Inunaki, le village oublié

It's possible for a movie to be both effective and kind of a mess at the same time, and in my books, this describes Howling Village. A few cool, genuinely creepy scenes mixed in with some muddled storytelling. Some good effects, some cheesy ones. More time spent in the titular village would've been a bonus. Overall, not a horror classic but not a waste of time, either. Worth a watch.

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 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.

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!!

This is a weak film. Starts really well but then just becomes uninteresting with too much non-convincing drama, too much talk, very predictable scares/deaths and lack of connection between scenes.

What's worst here is that I can feel that this story could have been a great film, as everything about the village is really creepy.