Liverleaf (2018) – Eisuke Naito.

Relentlessly bullied by callous classmates, desperately beleaguered Nozaki (Anna Yamada) is understandably pushed to breaking point after both of her parents are killed in an arson attack, she then steels herself for righteously bloody revenge! An engaging, credibly acted, beautifully twisted drama, generously spiked with savage bursts of visceral ultra-splatter. The small town, increasingly enshrouded in bitter squalls of snow, provides an atmospheric backdrop for Nozaki's thrillingly gory reprisals, perhaps a sly reference to the hyper-sanguineous, snowbound slayings of Lady Snowblood. Nozaki is not only a hugely sympathetic protagonist, she's also a complex antagonist, making Naito's wintry Liverleaf an altogether memorable, snow-burning terror treat! What begins as a deceptively linear tale of bloody vengeance in an insular Japanese backwater, culminates in an extraordinarily layered, gore-sotted tragedy of nigh on Biblical proportions! My advice to those contemplating a move to the country...DON'T!!! as is so often suggested in backwoods horror lore, small towns are frequently toxic hives of homicidal Borgias! While much of contemporary horror is no better than refried baloney, every now and again, my faith in the genre is restored by the inventively gruesome likes of Liverleaf.