[Fantasia 2026] FILM REVIEW: The Mouths

The Mouths - Fantasia North American Premiere Review

Director: Takashi Shimizu

Starring: Rihito Itagaki, Shido Nakamura, Keito Tsuna, Ai Yoshikawa

Written by: Masahiro Yamaura

Produced by: Takaki Sato, Ikumi Taguchi

Synopsis:

Four student friends decide to visit a mysterious cursed tree in an eerie forest cemetery but things spiral out of control and the next day one of them disappears. But what exactly happened that night?

Thoughts:

J-horror legend Takashi Shimizu returns with another dread inducing, creepy as hell sort-of ghost story all based around a cursed tree. It doesn't quite live up to some of his previous work but it proves that he still has the ability to tell great scary stories.

The film starts by letting the viewers know that there will be a survey at the end. Yeah that's a first. And then we meet the group of friends, with a focus on Shota, who is driving his three friends into the woods to see a tree that is apparently haunted. It's a fairly standard premise that we've seen before, particularly in Japanese cinema where young people let their curiosity for haunted items get the better of them, usually with a horrifying outcome. But this film is a little different in that it tells the story from different perspectives, which ultimately adds to the mysterious element because we don't actually know who is telling the entire truth.

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Each of the friends get their opportunity to tell their side of the story and what happened that fateful night at the cursed tree. They do this through talking head police interviews which is interspersed throughout. A police detective also listens to the testimonies on an audio device. And each of the friends also have their own dark secrets which begin to unfold as the film progresses, leading to a few surprising twists.

I won't give away any spoilers about the story itself but you can hazard a guess what might come to pass. It's a very atmospheric, supernatural film about curses that all lead back to this one gnarled tree in a cemetery. And it's a film that reveals a lot of character with each interview.

The performances are all really good and Shimizu does a phenomenal job at creating something very haunting. It's based on the Japanese novella 'The Questionnaire Regarding Mouths' and as expected Shimizu brings an eeriness to the material, both visually and auditory, that just gets under your skin.

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With all that being said I did feel somewhat of an emptiness at the end of the film. I enjoyed the story and appreciated the unique structure that the narrative played out in but I think the talking heads were too repetitive and tiresome. While there's certainly some creepy imagery, the pacing doesn't compliment the scares. It felt a little too convoluted for it's own good and there were moments were I felt myself zoning out.

'The Mouths' is brooding and haunting with some nice visuals and Takashi Shimizu tries his best to make it unique but the familiar tropes don't make it stand out enough and the experimental narrative is a bit too muddled to be truly effective.

Verdict: ⭐️⭐️½

-Gavin Logan

'The Mouths' received its North American Premiere at Fantasia '26 on July