Carved: The Slit-Mouthed Woman (2007) Starring Eriko Sato, Haruhiko Katô, Miki Mizuno Directed by Kôji Shiraishi Written by Kôji Shiraishi & Naoyuki Yokota

It has its flaws for sure and it is a Japanese movie, which means there are plot holes and some unexplained origins. The character of the Slit-Mouth Woman, is the best horror villain since the days of Freddy, Jason and Michael, I shit you not. This is a character that is scary looking, relentlessly brutal, she's an actual Japanese urban legend (i.e. boogeyman/woman) and she has her own image-defining weapon - a big ass pair of rusty scissors. If you dig old school slashers and can appreciate Japanese story telling (very different from American storytelling, I can't stress that enough), CARVED: THE SLIT-MOUTHED WOMAN will not disappoint.

I mentioned that The Slit-Mouth Woman or Kuchisake-onna is an urban legend in Japan, before I get on with the review, here's a snippet from a Wikipedia article...

Okay, so now you know the legend (kind of a Bloody Mary-esque legend), here's director Kôji Shiraishi's take on it.

The movie starts with scenes of elementary aged kids talking about the legend of The Slit-Mouthed woman. Rumors of sightings run rampant, but are not taken seriously. Soon, with all the commotion and talk, there's an earthquake and the real Slit-Mouthed Woman emerges. It is not explained why she is resurrected, but by the end of the movie you can draw your own conclusions.

First she kidnaps a boy from a park in front of his two friends. The boys were in the park waiting for her (like young kids do, trying to scare each other, not truly believing they will see anything) as it's a park she's known to frequent. Next, she kidnaps a girl, whom just confessed to her teacher, that her Mother is abusing her. As the teacher walks the girl home, The Slit-Mouthed appears in broad daylight and takes the girl. Soon, the media is on to the story and a there is a search for the missing children.

A male teacher, who has been hearing voices (the voices ask "Am I pretty?") confides in the teacher who saw the Slit-Mouthed Woman and shows her a picture of his mother. He is concerned it may be his mother behind the kidnappings. Meanwhile, we see a woman with two daughters. she is sick and wears a surgical mask. Her children see the news report about the description of the Slit-Mouthed Woman and ask, "Is that mommy?"

The teachers work together as the male teacher feels he has a psychic link with the kidnapper and knows where she may strike again and the female teacher, dealing with issues with her own daughter, is driven to find the girl, as she was taken under her care. They arrive at the house of a little boy home alone and are able to get there in time to stop another kidnapping and they 'kill' the Slit-Mouthed Woman, but after she dies, she changes into the sick lady w/the two kids. Seems the Slit-Mouthed Woman possesses people (mothers) and uses their bodies, and once that body is killed, she moves onto another body, like a virus. Are you still with me?

Luckily, the little boy they saved has a hand-written book (passed on by school kids) that has all the information about the urban legend. When they read that the killer lives in a house with a red-roof, the male teacher remembers he grew up in a house with a red roof and he shares that his Mother was quite abusive to him and his siblings when he was young and that one day his siblings and his Mother just disappeared. The two teachers work together to find the Slit-Mouthed woman and two more children are kidnapped and we get to see the Slit-Mouth Woman's lair, where she has the children tied up. Now, these are not promiscuous teenagers of the normal slasher movies, these are innocent children (and they really are sweet kids), the movie wouldn't possibly show them being hurt or killed right? Wrong. When they find the body of the boy in the park, the race is on to find the other missing children before she kills them all.

CARVED pulls no punches. This is way more brutal of a film then I expected. Like I mentioned, the victims are not rowdy teens, but innocent grade school children. If that concept bothers you, I would advise against watching this film. Though in reality, the killings and violence are done in the same fashion Tobe Hooper did in THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE, mostly off camera, but you know what's happening. I've heard so many people say how gory TCM is when in fact there's hardly any gore or blood in the movie at all - the violence is only envisioned in the viewer's mind, which depending on your imagination can be even worse. Ultimately there is a message underneath it all about the horrors of child abuse. So there! It's not all kiddie slaying, there's like... a moral and stuff.

It's not a perfect movie. It blows its wad too soon by showing the villain in broad daylight in the first 15 minutes. Not just a glimpse like Michael Myers in HALLOWEEN, but a full-fledged scene. But what the film lacks in brooding tension, it makes up for with not playing by the rules of the slasher flick. No character is off limits to be killed. The killer does not hide in the shadows and she doesn't walk slow and give the victims time to escape. She appears in public places in broad daylight. Who she is, is explained at the end, but how she came to be is not. The movie asks us that we just accept that she is a supernatural entity and leave it at that. The ending on the other hand, though excellent and very suspenseful, like most slashers, leaves open the chance at a sequel. I for one am ready for another good franchise slasher, as long as it's original like CARVED and it keeps its integrity and doesn't sell out. Speaking of which, I imagine CARVED has got to be bound for an American remake sometime soon - hopefully not.

Another thing the film is lacking was a really creepy score. In fact there's not much dominant background music at all, with actually adds to the tension. Director Kôji Shiraishi is a fairly new director and has done mostly horror. He's not quite there yet, but there are signs of possibilities for growth in the future, especially if he sticks with horror. The acting is very good for this kind of movie, the kid actors are great (given such heavy roles) and that's not very common. Eriko Sato (who's also a gorgeous model) plays the lead teacher and also does a decent job for not having a lot of acting experience. But alas, this is a horror movie and I usually don't care about acting chops, but a good story, good pace, some thrills and chills and some gore goes a long way. CARVED scores in all those departments.

If you're looking for something different and love slasher movies of old, CARVED is for you. If you prefer linear storytelling in your horror movies or you have a hard time with Japanese sensibilities (and reading subtitles), you may want to pass on it and in fact, probably most J-horror movies.