Well, in the beginning, this movie indeed looks like a solid horror shocker about a supernatural serial killer who has a tendency to go after brains (literally), and a pair of detectives on his/her trail.However, any tension that might result from such a detective story is almost immediately taken away by the cute high school girl who more or less gives the answer away from the very beginning. And from then on, the whole movie is so overwrought with ideas that in and of themselves are very interesting, but which need far more time and explanations to really make the impact they could have.---WARNING: SPOILER AHEAD--- The idea of ghosts returning from paradise because it's too boring there and they prefer this world's violence and slaughter is a very nice one and could have carried the whole movie alone if given proper attention. But from that explanation onwards, the director jumps to the problem of today's youth being confronted with too much violence in the media, time-travel, police otakus (die-hard fans), supernatural abilities of mentally challenged people (not those possessed!), negative influence of pylons, a strange attraction of the ghostly serial killer to the main detective because of similar motives, and strangely knowledgeable little girls who have a very convoluted past of their own and are the focus of the plot's main love-story.---SPOILER END---There also is an issue with lacking explanations, mostly for people's histories and characters. It leaves the impression of reading volume 3 of a series as a stand-alone, where the first two volumes are referenced several times nonetheless.Additionally, many things leave the impression of having been copied straight out of a comical hentai-anime (from the way regular police officers seem to be unable to move at a slower speed than flat-out sprinting, to the uber-cute, pouty high school girl with lollipop stretching in the detective's apartment like a cat in heat). In my opinion, this completely throws off the mood that had been set by the gloriously red opening scene and makes it seem like a botched attempt at a black comedy.As a conclusion, I can only say this: The director seems to have taken episodes 3-18 out of a 20 episode anime and stuffed them into a 130min real-life movie without shortening the plot at all. Special effects and acting are great, and if it gets turned a TV series that has enough time to deal with all those interesting ideas one by one, I'd definitely watch it. But as it is, this movie is an unwillingly hilarious mess.

I would have given the film 8 stars if it had been a bit more tightly edited. Clocking in at 2 hours and 10 minutes it's just too long. Maintaining tension is a tricky business and this exhausts itself after about 105 minutes. That being said, it is still a very enjoyable action/horror/sci-fi flick. The cast, a mix of novice and veterans, acquit themselves nicely. I actually cared about what happened to them. A scene of brutality between two of the main characters a little over half-way through really shocked me and reminded me of a scene that could have been written by Neil Labute. Unfortunately, some other scenes tended to drag on too long and the movie lost its dark humored edge sometime after the first hour. The revelation at the end of the film is a bit anti-climactic and surprisingly unimportant by that point. Otherwise, the film is enjoyable with some great action sequences and a script that continues to surprise and thwart viewer expectations. I look forward to seeing more from this director and cast.

~Spoiler~Another Heaven may be Fangoria's most promising release to date, but it's still flawed. I was really into the story and thought I had a real keeper on my hands. It was very much like The Hidden in that "something" is jumping from body to body killing people and baffling the police. From the first half hour, it had potential to be great. The creature was in its second host body and was toying with the cops in a pretty spectacular chase sequence. And shortly after that, the film completely fizzles out. The pace slows down tremendously and enters boredom territory. I was extremely let down. But with a running time of 2 hours and 7 minutes, what did I expect? It didn't need that much time to tell its story. Too many movies these days are stepping into the 2 hour domain and it's just not necessary.

Personally, I came to 'Another Heaven' with serious misgivings, particularly noticing that after the enormous turkey that was 'Rasen', 'Joji Iida' had magically changed his name to 'George Iida'... sorry, but you're not fooling us with that one ;) However, having heard that this movie made a killing at the Japanese box office, I was interested to see if it was in any way an artistic improvement on 'Rasen'.And surprisingly, it was. OK, so it's over-long at more than 2 hours, which means it gets a bit meandering in the middle, and it has a ponderous and superfluous ending, not to mention the gigantic plot-holes, but for all that, 'Another Heaven' has infinitely better visuals, has a more interesting and involving storyline, and is at times severely gruesome, particularly with the cannibalistic element - a word of warning: do NOT eat during the first half of the film, it put me right off my breakfast ;)All in all, though, it's pretty mediocre, despite some quality acting. It's unfortunate that the pace gets bogged down in the middle section, because otherwise it would have been a real cracker. I've seen worse, but I've also seen better... you might be better off watching Kiyoshi Kurosawa's 'Cure' or Sion Sono's 'Suicide Circle' if you fancy a supernatural-type murder drama, because both of those movies are superior products to this film.