Evil Dead Trap

Late-night TV show host Nami asks her viewers to send in home movies; she receives a snuff film shot at a disused military base, featuring a woman who resembles her. The footage ends with a photograph of her own face, which disturbs her. The station does not want her to show the footage on air, but allows her to take her production crew—Rie, Mako, Rei, and Kondo—to the scene to investigate. Though some of the employees are reluctant to explore the abandoned base, their television slot is losing money, and the venture may be their last chance to revive interest in the show.

When the crew arrives, the base appears empty, and they split up to explore. While investigating on her own, Nami encounters a mysterious man, Daisuke, who advises her to leave and reveals that he is also on the base to look for someone. Meanwhile, Rei and Kondo have sex in an abandoned machine shop. After Rei cleans her dirtied clothes, she wanders off and discovers the corpse of the woman from the snuff film. As she panics, the killer impales her with several metal poles, and she dies.

An oblivious Kondo meets Nami and Rie back at the work van, where Nami admits that she is motivated by personal reasons to discover what kind of man the culprit is. Mako, having discovered the building where the snuff film was created, alerts the rest of the crew. They enter and are greeted by Rei's corpse, which the killer has rigged to frighten them. Rie panics and flees as the ceiling above the entrance caves in, trapping the rest of the crew. Though she manages to escape to the van, she is ambushed by the snuff film victim's boyfriend, whom the killer has kept has a prisoner; he tells her that the killer promised his freedom if he killed any trespassers, but decides to rape Rie first. During the act, he reveals that the killers are "two in one," not human, and hunt and kill for pleasure. Rie attempts to escape afterwards, but both she and the prisoner are murdered by the killer.

As Nami and Kondo try to flee the building, they fall through a hole in a damaged stairway. Mako, lagging behind them, is attacked by the killer and faints. Nami regains consciousness on the rooftop, where she discovers Kondo's headless corpse. Daisuke arrives and takes her to safety, explaining that he used to live at the base with his brother, the man he wants to find. Sensing the killer's approach, Daisuke leaves to confront him and is hit by a crossbow bolt. Nami goes after him, but instead stumbles upon a television set that shows Mako pleading for help. Nami runs to rescue her, but accidentally triggers a booby-trap which kills Mako.

The killer then shoots a crossbow and fireworks at Nami, but Daisuke appears to drive him off with a revolver. He leads Nami through an underground passage to the exit and gives her the gun, claiming that the culprit is "a kid" and he will go back to finish him off. Nami returns to the van, but upon seeing the killer drag away the bodies of Rie and the prisoner, decides to stay to apprehend him. Returning to the killer's hideout, she discovers his bedroom. Photographs show him as a young boy with his mother (her photograph riddled with nails), stacks of televisions play footage of Nami's show, and automatic tape players play voice recordings of the killer's mother. Nami realizes that the killer associates her with his own mother; she watches from concealment as he drags the bodies to cots and speaks to himself in two voices.

Confronted in the bedroom, Nami learns that the killers are both Daisuke and his twin brother Hideki, a mutant baby that lives within Daisuke's chest and has psychokinetic powers. Daisuke, having grown weary of the killings, allows Nami to shoot him, but Hideki bursts from his chest and attacks Nami, setting the building on fire and choking her with his umbilical cord. Daisuke manages to trap Hideki back in his chest, stabs himself and Hideki, and sets himself on fire. His charred corpse briefly revives to strangle Nami, but she cuts him with a shard of glass and causes him to fall out a window to his death.

Recovering in the hospital, Nami is met by a detective, who explains that the police found no evidence of Hideki's existence and consider him to be a hallucination. Later, at the TV station, Nami airs a tribute to her deceased colleagues to great acclaim. An assistant hands her a parcel in passing, saying a man gave it to her to return to Nami. She opens it to find Daisuke's cigarette lighter, at which point she collapses to the floor in agony. Hideki bursts from her abdomen, calling her "Mommy."

• Miyuki Ono as Nami Tsuchiya
• Yuji Honma as Daisuke Muraki
• Aya Katsuragi as Mako Abe
• Eriko Nakagawa as Rie Kawamura
• Hitomi Kobayashi as Rei Sugiura
• Masahiko Abe as Akio Kondo
• Shinsuke Shimada as Harada
• Hiroshi Shimizu as the captive man
• Noboru Mitani as the detective
• Mari Shimizu as the voice of Hideki
• Terumi Niki as the voice of Hideki's mother
• Kyōko Hashimoto

Special effects were by Shinichi Wakasa who would go on to a career as a monster-suit maker for several Godzilla films.^{[citation needed]}

Hitomi Kobayashi who plays the supporting role of Rei Sugiura was a top star for Japan Home Video (JHV) under their adult video (AV) label Alice Japan. JHV financed the film as a vehicle for Kobayashi. However, director Toshiharu Ikeda, unsure of Kobayashi's acting ability, instead put Miyuki Ono in the starring role.^[1]

Evil Dead Trap was released theatrically in Japan as 死霊の罠 (Shiryō no wana) on May 14, 1988.^[2] It was later released in Japan on VHS on September 25, 1988^[3] and as a DVD on June 23, 2000.^[4] On November 7, 2000, the film was released on DVD in the United States by Synapse Films. The release included the original theatrical trailer, and audio commentary by director Ikeda and special effects manager Shinichi Wakasa.^[5]

Evil Dead Trap received positive reviews from critics, with praise highlighting the film's mixing of giallo and slasher film genres, cinematography, and special effects, while most criticism was directed at the film's ending.

Jon Condit from Dread Central rated the film a score of three out of five, highlighting the soundtrack, story, and cinematography as being reminiscent of Dario Argento's giallo films. While calling the film "fun and well crafted", Condit criticized the film's weak ending.^[6] Niina Doherty of HorrorNews.net also criticized the film's ending while commending the cinematography, special effects, and mixture of elements from slasher and giallo films.^[7] Empire's Mark Dinning gave the film four out of five stars, praising the film's cinematography, gore effects, and style, calling it, "an effective and bloody slasher let down only by its last act".^[8] In their book Japanese Cinema: Essential Handbook, authors Thomas and Yuko Weisser awarded the film four out of four stars, calling it the best of contemporary J-Horror cinema, while also noting Argento's films as obvious inspiration.^[9]

Evil Dead Trap was followed by a loose sequel, Evil Dead Trap 2 (also known as Hideki: Evil Dead Trap 2), directed by Izo Hashimoto and released in 1992. The film follows a theater projectionist, Aki, who sees visions of a ghostly boy named Hideki and thinks she might be a serial killer that targets women.

The 1993 film Chigireta ai no satsujin, directed by Evil Dead Trap director Toshiharu Ikeda, was released internationally under the title of Evil Dead Trap 3: Broken Love Killer. In the film, a policewoman investigates the apparent suicide of a college student. The film has no connection to the first two in the series.