The Sound of Summer

At times, this felt like a modern-day Tetsuo. The Sound of Summer could've been a perfect title for a small rural drama, but it's actually Japanese body horror supreme. The title references the ever-present cicada, this time though the sound is anything but soothing and pleasant.

The summer is hot and people have a tough time escaping the heat. The warmth draws out the cicadas, who make a real racket. Everyone is extremely irritable, except a strange figure people refer to as the Cicada Man. He walks around with a box of living cicadas, but nobody knows what he's planning to do with them.

The film looks pretty cheap, but this is obviously a low-budget work of passion. The body horror is impressive though and the soundtrack is very aggressive, creating a very dark and oppressive atmosphere. It's a very promising film. it just doesn't quite do enough to balance out its lesser points, but it completely aces its strengths.