Bobby and his friend Akkun go into the mountains after they finish school for the summer. Whilst there they come across an amusement park that they were unaware of and are invited to play Violence Voyager, a game where you fight robots trying to destroy the human race with only water pistols as weapons. As they gradually learn the true nature of the game they fight for their lives to survive the trials of a mad scientist.

Violence Voyager is like nothing you will have seen before. It is filmed using gekimation, a term I had never even heard of before watching this film. This is a type of animation where hand painted card cut outs are moved around painted backdrops. From Japanese film maker known as Uljicha this features the sort of body horror seen in Japanese anime set to a bonkers B Movie story that feels like it is from 1950’s America. The animation style and the fact the film is dubbed creates an incredibly surreal visual and aural medium. The only way the characters facial expressions change is if the camera cuts to another angle and they use a different card cut out and the dubbed over voices sometimes feel incongruous to the action on screen.

The story itself is startling in just how out there crazy it is and the imagery is something that would prompt a live action film to get banned. It is the sort of horror film that should thrive in October when people are seeking out something new and interesting for Halloween.

Running only at 83 minutes it does not outstay its welcome, but it absolutely will not be for everyone. In fact I think only few people will ever want to see it more than once. But it absolutely warrants attention, especially from those horror fanatics out there.

As of writing this, it has no UK release date and will be available in the US on October 21st via a number of streaming services. I was lucky enough to be given a screener and hopefully it will get a UK release date soon.