Biotherapy (1986)

not horrible nor great

Admirable film.

A bit overrated, but still an amazing film

Just intense enough to provide a much-needed diversion, just lightweight enough to make you forget about it soon after it’s over. It’s not exactly “good,” per se, but it does what it sets out to do in terms of putting us on edge, which makes it … successful?

If, like me, you are a gore-hound in possession of an un-subtitled and un-dubbed copy of this film, and your Japanese is a tad rusty (ie., you don't understand a word they are saying), then worry not: at 35 minutes long, Biotherapy is still entertaining stuff, even if you haven't a clue what is going on. Thanks to some brilliantly realistic and very bloody special effects, the film is definitely worth a watch if splatter is your thing.The story, from what I could gather, sees a glowing, masked, hat-wearing alien (who seems to be in search of some kind of special chemical), chasing a group of scientists and killing them in a variety of nasty ways. Gruesome highlights include an impressive eyeball removal, death by broken test tubes (they are rammed into a woman's chest and her blood pumps messily out of the ends—very juicy!!), and a yucky disembowelling.At the end of the film, the alien is unmasked, revealing a rather amusing toothy creature.Biotherapy is good gory fun, and perfect fare if you've a tight schedule and can't fit in a full feature.

Biotherapy is a horror/sci-fi shocker that clocks in just short of an hour. That's right, short so you know a lot of logic is bound to get pulled out of the story like an eyeball from a screaming scientist. The story is that some scientists at the Hirose Research Institute of Biology have developed a GT (glutamyltransferase, if you're interested) serum derived from meteors which speeds up biological growth. As it turns out, not everyone is cool on this serum: an ugly alien-like thing, described as a "miraijin" or time traveller, in the film and probably played by the director's big brother, has been sent to retrieve the serum and cause the most unnecessarily gory violent deaths to those who developed it. Why? At under an hour do you care? Actually, since no edition of this film has any kind of English subtitles, all of the time traveller's dialog was made much harder to understand since it was overdubbed with this cheesy echoplexed "demonic" voice that has been used in Japanese TV and films for, like, ever. Let's just assume that our time traveller friend objected to the scientific and moral ramifications of the serum's use or, heck, maybe he just wanted to tear various limbs and innards from a gang of earthfolk. It's all about the same thing, isn't it? Gore-wise, Biotherapy has some pretty nifty scenes and did win a special effects award from, of all sources, the manga magazine Young Jump. I've seen comparisons to the Guinea Pig series and, yes it does have its share of entrailsectomies, tonguesectomies, and eyesectomies but this is misleading. If anything, Biotherapy owes a lot to slashers and specifically Friday the 13th; the time traveller wears a mask to cover his face and always breathes heavily a la Jason as he is stalking his victims (and in an unintentionally humorous touch, his appearance is signaled with a lightning-like flash and a synth drum beat). There is one scene in which a character is stabbed in the chest with several test tubes and blood, geyser-like, pumps out of her chest. This is the type of scene I was looking for (and failed to get) in Commando's death by pipe impalement scene.In all, not an entirely bad film to check out if you can but there are better things you can do instead of watching it. Like watching half of a better film.

I had been meaning to get a copy of BIOTHERAPY for a while, but kept pushing it to the "bottom of the list" as other films that I had been looking for took priority. Well, I finally got my hands on this one, and honestly, I can't say that I was all that impressed. This one is also in Japanese with no subs/dubs, so here's what I gathered from it:Some kind of alien-thing is going around killing a bunch of scientists...that's pretty much it. Since this film clocks in at just barely over a half hour, plot is not really a main concern in this one.When I researched BIOTHERAPY a while back, it had been described as a "notorious splatterfest" and other equally intriguing descriptions. Honestly, it's not bad in terms of gore, and there's an eyeball removal scent that's among the best that I've seen, but other than that, the gore in BIOTHERAPY is no heavier or more outstanding than any other Japanese "extreme" splatter film. Maybe I've been watching too much of this trash lately and have become jaded - but BIOTHERAPY was nothing exceptional to me. Recommended to extreme J-splatter fans only - anyone else shouldn't bother. A pretty generous 6/10 because it did deliver some red stuff, and the eyeball scene was noteworthy...

"Biotherapy" is a fairly nasty Japanese gorefest about a group of Japanese scientists stalked and viciously butchered by a creepy-looking alien.This relatively unknown ultra low-budget splatter film is rather well-made and captivating.The gore effects by Osamu Miki are effective and suitably nasty for example the scene where a scientist has his eye pulled out is extremely graphic.There is also incredibly bloody moment in which a female scientist is sadistically murdered by having broken test tubes jammed into her body and the blood is spraying everywhere."Biotherapy" is not as sickening as Daisuke Yamanouchi's "Red Room" series or Tamakichi Anaru's ultra-nasty "Women's Flesh",but it certainly provides plenty of red stuff for fans of crazy Japanese splatter.Give it a look,if you can find it.8 out of 10.