Inunaki, le village oublié

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.

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.

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 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.

I was expecting a lot of this movie. But had to be disappointed since the opening scene of the story. I'm a little confused,that this is a movie about ghosts or zombies? For the character 'Akina'(opening scene) I think she is good at acting. She Making feel haunted and terrified with her ,even when the scene is in the daytime.

The element of the film that I am impressed with are color-design Creating an atmosphere and haunting background music (song like the nursery-rhyme).

But for the story part . Although it didn't confuse me. But it make me frustrate. Seems to be trying to bring the issues together too forcefully .I don't understand- 'Why did the movie have to include this part?' I think in some parts it doesn't look scary. But out of the story.