Howling Village (2019) Movie Review With Full Story

Did you ever hear of Howling Village? Or perhaps Inunaki Tunnel or Inunaki Village?

Well, it’s quite well-known as an urban legend among the Japanese.

In 2019, director & writer Takashi Shimizu released Howling Village ( Original title: Inunaki mura) based on the Japanese legend. This movie is a modernized version of the original folklore. Takashi tries to combine the old story with modern incidents.

Howling Village (2019) Full Story

*** Spoiler Alert ***

In the opening scene of the movie, we see that Akina & her boyfriend Yuma was standing in front of a telephone booth. This is late night almost 2 am. They came here to explore the rumors associated with a village called Inunaki.

There is common folklore that every night at 2 AM a call comes from Inunaki village at the phone booth next to the Red Bridge. And if anyone receives the call then in a miraculous way a path is created through the tunnel next to the bridge.

But the interesting thing is there is no such village called Inunaki from the government history of Japan. This Inunaki village is commonly popular as a cursed urban legend worldwide. That’s why many online content creators & explorers try to make content about this place. Many have been lost or even death while trying to revive the mystery of this village.

Tonight Akina & Yuma are also here to expose the secret.

At exactly 2 o’clock, the telephone rang and Akina received the call. However, no one can be heard from that pass of the call. Instead, sounds like water flow is heard.

Now, according to legends, the path should be opened. So, they started heading through the tunnel. Akina was in the lead and Yuma was shooting with the camera.

At one point they reached the very end of the tunnel. And surprised to saw a board where it was written that

From this point forward, the constitution and laws of japan do not apply here.

This means, after this point, no Japanese rules will work here.

Here, Yuma keeps talking about backing up. But Akina is determined to move forward.

After going some distance ahead, they saw some old & abandoned houses. At this time Akina needs to use the washroom. So, she decided to use one of these house’s toilets.

Yuma was now alone. So he was looking around the place. Suddenly he found a cage and heard the sound of a barking dog. Yuma went near to the cage and was surprised to find that there were no animals at all. There was just after the old skeleton of a dead dog.

Meanwhile, as Akina enters the washroom, she realizes that someone has locked her door from the outside. She also heard some noises outside the door. Suddenly few hands tried to attack Akina from outside. So she was very scared and immediately move from the house.

Yuma also saw a dark spirit and he was scared too. Akina & Yuma meet again and decide that leave the village as soon as possible.

Movie scene changes here.

In the next scene, we saw a lady named Kanaya who was a psychiatrist. We saw another lady came to Kanaya for his boy named Roytar.

For the last few days, Roytar became silent & depressed. He wasn’t talking to anyone. Roy has had very bad dreams several times in the last few days. And woke up scared.

Roy’s parents thought he was hiding something from them. So they decided to consult with a psychiatrist.

Kanaya wanted to talk with Roy alone so all but two of them left the room.

In this session Roy let Kanaya know that he is seeing a spirit for the last few days and the spirit introduced herself as Mother. The spirit didn’t want to tell Roy to his parents about her existence. This was Roys’ secret.

At the end of the session when he leaves, Roy suddenly points to one side of the room. Kanaya noticed the spirit of a woman standing on that corner.

Here scene changes and back to Akina.

The incident at Inunaki village has badly affected Akina. After the event, she became mentally unstable. She sketches many weird things, suddenly started laughing for no reason, sang the same song many times, even urinates when walking.

In the next scene, we saw Yuma & Kanaya was talking. From their discussion, we know that they are brother-sister and Yuma wants help from Kanaya for Akina. Yuma told to Kanaya that the strange behaviors of Akina started after the Inunaki village events. He also assumed that the main reason for abnormal Akina was the curse of Inunaki.

In the middle of the conversation, a boy came towards them named Kota. He was their younger brother. Kota got a project from his school about the rumor of Inunaki village. So he wanted to listen more about Inunaki village from Yuma.

At this time their father Mr. Morita came there and told Kota with an angry tone to avoid any kind of Inunaki matters.

The next day Kanay visited Akina’s house. At the house, Kanaya noticed some negative ghostly vibes and felt very uncomfortable. Then that day Akina suicide in front of Kanaya by falling from a high tower.

The autopsy of Akina was performed by Dr. Yamanobi and he informed that the death of Akina was not occurred by falling from a high place but she died by drowning in the water. He also reported that Akina was pregnant.

