King of Thorn

King of Thorn is a Japanese animation movie based on Yuji Iwahara's manga series by the same name, puts animated images to a sensational cross between Aliens and the series Lost.

King of Thorn Poster

Genres: Action, Survival horror
Director: Kazuyoshi Katayama
Starring: Sendai Eri, Kana Hanazawa, Toshiyuki Morikawa
Alternative title: Ibara no O
Japanese: いばらの王
Country: Japan
Language: Japanese
Release Date: 1 May 2010 (Japan)
Runtime: 120 min
Official Site: http://www.kingofthorn.net/en/index.html

Plot Summary:
Medusa Virus, a deadly virus that turns its victims into stone, begins to spread around the people of the whole world. In order to save humanity's future from this mortal virus, the government picks out a select group of patients put into a cold sleep (CS) until they come up with a solution. Kasumi, a teenage girl is one of only 160 people chosen for this procedure in the whole world, and is guided to a Cold Sleep Capsule Center (CSCC) inside an ancient castle in Scotland. An unknown amount of time later, Kasumi and the others in hibernation abruptly woke up, only to find the CSCC is not as they remembered. The castle is covered with thorns, and the survivors are attacked by unknown monstrous creatures!

Why they are being attacked? Where did the monsters come from? How long were they asleep? What has happened to the world? In order to attempt to discover what exactly has happened to the Earth, the escapade of the seven survivors begins.

"King of Thorn" Review:
If you likes horror and psychological thrillers, this Japanese animation movie is a good tense mystical horror, dynamic fighter and touching drama and the animation and music is magnificent. "King of Thorn" combines traditional animation for characters and 3d computer graphics for vehicles, most moving objects and certain creatures. They mix very well and seem to add depth to the proceedings. The characters are nicely drawn and the action sequences are particularly exciting and dynamic with amazing direction. There's also a nice contrast between medieval castle look and sci-fi trappings. I would like to point out one of the last creatures seen that was quite grandiose yet weirdly beautiful.

Imdb page: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1690483/

Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zx43rP4G70g