aka Spiral or Vortex.  Japanese

This movie is art-horror, which is really the only way I can think of to describe it.  The movie self-referentially fulfills its own prophesy.  Which sounds vague and obscure...which would be correct.

It centers on a small town, with a beginning that sort of vaguely had the same feel as the beginning of Gremlins but translated into Japanese.  Then things start to get really weird.

A man becomes fascinated by snails filming them for hours.  He becomes completely obsessed by spirals - wherever they are.   Nothing else matters.   His family becomes concerned and they get rid of all the spiral objects he's acquired.  But the man becomes despondent.  He commits suicide.  He kills himself by spiraling himself to death in a washing machine.

A dark spiral cloud descends on the town and all the residents seem to be obsessed by the fact that there are spirals everywhere.  Some of them begin changing.  Some turn into giant snails.  Some become twisted people.  One girl's hair becomes a spirally Medusa. Some try to rid themselves of spirals but forget that their body has a fair share of them.  It all seems tied to a lake nearby and a snake spirit.

Can anyone stop the snake spirit from overtaking the town?

I completely loved the odd and quirky direction of this film and I wouldn't be surprised if you see some of techniques used in this film in my films at some later point.  

And while this isn't a film I'd watch too often,  I'm very happy to have seen it at least once.            

I loved this film. I mentioned it on a thread about horror a while ago.

I really admire the way the Asian's make films...they seem so much more free than their Western Counterparts...concepts are weirder and more obscure and there is a sense of wonder and mystery that just doesn't seem to exist in mainstream films.

Well worth a watch...as many Asian horror films are.