Inunaki mura

I don't know if it's just that I didn't pay enough attention to the storyline or it is lost in the subtitled translation or it's disjointed with no hope. Much of the movie was good, even intriguing. And it's made well, not an amateur production which many substandard horror films are. Yes, you'll get the main point about a travesty the leads to the legend of the Howling Village, but beyond that, It just didn't come together. It has a more than enough horror tropes to warrant a good film, maybe too many. Without spoiling it, there's your characters that can see the dead/ghosts and you have a corporate calamity/crime, and a few zombie like monsters, a cursed heritage, time travel, and an alternate reality or maybe you don't have these elements. And, if you do? How do they fit together? Aggh. Having just read some other reviews, I guess my confusion has less to do with my level of attention and more to do with the movie. G.

This film essentially begins with a young woman named "Akina Nishida" (Rinka Otani) and her boyfriend "Yuma Morita" (Ryota Bando) going to an abandoned tunnel which is said to be the gateway to a haunted village on the other side. However, in order to get to this village a person has to receive a call from a specific phone booth near the tunnel at exactly 2 o'clock in the morning. Sure enough, when the phone rings, Akina nervously answers--and then proceeds into the tunnel with Yuma following behind and recording everything. The problem is that neither of them are prepared for what awaits them once they venture to the other side. The scene then shifts to a child psychologist by the name of "Kanata Morita" (Ayaka Miyoshi) getting acquainted with a new patient who apparently suffers from an overactive imagination and sees people who aren't there. Interestingly enough, Kanata also used to see apparitions and, while talking to the young boy, happens to catch a fleeting glimpse of the same person he does. Yet as startling as this may be for her, her fears become a reality when she returns home and learns that both Yuma and his girlfriend have encountered something supernatural--and complete insanity follows closely behind. Now, rather than reveal any more, I will just say that this was a difficult film to follow due in large part to the manner in which the overall story unfolded. Likewise, the language and cultural barriers didn't help either. So, what you have are several good horror scenes, followed by other scenes that don't initially make any sense. And even though there is some clarity at the end, the director (Takashi Shimizu) again muddies the water in the final scene. Unnecessarily, in my opinion. Be that as it may, while I don't consider this to be a bad horror film by any means, the fact is that it failed to meet its true potential, and I have rated it accordingly. Average.

I have watched several Japanese movies. Most are pacing, boring, ridiculous, and sometimes irrelevant, including this one. Not too much horror in it, half of the movie is about what really happened in Inunaki Mura. Most Japanese horror movies these days don't really want to scare you, they take you on a journey to see things that behind what is happening. For example, do you think you are going to see how the spirits in Inunaki Mura possess and murder people, with excessive violence and gore? No, it's gonna show you what happened to the village and why it no longer exists, and why the spirits are so vengeful. Japanese horror movies are very different to American and European horror movies, e.g. Japanese horror movies don't have much violence, gore and profanity. They also don't really have a great makeup department to make ghosts/spirits/creatures as scary as possible. They are more interested in "the whole story". People who love it will love it very much but those who don't, they will just "leave the cinema when it's still playing". Viewers who watched this also watched: Jukai Mura and Vshikubi Village.

Inspired by a Japanese urban legend, Howling Village is the first installment of Takashi Shimizu's "Horror Village" film series.

Some plot elements shouldn't have to be in this film. They dragged the storytellling on a different path. With a fantastic cast Takashi managed to create a new J-horror experience.

Not as bad as alot of people say. There were alot of scary moments which give you great goosebumps but visually it was weak. It could have been more scarier visually. Overall good horror flick comparing to the modern horror releases. Give it a try!!