Shiki: Part 2 (Blu-ray/DVD Combo)

From the studio that brought you Black Butler and Fullmetal Alchemist comes the psychological thriller Shiki, a series that will send you to bed with a cross in hand. Shiki stands out for its deeply unsettling tension and suspense, as it stares into the hearts of both the hunter and the hunted.

When citizens of the secluded Sotobamura village begin dying off in alarming numbers, the sole hospital's head doctor, Dr. Ozaki, tries desperately to save his patients, but his efforts are in vain. Entire families are wiped out, while others desert their homes, as the villagers discover their loved ones' corpses are rising from the grave with an insatiable thirst for human blood.

At a time when vampires have become ubiquitous in popular culture, Shiki reenergizes an increasingly threadbare genre. The power of the okiagari, or corpse demons, continues to grow, threatening the very existence of the remote village. As sulky teenager Natsuno is killed by Toru, the vampire that was once his best friend, and adolescent Akira disappears, Dr. Ozaki seems to have lost his only allies in the battle against the demons.

However, Natsuno and the dedicated young physician are not so easily defeated, although junior monk Seishin falls under the spell of Susano, an ancient child-vampire who resembles a decayed Victorian doll. As the war between the human villagers and the okiagari inevitably grows more violent, director Tetsuro Amino skillfully maintains the creepy atmosphere of the earlier episodes.

Amino deftly uses warping backgrounds, dramatic lighting, sinister shadows, and unusual colors to heighten the drama, but Shiki never devolves into a gore fest. Like a volume of Edgar Allan Poe, Shiki is not an entertainment to enjoy alone late at night, but it is an arresting series that reenergizes an increasingly threadbare genre.

(Rated TV MA: violence, violence against women, grotesque imagery, tobacco and alcohol use)

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