By George & Josh Bate
Renowned J-horror director Takashi Shimizu brings two movies to this year’s 30th anniversary celebration of Fantasia International Film Festival. While one of these films, The Mouths, underwhelms with its lack of atmosphere and laborious pacing, his other film, Village of Eight Gravestones triumphs at the intersection of supernatural thriller, folk horror, and quintessential whodunnit to deliver one of the festival’s best films.
A remake of a 1977 film of the same name, Village of Eight Gravestones begins as Tatsuya (Tomoya Oku), a young man struggling to find employment, learns of the sudden death of his mother, who he has not seen since childhood. His mother’s death leads the family on his father’s side, who he has had no contact with, to seek him out, using private detective Kosuke Kindaichi (Matsuya Onoe) to do so. Upon arriving at the Tajimi estate, Tatsuya learns that he is the heir to the family fortune given the terminal illness of his older boyfriend. While navigating tensions with local villagers and unusual behaviors from Tajimi family members, bodies start to drop at an alarming rate in acts of murder modelled after the village’s ancient traditional dance. To get to the bottom of what’s going on at the Tajimi estate, Detective Kindaichi begins an investigation that leads him to uncover the disturbing history of the family.
Village of Eight Gravestones juggles a number of genres, and excels in its handling of all of them. The beginning evokes folk horror movies like The Wicker Man and Midsommar in depicting an oblivious protagonist stumble into an environment far more insidious than they initially realize. There is undoubtedly something off about the Tajimi family and the village they inhabit, whether it be a creepy pair of elderly aunts who ominously lurk around or unsettling masks that adorn entryways to deter spirits, but Shimizu employs calculated pacing and uses an intriguing, winding story to ensure his film doesn’t merely unfold as a by-the-books folk horror film.
As the film enters its second act, Shimizu adds a murder mystery element to the story that makes an already engaging movie all the more absorbing. The murders are clearly tied to the village’s troubled history and the ancient traditions it exercises to honor that history, but who (or what) is behind the murders remains delightfully unclear until an unpredictable final act. The film keeps one guessing until the very end, which satisfies in every regard by subverting expectations and tying up all the loose ends of a rather intricate story. Shimizu and Shintaro Ogai’s screenplay subverts an issue that mars many similar horror movies by avoiding overly convoluted explanations for the supernatural phenomenon that occur. The writing pair respect the audience’s intelligence and ability to follow along, while recognizing that landing on too abstract of an explanation for what’s going on would undercut the impact of its twists and turns.
As the whodunnit unravels, Village of the Eight Gravestones also embraces tenets of slasher films and curse-filled J-horror movies. Arguably the film’s most horrifying scene comes in the form of a flashback, which depicts a massacre perpetrated by the former patriarch of the Tajimi household. Shimizu approaches the sword-wielding patriarch like Michael Myers or Jason Voorhees, a silent, masked figure systematically and brutally taking out one person after another without an ounce of emotion. The slasher elements continue in the form of the murders that are at the heart of the mystery, while Shimizu delicately and increasingly weaves in elements of the supernatural. In doing so, Shimizu populates his film with all manner of unsettling imagery and set-pieces that are shrouded in Shinto overtones.
Needless to say, Village of the Eight Gravestones boldly embraces a number of genres – whodunnit, supernatural thriller, and folk horror – and excels in its handling of every one. Where Shimizu’s film stumbles, however, is in its duo of lead characters, both of whom are disappointingly hollow. Tatsuya, the heir to the Tajimi clan, appears to be the focal point of the film from the get-go but strangely drifts into the background as the movie progresses. His character has just learned of the sudden death of a mother he never really knew, is coming to terms with the fact that he is the heir of a vast family, reckons with a troubling family prophecy with direct implications for his future, and is right in the middle of a supernatural-tinged bloodbath. Yet how Tatsuya feels or what he thinks about all of this goes bafflingly unexplored. Never is the audience able to get inside Tatsuya’s head as the character is absent of anything that resembles a substantial arc.
As Tatsuya fades, Detective Kosuke Kindaichi becomes a more prominent fixture of the story. Created by author Seishi Yokomizo, Kindaichi is a legendary figure of Japanese literature, having appeared in nearly 80 books, and enters the film with a grounded quirkiness that contrasts the stoic demeanor of all other characters. As the murder mystery unravels, however, the film appears to lose interest in affording Kindaichi opportunities to express his personality. And, like Tatsuya, he doesn’t undergo even the most superficial of character arcs.
The protagonist problem in Village of Eight Gravestones ultimately prevents Shimizu’s film from achieving greatness. The mystery is intriguing, the supernatural imagery is unsettling, the pacing is calculated, and the reveals are satisfying. Just about everything works in the film, with the exception of a duo of lead characters who are arguably the least engaging components of an otherwise thoroughly engaging movie.
VERDICT: 7/10
Master of J-horror Takashi Shimizu blends classic whodunnit, supernatural J-horror, slasher films, and folk-horror to make an intriguing, unsettling, and unrelentingly engaging amalgamation of genres. Making its world premiere at Fantasia International Film Festival 2026, Village of Eight Gravestones excels in all the genres it boldly touches upon and converges on a satisfying conclusion marked by surprising reveals and successful tying up of all loose ends. Unnerving while keeping one guessing the entire time, Shimizu’s film only falters in the handling of its two protagonists, both of whom are hollow and underdeveloped. In turn, this prevents Village of Eight Gravestones from achieving true greatness. The mystery is intriguing, the supernatural imagery is unsettling, the pacing is calculated, and the reveals are satisfying, but the characters who drive the story forward are arguably the least interesting components of an otherwise thoroughly interesting movie. Nonetheless, Shimizu deserves plaudits for not only masterfully blending various genres together, but executing each genre with such extraordinary craft and care.