The 1980s were a pivotal era for horror anime, introducing iconic titles such as Wicked City, Demon City Shinjuku, Violence Jack, Lily C.A.T., and Urotsukidoji. These unsettling series remain essential viewing for horror aficionados. Yet, there’s another gem from the ’80s that stands out not only among its anime contemporaries but also against some of Hollywood’s renowned horror flicks. Hiroshi Harada’s The Death Lullaby, alternatively known as Lullaby to the Big Sleep, is a chilling, poignant arthouse horror film that continues to unsettle audiences even four decades after its release.

Hiroshi Harada, acclaimed for his work on the haunting Midori: The Girl in the Freak Show, made his directorial debut with The Death Lullaby in 1985, at the mere age of 20. This film marked a significant milestone in Harada’s career. It tells the story of Deppa—whose name translates to “buck tooth”—as he reaches a breaking point amidst the backdrop of societal chaos and the collapse of law and order. The Death Lullaby is both ambitious and intricate, weaving a narrative as emotionally charged and terrifying as some of anime’s most powerful stories. It’s a rarity for an anime horror film to achieve the same level of fear as Perfect Blue while delivering the raw emotional impact of Barefoot Gen, yet this film succeeds brilliantly.

At its core, The Death Lullaby offers a straightforward narrative that delves into the horrors of bullying and examines how society often favors those deemed conventionally attractive. Deppa, despite being undeserving of such treatment, endures relentless bullying. Initially, his kind nature provides a glimmer of hope, but as the story unfolds, Deppa’s compassion erodes, transforming him into someone even more disfigured internally. This transformation serves as a poignant commentary on the corrosive effects of societal cruelty.

The Death Lullaby Gets Hopelessly Lost in Disturbing Imagery

There’s a very simple story at the center of The Death Lullaby that breaks down not just the horrors of bullying, but the idea of a society that provides preferential treatment for those who are conventionally attractive. Deppa, through no fault of his own, is endlessly bullied and repeatedly kicked while he’s down. There’s a saving grace to all this when The Death Lullaby begins due to Deppa’s kind, humane nature. Unfortunately, Deppa’s empathy withers away and he’s transformed into someone who is even uglier on the inside.

Part of what makes The Death Lullaby such an alienating experience is the tainted, hopeless world that it’s set in. It’s even more upsetting to witness The Death Lullaby’s metaphorical music get ahold of Deppa and transform him from victim into aggressor. It’s a scary, effective way to reflect the cyclical nature of violence and a certain hopelessness that permeates not just from society’s youth, but society as a whole. The Death Lullaby leaves the audience on a sad, broken note that’s extremely depressing, which makes its message hit even harder.

Deppa has been dealt an impossibly bad hand that’s full of death, disease, and impoverishment. If this weren’t enough, the whole world turns on Deppa like he’s some leper in a disaffected world. This powerful message is further intensified when Deppa is inserted within live-action visuals and 8mm film footage that makes Deppa appear as even more of an abnormal outlier. Deppa doesn’t experience the same physical body horror transformation as Seth Brundle from The Fly, but the way in which he snaps is certainly on par with Jack Torrance from The Shining.

The toxicity that surrounds Deppa makes for a difficult watch. Additionally, The Death Lullaby assaults the viewer with violent imagery that is so relentless and unexpected that it begins to feel subconscious. The very first image in The Death Lullaby features a doll that begins to spew blood from its face. This mixed media approach where actual fluids spurt out of the animation is both creepy and creative. It gives this abrasive imagery an even crueler edge. This cruelty persists throughout The Death Lullaby and there are endless visuals where Deppa’s body shatters to pieces and he viscerally dies. These are frightening, surreal spectacles, but they also foreshadow Deppa’s malaise and the dysmorphia that he feels.

The Death Lullaby doesn’t allow the audience any sense of safety or a reprieve from its free-floating dread. There are random shots of body parts being sliced upon, hanging corpses, and random carnage that nobody reacts to, as if this death and destruction are normalized. Nature rots and decays as Deppa wanders through a modern wasteland. It’s almost as if the audience is heading through a haunted house of horrors where each room is worse than the last.

