (Ghost Killer, Oi Handsome!!), striving to create the perfect chair. While it compares itself to American Psycho, it’s a couple of decades too late. It also lacks the internal monologue that film possessed. But while gathering his parts, a woman who works in the chair industry for a business called Complete Chairs, Natsuko, played by Ryôka Ôshima (My Second Aoharu, Ultraman Taiga), becomes suspicious.
Incomplete Chairs Is Torture For the Sake of It
As the movie progresses, it devolves further and further into gory scenes of torture. Although horror without purpose can be fun, torture films are not my idea of fun. It’s gross. The same way a bug-laden milkshake is gross. I do not consider horror. It’s merely visual discomfort, and that’s not always synonymous with horror. Horror lingers, makes me scared to turn off the lights or close my eyes.
Illogical Decisions
It also doesn’t always follow common sense. After all, the people meet him in an apartment covered in plastic, with a table filled with tools and gloves. If that’s not enough, a glance at the plastic shows light red stains. But despite all of that, people come in and do not notice any of that. Also, worrying about the impact on the chair industry makes no sense whatsoever. Going to the apartment of a serial killer to talk is a stretch. But, recalling The Curse, makes the fumble understandable.
Unbelievable Sympathetic Victim
While the film tries to condemn a society that allows bullying with next to no repercussions, it doesn’t justify the degree of unhinged violence on display. Being a victim of bullying doesn’t excuse targeting people unrelated to the crime. Plus, he’s not even the victim. This is not justice or revenge—it’s mere serial killer logic. In fact, I’m tired of films that show that. Ultimately, they are a coward. And he walks outside covered in blood, and somehow no one, including the police, stops or detains him.
Stretching credulity in the home stretch drags the movie down further. It’s akin to Terror Train, but violence against random strangers. It’s hard to reconcile his rationalization. The level of glee he exudes when he’s harming someone does not gel with his claims of feeling tormented. Incomplete Chairs winds up an uncomfortable and pointless film to immerse yourself in, unless torture films are your idea of escape or fun.
Incomplete Chairs lacks too much to separate it from the long line of torture-gore films that preceded it. It attempts satire. But that requires a depth this movie does not attain. Too many illogical moments wrapped in horrific moments without a cohesive exploration of the initial motivation make Incomplete Chairs a waste of the viewer’s time. If I want to see a man be a monster because “reasons,” I’ll turn on the news.