By all-knowing these Yuma was fully believed in the curse of Inunaki village and became very angry. He decided to seal the tunnel so that in the future none can go to the village.

Yuma called some of his friends and went to the tunnel. But they were shocked by seeing that the tunnel was already sealed. Yuma was shocked too because he knew the tunnel was open when they came here last time. So, he decided to go inside the tunnel and find out the reason.

We find from the next scene Kota was hiding in the backside of Yumas’ car. So he also reached the tunnel. Kota came here with a hand camera and started shooting everything.

After some time Kota heard noises from the inside of the tunnel-like someone called him with his name. So Kota became confused and entered the tunnel.

Then we saw screaming Yuma into the tunnel because he was surrounded by many spirits. The sound of Yuma’s screams was heard by his friends and they become very afraid. They went back to Mr. Morita and told him what happened.

Mr. Morita called the police and they all again back to them in front of the tunnel. Police found Kotas’ hand camera. So they made sure that Yuma & Kota was inside the tunnel and something bad happened to them. But the situation was so complicated that the police were afraid of entering the tunnel. Even the police didn’t want to allow others to enter. Yuma’s mother tries to enter the tunnel so hard but the police stopped her too. Middle of this she saw something inside the tunnel and became stunned. After that, she started behaving strangely and abnormally.

Here scene changes to Kanaya. Roy’s mother called Kanaya and told her that Roy became so sick that he was admitted to the hospital. In the meantime, she also informed that Dr. Yamanobi (who perform the autopsy of Akina) was also admitted to the hospital. Kanaya went to the hospital and decided to stay at night.

At night Kanaya sat next to Roy’s bed and slept a little. After a while, she woke up and saw that Roy wasn’t in his bed. She came out and find Roy standing in front of Dr. Yamanobi’s cabin.

Kanaya asked Roy what was he doing there? Roy replied that he came here for calling his grandfather. Kanaya became very confused. She entered Dr. Yamanobi’s room and she saw many dark spirits was surrounded them. All the spirits were singing the same song. The meaning of the song:

If the crop goes bad, then destroy it.

Suddenly those spirits started to catch Kanaya and Roy. So they ran away to the corridor. At that time, they saw Dr. Yamanobi’s spirit and it shouted to Kanaya & Roy,

“Only your blood has the power to destroy the curse.”

Out of nowhere, a nurse enters the place and surprisingly everything becomes normal as if nothing had happened. The nurse informed Kanaya that Dr. was dead just before 2 minutes ago.

At that moment, Kanaya realized that somehow Roy is connected to the tunnel, Akina and Inunaki village. Because when she met Akina then she was also singing the same song which was sang by the spirits.

The next day Kanaya went to meet Roy’s parents and they revealed that Roy was not their child. Their own child died on the day of birth. At the same time, another woman give birth to a boy and died. So the baby boy had none to look after. Then they decided to adopt the child and now that baby boy is Roytar.

The scene changes here and we saw one of Yumas’ friends standing towards the tunnel. His car broke down. He called other friends for help and two of them came after a while. When reached they saw the broken car was still there but their friend was missing. They were looking around the place but failed.

Thus, it is 2 o’clock at night and the call comes to the phone booth. One of them received the call but the opposite was silent. Suddenly they feel that the booth is locked from outside and many spirits were surrounding the booth. All of a sudden water began to seep into the booth and it arises to fill up. The spirits were singing the same song and the booth was filled with water. They died here.

In the next scene, we saw Kanaya and Mr. Morita was talking about the Inunaki village and Mr. Morita told her that their family was related to this curse.

So Kanaya went to her grandfather for more information. After going there, she remembers that her grandmother was the ability to saw the spirits too. She realized that the gift she got came from her grandma.

Whatever Kanaya asked her grandfather about the village. Then he said that a long time ago there was a little village named Inunaki. But the dam broke and the village was washed away in the flood.

After that Kanaya came outside and remember one day she was sitting in that place with her grandmother. That day she saw a boy standing in some distance. Strangely she noticed that boy standing in the same place now. The boy was looking the same age and the same dress.

Today Kanaya came to get acquainted with the boy. The name of the boy was Kenji and he enlightens Kanaya that he had a huge collection of Inunaki village. Then Kenji gave some documents about the village and Kanaya started to watching them.

We know from the documents that Inunaki was a little village. But one day a power company came to the village to build a hydraulic powerhouse. So they want the land of the village. But the villagers were not agreed to leave their land.

