Father Vassey (Michael Rooker) has a problem. Using his two 9mm, laser-sighted cannons, he has tracked down and killed the holders of a heretic ceremony meant to bring a demon into the world. Not just any demon, for this one's reason to be is nothing less than uncreating creation. The problem is, Vassey's too late. The demon has manifested and escaped, and is now on the hunt for the soul of a young boy who is believed to be saint material, due to the stigmata he had at birth. The film is directed by Jamie Dixon, heretofore a special effects supervisor, who shows canny restraint where special effects are concerned. The shadowy demon of the title is depicted often by a fluid black cloud, which is functional without losing its eeriness or credibility. The acting is solid, never campy, though Michael Rooker sometimes feels out of place. And the climactic scenes, built up to with good pacing, are fraught with peril and excitement. All in all, this is a worthwhile effort for a first-time director, and that makes it one of the best direct-to-video releases I've seen in quite a long time. I just wish I could locate the Bram Stoker story it's supposed to be based on. --Jim Gay, Amazon.com

Seijun Suzuki's absolutely mad yakuza movie Branded to Kill bends the hit-man genre so out-of-shape it more resembles a Luis Bunuel take on Martin Scorsese. Number Three killer Goro Hanada (Jo Shishido) is a hired gun who loves his work, but when he misses a target after a mere butterfly sets his carefully balanced aim astray, he becomes the next target of the mob. Goro is no pushover and easily dispatches the first comers, leaving them splayed in death contortions that could qualify for an Olympic event, but the rat-a-tat violence gives way to a surreal, sadistic game of cat and mouse. The legendary Number One mercilessly taunts his target before moving in with him in a macho, testosterone-laden Odd Couple truce that ends up with them handcuffed together.

Kinky? Not compared to earlier scenes. The smell of boiling rice sets Goro's libido for his mistress so aflame that Suzuki censors the gymnastic sex with animated black bars that come to life in an animated cha-cha. Because Suzuki pushed his yakuza parodies and cinematic surrealism too far, his studio, Nikkatsu, finally called in their own metaphoric hit and fired the director with such force that he was effectively blackballed from the industry for a decade. It took about that long for audiences to embrace his audacious genre bending--Suzuki's pop-art sensibilities were just a bit ahead of their time. --Sean Axmaker, Amazon.com