The Death Lullaby is an Experimental Art Film From Promising New Talent

There is no shortage of scary horror anime out there, but it can be quite a challenge to find something that genuinely looks and feels different from the norm. The same is true with live-action horror films from Hollywood. There’s a homogenized standard that helps streamline the process. There are still plenty of promising projects that come out of this mold. However, it also helps stylistic outliers that buck convention find greater success. It took Hiroshi Harada three years to complete The Death Lullaby, but it’s a labor of love that’s made almost completely by himself. Accordingly, this film operates like an unfiltered look into Harada’s mind and not a story that’s been diluted through committee. It’s just as much an art film as it is a horror film.

The Death Lullaby could still have been successful if it had a more conventional look to it. That being said, it’s the film’s unique aesthetic that gives it such a personality. The Death Lullaby looks haunted and cursed during several frames. It’s an anomaly that seems like it shouldn’t exist, which only intensifies its terror. It’s the same quality that was present in early found-footage films like The Blair Witch Project or prototypical j-horror like Ringu and Ju-On. In fact, The Death Lullaby feels closest to David Lynch’s experimental short films and early works. The same surreal-yet-personal quality is achieved. This is a horror film that may not work for everyone, but it guarantees to present them with weird, raw visuals that are unlike anything they’ve seen before. That experience can be so rare and, if nothing else, The Death Lullaby succeeds on this front.

Deppa’s journey is full of erratic pacing and visuals that bombard the audience and intentionally knock them off-kilter until they feel like they’re under attack. The Death Lullaby turns into a deeply visceral experience that prioritizes atmosphere over action. It’s like the viewer is lost in a disorienting fever dream. There’s still a clear narrative that plays out in The Death Lullaby. However, the film’s unconventional structure thrives by pulling the viewer into its thrall and exposing them to surreal visuals, editing, and storytelling.

The Death Lullaby features enough shocking visuals to purely frighten the viewer. However, it’s so much worse to feel lost at sea and have no idea where a film is going. This mystery and tension of the unknown become as frightening as any of The Death Lullaby’s actual scares. The film’s eerie score, which was also composed by Harada, keeps the audience constantly on edge and unable to relax. It’s an approach that would be unsustainable in a feature-length film, but is incredibly powerful in The Death Lullaby‘s 27-minute runtime.

Thought-Provoking Subject Matter Adds to The Death Lullaby’s Horror

The very best horror movies are not just scary, but those that actually have something deeper to say and use their subject matter to critique society. If there’s no substance beneath the scares, then a horror movie is destined to fade into obscurity. Harada makes sure that The Death Lullaby’s themes are overwhelmingly evident and as palpable as any overt horror. The film’s disturbing imagery is used as a way to break down not just bullying and national violence, but also societal strife, environmental ruin, and the dangers of industrialization. These ideas may sometimes feel disconnected, yet they all contribute to a greater thematic idea of Japan’s population having a palpable rage that has nowhere to go. This anger must be productively channeled, otherwise there will be no hope for progress.

The Death Lullaby’s visuals were an overpowering sensory experience in 1985. It’s not surprising that such groundbreaking animation would be just as striking 40 years later, but the film’s themes and subject matter remain equally poignant. This is what it takes for a horror film to become an evergreen classic that’s eternally relevant, regardless of which decade it’s holding a mirror up to and when it’s being viewed.

The heavier message about industrialization has only become worse since The Death Lullaby’s release. The film depicts Japan’s population as being in a constant state of hostility from low-flying planes. Shots of homes being destroyed are juxtaposed against shiny technology that’s painted as progress even though it disrupts community. The pride of Japan becomes machines and industry, not its people. Residual World War II trauma also bubbles into The Death Lullaby’s narrative and provides further context for its rage.

Hiroshi Harada’s The Death Lullaby is a powerful, angry response to Japan’s changes that comes out screaming like a deafening battle-cry. It’s a horror film that’s as thought-provoking and challenging as it is frightening, but this depth and obscurity has turned it into a cult classic that grows more popular each year. The unfiltered chaos that consumes The Death Lullaby proves that a horror anime from the ‘80s can go deeper than Hollywood’s current slate.