The power company was so hungry for profit. Thus they decide to abandon the villagers darkly. After that what the power company did with the villagers was not less than any curse.

They illegally convinced the government and remove every symbol of the village from the map. So, officially there was no such village named Inunaki. After that, a signboard was funded in the entry of the tunnel which we saw in the opening scene of the movie.

From this point forward, the constitution and laws of japan do not apply here.

Power companies leave wild dogs in the village and many villagers died for that. Men from power companies caged villagers and feed them the dogs. Their evil men sexually abuse girls too. Then one night power company opens a dam and the broken village was washed away forever.

By this video, Kanaya finds out that the owner of the power company was none other than her great-grandfather. That’s why their family is cursed by Inunaki villagers.

Then we saw Kanaya & Kenji waiting for the call in front of the phone booth. As usual, the phone rings at 2 AM. Kanaya received the call. Kanaya heard that Yuma & Kota wanted help from the other side of the call. And then Kanaya & Kenji heading through the tunnel.

When they reached the village then it seems like they have reached in the past. The village was broken but not abandoned. Many dead bodies are scattered here and there. Blood was everywhere. They found Yuma & Kota captive in a cage. Kanaya freed them.

After that, they found a recently born baby boy in the next cage. And the mother was senseless near the boy.

Kenji told Kanaya that the village would flood very soon. Also, Kanaya should take the baby and go outside of the tunnel. This boy will be the last bloodline of the Inunaki village. So if the boy lives then the curse will be removed.

So all of them were moving through the tunnel. At that time Maya (mother of the baby) chases them to take her boy. She already transferred into a demon. Yuma & Kenji tried to stop Maya and Kota & Kanaya with the boy finally skipped the tunnel.

After coming out from the tunnel Kanaya didn’t find the baby. Then Kanaya & Kota became unconscious.

When Kanaya woke up she was in a hospital. After that, she had been informed by police that her brother Yumas’ dead body was found in the tunnel with two very old skeletons. It is easy to understand that the other two skeletons were Kenji & Maya.

In the last scene, we saw a baby boy was lying on a road and a family took the baby with a smile. The scene looked like somehow the place was in the past.

The movie ends here.

*** End Spoiler ***

Howling Village (2019) Movie Review

Honestly to me, the bad aspects seem to be more than the good. I really feel too much boar and disappointed to watching the movie.

In short, director Takashi Shimizu tries to connect a family with the curse of the village. But do we really need secondary plots about the boy and his late mother? I think that is not necessary. I would rather spend more time building tunnels and villages than wasting all of my time on that boring subplots. These are the best places in the movie, but before the final scene, they are mostly broken into pieces.

If this is the whole problem with the movie, I won’t have much problem. Unfortunately, the entire final scene is so illogical that it completely takes you out of the movie.

What piercing? It somehow involves a friendly ghost and a journey back in time.

Another point to me is Inunaki is a real urban legend. Director tries to change the folklore and try to solve the curse. That decision to change Inunaki is neither thoughtful nor interesting.

Another worse is the walk through the town. You’ll expect a lot of non-stop panic and chills, because the way the whole movie builds up, the village spirit is so creepy and terrifying. Is this where the movie should go with everything? Huh! There was no fear, no chills, not even something terrible. This is a terrible, terrible disappointment. In fact, the whole climax to the end was too ridiculous and it ruined my movie.

The visual effects are also terrible, especially for Maya. Her transformation is not terrible at all, it is uncomfortable rather than terrifying.

The visual effects of spirits are not that hot, but they are decent and scary enough when it matters. To be honest, I was expecting some great horror footage, but what I got from the movie was J-horror’s normal fare.

Howling Village made me wait for two-thirds of the movie. And I won’t lie, there are unnecessary slow parts, but in general, I enjoyed it. The plot is there, the characters are interesting, the premise is interesting…all the elements of a good horror movie!

There must be a lot of potential at the beginning and the middle of the movie. Unfortunately, in the last third of the film, it suddenly changed from creepy and terrible to stupid and absurd. Ruining all the accumulation made by the film. Resulting in an incredibly boring and unsatisfactory ending.

Some Good Points

• Interesting materials
• Some scenes really creepy
• Two-third are really enjoyable

Some Bad Points

• The whole third is bullshit!
• Poor visual effects
• Too many plot-holes

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Originally published at https://www.brainlesspen.com on September 6, 2021.