Butcher Block is a weekly series celebrating horror’s most extreme films and the minds behind them. Dedicated to graphic gore and splatter, each week will explore the dark, the disturbed, and the depraved in horror, and the blood and guts involved. For the films that use special effects of gore as an art form, and the fans that revel in the carnage, this series is for you.

The turn of the century marked the rise and fall of the J-Horror craze. Ringu sparked a popular wave of horror in the early aughts dedicated to vengeful long-haired ghosts hailing from Japan. Films released during that time included One Missed Call, Ju-On: The Grudge, Pulse, Dark Water, and more, along with a few American remakes as well. Amidst the sea of cursed spirits in long white gowns, though, came Audition; an extreme and unsettling entry in Japanese horror that eschewed the supernatural for something far more disturbing, garnering director Takashi Miike international attention.

Shigeharu Aoyama (Ryo Ishibashi) is a middle-aged widower who’s urged by his teenage son Shigehiko (Tetsu Sawaki) to get back into the dating game. His friend, a film producer, offers to set up a casting call for a soap opera that he has no intention of making, all so Shigehiko can pour over the applicants of hundreds of young women vying for the part. Unbeknownst to the hopefuls, Shigehiko is looking for a new bride-to-be with specific criterion; someone quiet, pretty, and proper with a background in classical music or dance.

He’s immediately smitten by Asami Yamazaki (Eihi Shiina), a soft-spoken dancer with an enchanting life story. So smitten, that Shigehiko shrugs off his producer friend’s concerns about discrepancies in Asami’s resume and her strange behavior.

A sentimental romance begins between Shigehiko and Asami. She plays the part he envisioned, and he never seems to see her beyond his list of coveted traits. For a while, Miike does such an excellent job putting the viewer in Shigehiko’s shoes that it’s easy to forget this is a horror movie at all. Eventually, in small doses, the cracks in Asami’s persona begin to show. Signs that she’s more dangerous than the subservient girlfriend she appears to be. Though the movie is an adaptation of Ryu Murakami’s novel of the same name (he also wrote Piercing), Miike adds his own macabre touch. The creepy scene in which Asami sits in her almost empty apartment waiting for Shigehiko to call, for example, is all Miike’s doing.

When Shigehiko finally takes notice that something is seriously amiss with his lady love, the loose house of cards that he’s assembled crashes hard and fast. Miike kicks off the final act with one stomach-churning reveal; a scene of a man missing a tongue, his feet, and multiple fingers crawling out of a burlap sack as Asami vomits into a dog bowl. It splashes out as she sets it down in front of the man, who eagerly laps it up. It marks the beginning of Shigehiko’s nightmare incarnate that will make you look at acupuncture and piano wire in a new, ominous light.

“Kiri, kiri, kiri,” Asami gleefully says, and she digs needles into his flesh. The translation, “Deeper, deeper, deeper!” That’s before she garrotes his foot with piano wire; he’s paralyzed from stopping her. Special makeup effects artist Yuichi Matsui (Ichi the Killer, Kill Bill: Vol. 1) handled the grisly visuals and bloodletting, but much of what makes Audition so effective is the sound design. The sound of the wire sawing against flesh. The sound of Asami retching in the background followed closely by the moaning man slurping it up. Sound is just as vital to creating visceral horror as the gore and guts on screen, and sound effects editor Kenji Shibasaki (Akira, Battle Royale) and the sound department deserve serious praise for this one.

Twenty years later, Audition is still being discussed for its themes and critiques on gender and generational divides. It played an influence on the horror trend dubbed “torture porn” in the early to mid-aughts, too; Eli Roth cited the film as a significant influence on Hostel and even put Miike in his movie in a cameo role.

Audition is brutal and provocative, and it remains one of modern horror’s best.

