October 15th, 2014 
Tyler Hanan 
Of all the holidays celebrated worldwide, no single day is more loved by the UTG staff than Halloween. With the arrival of the year’s best month, the time has finally come to begin rolling out a plethora of features and special announcements we have prepared in celebration of our favorite day, including the one you’re about to read.
Now in its third year, 31 Days Of Halloween is a recurring feature that will run throughout the month of October. The hope and goal of this column is to supply every UTG reader with a daily horror (or Halloween-themed) movie recommendation that is guaranteed to amplify your All Hallows’ Eve festivities. We’ll be watching every film the day it’s featured, and we hope you’ll follow along at home.
[Warning: the material within is likely NSFW]
Day 15: Audition (1999)
Takashi Miike has directed a lot of movies. This isn’t a Woody Allen-like one-every-year pace – IMDB lists 94 directorial credits for the infamous Japanese filmmaker, and even that is probably on the low side. For one of those to stand out it has to be pretty, ah, special. Audition is one twisted film, even for Miike. It’s more than just a “horror film” – it’s truly horrifying.
The film begins innocently enough, the tale of a sad, lonely widower, Shigeharu Aoyama, and his quest to find love again. His vehicle for doing so is the titular audition. Spurred on by both his mother-hungry 17-year-old son and money-hungry movie producer friend, Aoyama holds the audition for the role of his wife. One woman will get the actual movie role, while the other will become his actual wife. It’s a little skeevy, and Aoyama feels some shame, but he is clearly revitalized by the process. With some pep in his step, he stays up late reviewing applications and, due to a meet-cute of sorts with her application, becomes infatuated with the failed ballerina Asami Yamazaki. This is when things start to go wrong.
Those hints, as terrifying and/or grotesque as they are, some sinister force within the sweet, sad girl don’t fully prepare audiences for the handful of truly grotesque scenes that follow, not the least of which is the most cringe-worthy come-hither finger wag you’ll ever see. Not only is Asami sinister, she is one of the most bloodthirsty and unforgiving examples of the psycho bitch trope. Whether Aoyama just wanted to find love or just wanted to get laid, he was not prepared for this purveyor of needles and piano wire.
That is why this film has a place in 31 Days. Audition isn’t just about gross-outs and gore. It has those, but it keeps them close to the vest until late, and they’re made all the more horrific because we know this sad father. By keeping the first half so horror-free, Miike makes the thing in Asami’s apartment that much more troubling. When programming for a truly creepy season, the end of Audition is the 11 on the dial.
As for that remake, let’s just let that lie, for now.
Editorial written by: Tyler Hanan
Last year’s Day 15 film: I Didn’t Come Here To Die
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