"When I was young there were no horror movies in Japan," says Toshiharu Ikeda. Relaxing in the lobby of the Nuart Theater in West Los Angeles, he adds that, "Godzilla is not a horror movie."

In 1988, Ikeda single-handedly slashed the face of Japanese filmmaking by directing Evil Dead Trap. It is considered by some to be the first Japanese modern horror movie. Otaku around the world have also cited it as one of the best.

Evil Dead Trap starts off with stalking and slashing, punctuated with Evil Dead-esque footage shot from the point of view of pure evil. Then about two-thirds through the film, that juxtaposition is explained in a plot emergence that pays tribute to David Cronenberg (The Fly, Dead Ringers), Frank Henenlotter (Brain Damage, Basket Case), and Jim Henson (The Muppets Take Manhattan). This afterbirth-covered extra step pushes the 10-year-old Japanese horror flick beyond the boundaries of a typical Friday the 13th installment.

Today, American gore-hounds are finally getting to see the movie that they'd previously only read about in fanzines like Asian Trash Cinema. ItÕs being distributed for the first time to American theaters. A blood red structure rising out of the mist, damp tunnels illuminated only by a Zippo, and a flashbulb-lit killer's lair are brilliant to see on the big screen.

This is director Toshiharu Ikeda's first time seeing Evil Dead Trap at the movies, too. After two straight months of 19-hour workdays, the Japanese director missed the movie's premiere because he was hospitalized. He was laid-up for a month from exhaustion and a screwed-up stomach. Now he can finally see his movie on the big screen, and also find out "if Americans can feel my movie."

At this particular screening, the audience definitely felt it. When a captive and bound woman's eye was slowly carved up in the movieÕs first few moments, some people got up and left.

"That eye was a fake, of course," explains Ikeda. The main monster took some more work: "He was made of plastic first, then covered with pig guts. The animal products have a different reaction to the light."

Ikeda "accidentally" developed his stylish cinematic techniques at Nikkatsu, a studio famous for its porn. His first film was called Angel Guts: Red Porno. However, he points out that "Japanese sexual films are not like American porno films. It's artistic in Japan. I can use the same sensibilities for my horror films."

There are a few sexual scenes in Evil Dead Trap, and they are disturbing. One is an attempted cover-up for a past case of drunken impotence. The other is a brutal rape. Even the hardest-core Asiaphile will have problems getting off to these scenes.

However, Evil Dead Trap offers a bounty to fans of submission, entrails, and sick humor. The movie was successful enough to warrant two sequels. Ikeda remarks, "It sold lots of videotapes and made the producer happy."

Even so, Ikeda would rather be making action movies. Horror isn't the director's favorite genre. "It scares me," he says.

And what does Ikeda's mom think? "She didn't say anything, but she's happy that I do what I want to do."