One of the most venerated names in the J-Horror scene in the late 90s and early 2000s, Takashi Shimizu became one of the biggest genre directors in the world for creating the classic “Ju-On” series among many others, even finding himself heading to America to shoot an official remake of the film. While his projects since haven't reached the level of unquenching fear as the original entries in the Grudge franchise, his latest effort “Howling Village” is a step in the right direction.
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The legend and fright of the Inunaki village comes back to life. Everything there is cursed and morbid. Moreover, the village actually exists. Enter Kanae (Miyoshi Ayaka), a licensed and practicing psychologist who not only is curious vocationally, but can communicate with the spirits herself. She finds herself personally involved when her brother Yuma (Ryota Bando) and his girlfriend Akina (Rinka Otani) find themselves in trouble within the limits of Inunaki, an infamous haunted and cursed location known as ‘Howling Village' due to its long history of strange and unusual sightings. Desperate to uncover the truth about the village, she sets out to investigate his disappearance and uncover her family's dark history around the area.
When “Howling Village” comes off best is a generally enjoyable storyline from Shimizu and Daisuke Hosaka that merges several intriguing storylines together. As we get a strong sense of Kanae's bizarre powers to see and communicate with ghosts and the tragedy that brings to her friends and family with the nightmarish events that occur to those around her, it sets up the emotional resonance of the first half nicely. Due to the tragedies that have taken place, the revelations that emerge not just about the source of her powers but the family's connection to the cursed village and the actions taken place there, there's a rather involved setup at play. When combined with the way the local authorities treat the connecting tunnel into the cursed village and the stories surrounding it, there's a lot to like with this storyline.
That gives the chance to the movie to offer some solid supernatural scares. The opening exploration of the village through Akina and Yuma's hand-held camera has an immediacy that makes the ghostly figures dancing in the background and the eeriness of the abandoned village incredibly creepy, which starts the film nicely. The series of ghostly sightings Kanae sees around the hospital that are eventually revealed to be of the birth mother, which is unknown at the time, offers up some more likable qualities before setting up the later fun to be had once the ghosts and spirits are far more prominent. The chilling scene of the spirits stalking the group through the hospital floors while a secondary encounter takes place at a phone booth with trapped victims inside while running water threatens to drown them, is a highlight encounter and is highly effective. As well, later encounters showing the ghosts taking out Kanae's accomplices during the investigation are somewhat shocking, with the focus more on the horrific events that happened and trying to keep it from continuing. It all makes for a thrilling finish and ends things on a positive high-note overall.
There are some problems in “Howling Village.” The biggest drawback is that Shimizu and Hosaka's story has way too much going on for its own good, oftentimes being incredibly detrimental about it. The idea of the psychologist with paranormal powers investigating the cursed village once her family goes missing is a fine and workable setup for what's going on. Yet there's just too much going on here with the need to look into Ryota's background and looking into the rather convoluted history of the tunnel into the village. These just complicate matters unnecessarily when dealing with the investigation into the strange events in the village and extend the running time. That feature also includes the flashbacks revealing the discovery of Kanae's powers and the realization that she can talk with ghosts which we already know. There's also an issue where “Howling Village.”.feels way too dragged down in the mid-section doing these investigations into the town's history and background information. While it furthers the story by grounding the experience rather nicely, the fact that the energy and scares of the film noticeably dip during this part creates a jarring effect at points. Overall, these factors do hold it back somewhat, but just a little from the positives.
A fine return to form from Shimizu although he doesn't quite hit the over-the-top highs as his earlier classics, “Howling Village” comes off as just a notch below those films. Those who enjoy this kind of Asian horror feature or are fans of the creative crew's previous works will really enjoy this one.
