Jukai Mura

The second installment in the "Horror Village" series by Takashi Shimizu, following "Howling Village." Takashi channeled his Ju-On era by creating a frightening lore surrounding Japan's infamous suicide forest. The out-of-the-box innovative death scenes and a brilliant cast of prettiest girls proved J-horror still got the originality and aesthetics.

This movie has a heavy emphasis on creepy visuals and there are plenty of them here. It doesn't place much emphasis on tell a coherent story or explaining why any of this is happening.

The movie starts with a video from a vlogger going into Aokigahara. She goes off-trail despite the many warnings signs in the actual forest telling you not to do that for good, if mundane, reasons. Something happens to her, It's not clear what. The main characters find an evil creepy box that's cursed with the curse of the forest. What is that? That's a good question. The characters start dying off in various odd ways. They have to figure out the curse. Good luck with that. I have seen the whole movie and I don't know. Jun Kunimura pops up now and then to say vaguely ominous things about the forest but he's barely in the movie.

This movie sort of explains a lot of things but doesn't actually explain them. Later, we find out what happened to the vlogger but not really. We find out what the box is about but it doesn't really explain anything. This movie isn't big on explaining things.

It's worth watching if you are just looking for some creepy visuals and J-horror stuff. Don't expect a coherent story or any explanation of why any of this is happening though.

This movie offers some sharp direction, with certain angles that instantly put the viewer on edge. It has some unexpected style changes throughout the movie, of which at first, I thought I wouldn't appreciate, but grew to enjoy the differences. The story is fairly unique as far as Japanese ghost related movies go. While I wouldn't call it a scary film, you'll definitely experience some cringe-worthy scenes and the perfect mix of bright and dark cinematography that kept my eyes on the screen.

After teen friends find a mysterious box under the house of one of them, strange events lead Hibiki to believe they are all cursed. Seeing her sister's downfall, Mei must discover the truth before the curse gets to all of them.

Suicide Forest Village (2021), by the director of Ju-on, is one of those Japanese lore-intensive stories, heavy on folk elements and the basic ghost haunting premisse that we see on most Japanese stories - not a bad thing at all. This movie is good enough to keep us hooked, though, Western audience might feel the heavy hit of drama-related Eastern acting; they do tend to repeat each others name often, apparently.

One a few occasions, I felt as if I was missing bits of the plot. At one point, one of the characters gets hurt, but that apparently happens offscreen, or editors removed the scene, and the result is a confusing setup, regardless of it being linear.

The horror elements are light on this movie. Don't wait for the sinister haunting of crawling-shoked Kayako; in Suicide Forest Village, the ghost presence is subtle, but effective.

The finale is heavy on folklore, which could diminish its effectiveness. The story does not explain any rules, leaving us with a heavy drama scene that feels Ex-Machina. It kinda works, but I'd want more explanations as to WTH is going on.

There is one post-credit scene that was nice. Hopefully, Suicide Forest Village enables a sequel.

I'd recommend this movie for fans of East-oriented horror. If you are too mainstrem, skip this entry.

I'm a huge fan of director Shimizu, but this is one of his most least interesting and engaging films since he retreads elements he's done better in previous films. This being said, the film still looks amazing and is atmospheric but it will appeal more for those who haven't seen a ton of his films or a lot of haunted location films. It was an inspired choice to do something slightly different with the subject of the suicide forest but not enough to make it stand out. The cinematography and editing are very good and overall, it is a serviceable film.

All the performances are also decent but nothing really stands out or shines.