English Dub Review: Dark Gathering “Old F Tunnel”

Overview (Spoilers Below):

Abandon all hope ye who enter here. There is nothing for anyone in this tunnel, save for the depravity of a sadistic spirit.

Our Take:  

Following their short detour to get another Graduate, the team is now ready to tackle the next S-rank area, which consists of three tunnels. The tunnels are the New F Tunnel, the Old F Tunnel, and the Old Old F Tunnel. Since we’re not prepared for the latter, the trio’s better off exploring the Old F Tunnel first. If you think the castle ruins were tough, you haven’t been to the old F tunnel, which is no walk in the park either. While Eiko is with Yayoi and Keitaro this time, it is only briefly before Eiko becomes the victim of the tunnel’s curse.

The Old F Tunnel houses a curse that traps its victims in an endless loop, preventing them from escaping the tunnel with their lives. What’s even worse is that it also has the ghost of a psychotic axe-wielding maniac who dismembers their prey and wears their faces as masks. If those things sound familiar to you, you’re not alone. It takes the pages straight out of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre movies, except the killer has an axe instead of a chainsaw. It’s another example of Dark Gathering taking inspiration from classic horror movies and putting its own supernatural twists to them, effectively creating a horrifying beast to be frightened of.

“Old F Tunnel” also took another compelling direction, focusing more on Eiko experiencing an S-rank spirit, similar to how the Castle H ruins episodes focus on only Yayoi and Keitaro. With Eiko having no spiritual sense, it further emphasizes the horror and danger she’s in, making for a terrifying yet engaging roller coaster of terror. Sure, Eiko was accompanied by another traveler named Hana Misaki, but that was before she discovered that Hana was the victim of the killer’s twisted torture. With Eiko taken further into the Old Old F Tunnel, it’s now up to Yayoi and Keitaro to save her from the sadistic ghost. It’ll be hard to imagine how the older and unstable tunnel would fare compared to the one we witnessed.