Atmospheric and haunting, Taiwanese import Haunted Mountains: The Yellow Taboo tackles one of Taiwan’s most legendary ghost stories in style. For the uninitiated, the urban legend of the Mountain Gremlins—an evil spirit who dons a yellow raincoat and a bamboo hat—has been passed down since the 1970s. For debut director Tsai Chia Ying, the tale becomes the launching point for an emotional story about grief. The chilling imagery perfectly accentuates the tense character dynamics at play. This is a film that actually managed to scare me more than once—no small feat considering how enamored I am with the horror genre. One’s mileage may vary, but Haunted Mountains: The Yellow Taboo delivers equal on scares and dramatic emotional trauma.
Our tale begins in 2019, when a wounded camper strips down to nothing in the middle of the forest as a creepy figure in a yellow raincoat watches him from the distance. This freaky ghost abruptly strangles the naked boy with the bubble butt to death, leading right into an eerie animated opening credits sequence. The opener was a great way to thrust us into the film’s atmosphere, valuing nuance and earning its scares rather than just causing temporary jolts with little rhyme or reason for existing. In present day, a couple that were close to the vanished man are embroiled in a related plot. Chia Ming (Jasper Liu) and Yu Hsin (Angela Yuen) have spent years searching for their missing friend to no avail. Despite the looming presence of melancholy, Chia carries an engagement ring as they trek through the woods, ready to pop the question at a moment’s notice.
Many trademark tropes of the horror genre peek in during this time. An imposing storm, complete with thick fog and a chilling score, ominously rolls along. The couple pass a giant maggot-filled hole. A dead bird drops from the sky. The spectre of a person in a yellow raincoat appears in the distance. Still, the couple make it back to their car. They drive far away from the woods, but something follows. Enter: a trail of watery footprints back at their apartment building. This will be the first time Yu Hsin kills herself at the mercy of the figure in the yellow raincoat. The Yellow Taboo wisely blends traditional horror with a time loop sci-fi hook. Will the characters find a way to escape this curse?
Fanatics of the genre should find plenty to love here, particularly in the freaky nature of the central subject. A smattering of flashbacks help to fill in the blanks for that initial hiking trip back in 2019 that led to the disappearance of their friend. Surprisingly, the script from Wan-Zhen Zou has a fair share of emotional depth that fleshes out every character and relationship. Liu’s Chia makes for an adorable protagonist that we want to see escape his surely horrific fate. Tying in a ritual connection will no doubt warrant comparisons for gamers to Siren or Fatal Frame. Dramatic and disturbing, Haunted Mountains: The Yellow Taboo is Taiwanese horror at its purest.
Haunted Mountains: The Yellow Taboo debuted at 2025’s Fantasia Film Festival.
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