Carrying a distinctly J-horror vibe, The Mouths is a welcome return to form for The Grudge franchise curator, Takashi Shimizu. The creeping dread has a careful build to it, leading to multiple sequences of super creepy ghost girls, crawling CGI ants, and bewitched trees. The whole film presents as bafflingly outdated in a cozy, early aughts kind of way. The setup is deceptively simple as well: we follow four friends, told in interrogation style, who go to a supposedly haunted cemetery to investigate a cursed tree plagued by ghosts. If this sounds very Japanese, it most certainly is, all for the better. Adapted from Sesuji’s novella A Questionnaire About the Mouth, The Mouths is ridiculous, threadbare, and weirdly perfect.
The first of our leads is named Shota Murai (Rihito Itagaki), the driver of the fated incident, a weight of massive guilt over the girl that disappeared heavy on his shoulders. Shota seems to be the most sympathetic character, but how else would he appear from his own perspective? Mirei (Momona Kasahara) sees things a little differently, already having a very bad feeling before they go up, one by one, to touch the tree. The Mouths constantly plays with shifts in retelling and revisiting the same situation multiple times. In this way, the story can feel quite simple, and even a little repetitive in spots. The narrative basically boils down to a group of friends who visit a spooky place, bad things happen, and then they are haunted by said event.
There is also another duo, one nerdy and frightened, the other cocky and obnoxious. The two opposite archetypes are very obvious, and their addition to the story feels extraneous and unrelated. They do manage to capture the freaky ghost girl on camera, though no one else seems privy to that footage other than the two of them. As for the rest of the cast, the characters are really no more than tropes, although a late-in-the-game twist does add a bit of flavor to the story. Despite the narrative being not so meaty, there is still room for lots of freaky moments.
Shimizu utilizes many close-ups of mouths during the interrogation sequences. The crusty lips and gradual mania of our characters definitely serves to unnerve the audience. The journalist or detective investigating everything often comes across as nothing more than an audience surrogate, though. His existence never further the plot, nor does he come full circle by the time the credits roll.
Despite a few shortcomings, The Mouths is still a welcome comeback for Shimizu. It utilizes plenty of recognizable scare tactics, has a simple, freaky story, and is generally a crowd-pleaser. Plus, it has a compelling hook with a survey that we are warned will be coming at the close of the film. There can be no denying: the survey itself is by far the freakiest one I have ever been asked to take as an audience member. The effectiveness of its scares and the chilling nature of the ominous suicidal setting ensures The Mouths will remain the talk of the festival where J-horror is concerned. Nobody does it like Shimizu.
The Mouths screened at 2026’s Fantasia International Film Festival.
