Horror Theater Video carved slit mouthed woman film review

As one of the many great films in the Tartan Asia Extreme catalog, "Carved" is simply one of the best horror films to come from Japan in recent years. This film is proof beyond any doubt that the Japanese are kicking our asses in the horror cinema. When it comes to creating fresh ideas in horror, the Japanese have an almost endless number of myths and legends to bring to the screen (or to video), while here in America horror fans have to suffer through "retellings" of films like "Halloween", "Black Christmas"; and endless sequels "Resident Evil", "Saw 4".

And when an occasional film dares to buck the trend, it gets hardly no release at all, but it doesn't mean the film is good (are you listening "Hatchet")? Hopefully some upcoming releases, "30 Days Of Night" and "Trick 'R Treat" will break that trend.

Just a few years back, you could hardly find any J-horror at your local Blockbuster, but now they make up almost 50% of the horror titles they stock. With good reason, they rent so they make money.

Carved is a simple story of the myth of the slit-mouth woman (the actual Japanese title of the film). In a certain rural area in Japan near an elementary school, at 5:00pm, the slit-mouth woman will appear, and if you are a child unfortunate enough to encounter her, she takes you away. She wears a white mask, that hides her mouth that has been slit across her entire face, and in a few chilling scenes, in close-up, she opens her mouth wide. It appears that no CGI was used in this effect and it truly is a site to see.

Two teachers from the elementary school attempt to track down this woman, but one of the teachers carries the secret of the why this is happening. And just when you think the film has ended; guess again.

Carved does everything a good horror film is supposed to do. It frightens you with a killer of myth with no apparent motive and a truly gruesome appearance, it has some gore, but it doesn't need it to get it's frightening point across, and above all, it is not a retread of a sequel, or prequel of another film. As a director, Koji has made other unique horror films. Maybe we should attempt to have him come to America and show the major studios how it's done.

My Rating:

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