By George & Josh Bate
Master of J-horror Takashi Shimizu (Ju-On, Marebito) brings not one, but two new horror movies to Fantasia International Film Festival’s 30th anniversary event this year. One of these films is The Mouths, a winding and perplexing psychological horror film that excels with its twisty narrative, yet comes undone with laborious pacing and lack of atmosphere.
The Mouths begins as Shota (Rihito Itagaki) and his three friends Tatsuya (Keito Tsuna), An (Ai Yoshikawa), and Mirei (Momona Kasahara) make a detour on a road trip to visit a supposedly cursed tree in the middle of a cemetery deep in the forest. Things turn from uneasy to nerve-wracking when An begins to behave unusually after visiting the tree and, soon after, vanishes. In the days after An’s disappearance, Shota and the others begin to experience visions of a female ghost, while a detective (Shido Nakamura) tries to get to the bottom of what happened on that fateful night.
Based on the novella “A Questionnaire About the Mouth” by Sesuji, The Mouths is bookended by unusual on-screen text that previews and then poses multiple choice questions about the film. The existence of such questions speaks to the ambiguity inherent in Shimizu’s film as, even as the credits roll, the audience is left with several lingering questions about what happened to Shota and his friends.
The movie in between the on-screen text works from a routine yet compelling premise. A group of young adults tempt fate by engaging with something rumored to be haunted or cursed. Talk to Me, Evil Dead, and Night of the Demons are just a small sample of horror movies that use the carelessness of similarly oblivious and naive characters to inadvertently awaken a supernatural entity, which subsequently causes chaos.
It becomes clear early on, however, that The Mouths is missing something with its visual style, pacing, and sound design. The opening of the film takes place in a graveyard in the middle of the night deep in the woods, and yet what unfolds is startlingly dull and fails to even remotely unsettle. This unfortunately continues throughout a film that compels more with its twist-and-turn-filled narrative than it does its horror, the vast majority of which falls flat and does little to elevate one’s heart rate.
In the absence of effective thrills and atmosphere, The Mouths leaves much of its entertainment value to a complex, at times baffling, and yet ultimately intriguing narrative. What appears to be a fairly routine horror film for its first half evolves into something decidedly more unique in a second half which takes a number of unexpected twists and turns. Although stumbling and meandering in navigating toward its admittedly confusing conclusion, the film ultimately converges on a surprising finale few, even the most seasoned of moviegoers, will see coming. It’s a clever, subversive evolution of a story that saves Shimizu’s film from total ruin, although it leaves one wishing that the preceding film matched the quality and inventiveness of its ending.
VERDICT: 5/10
The Mouths, one of two new films that master of J-horror Takashi Shimizu brings to this year’s Fantasia International Film Festival, disappoints with laborious pacing and lack of atmosphere, although it is salvaged from total ruin by a clever, surprising finale and twist-filled second half. Shimizu’s film begins and ends on unique footing, with on-screen text offering multiple choice questions for the audience to ponder that speak to the film’s ambiguity. Unfortunately, what encompasses the middle of these bookends lacks the kind of frights and unsettling atmosphere one would expect from a movie that begins in a haunted cemetery at night and comes from such a renowned figure of J-horror. While somewhat complex, the film eventually takes a number of fascinating twists and turns most viewers will not see coming and which will leave one pondering the unsolved mysteries of its story.