Ox-head Village, also known as Ushikubi Village, fails because it doesn't know how to wrap up its story and because of a lack of character development.
The story focuses on Kanon, a high school girl who lives with her father. One day, Ren, her friend, shows to Kanon a video where one of the girls is identical to her, basically her twin sister. This fact makes Kanon decide to look for this girl. Up to this point, we already know that evil spirits are tormenting Kanon.
We are able to notice the lack of character development since the inciting incident. There is no apparent reason for Kanon to decide to search for the girl, other than the fact that they are identical. The girl in the video, Shion, is missing; If you're going to search for a missing girl, the first thing you'd probably try to check is the local authorities, no? Of course not! Kanon and Ren decide to visit the haunted hotel where Shion disappeared because, well, why not?
Going back to this review's reasoning, Kanon wants to find out Shion just to know why they look so similar? That seems to me to be a weak motive. As the story progresses, we realize that there is a main motive behind this frantic search, a stronger motive, but one that the film does not know how to properly explore. The holes in character development leave them all feeling unrealistic and contrived.
All the backstory about the Oxhead is expendable. The film uses this folklore to try to create a "gotcha!" moment that doesn't work. When the story reveals to us the truth about the deaths, nothing makes sense.
All this confusion culminates in the denouement, a meaningless denouement. The characters we have followed so far are literally thrown into the final scenario, to face the beast, so that we have the final confrontation with a nonsensical antagonist that has no apparent motives other than to be evil simply for the sake of it. In a ridiculous ending scene, the story bids farewell with the usual horror movie cliché.
I don't recommend this movie on any possible hypotheses.
The story focuses on Kanon, a high school girl who lives with her father. One day, Ren, her friend, shows to Kanon a video where one of the girls is identical to her, basically her twin sister. This fact makes Kanon decide to look for this girl. Up to this point, we already know that evil spirits are tormenting Kanon.
We are able to notice the lack of character development since the inciting incident. There is no apparent reason for Kanon to decide to search for the girl, other than the fact that they are identical. The girl in the video, Shion, is missing; If you're going to search for a missing girl, the first thing you'd probably try to check is the local authorities, no? Of course not! Kanon and Ren decide to visit the haunted hotel where Shion disappeared because, well, why not?
Going back to this review's reasoning, Kanon wants to find out Shion just to know why they look so similar? That seems to me to be a weak motive. As the story progresses, we realize that there is a main motive behind this frantic search, a stronger motive, but one that the film does not know how to properly explore. The holes in character development leave them all feeling unrealistic and contrived.
All the backstory about the Oxhead is expendable. The film uses this folklore to try to create a "gotcha!" moment that doesn't work. When the story reveals to us the truth about the deaths, nothing makes sense.
All this confusion culminates in the denouement, a meaningless denouement. The characters we have followed so far are literally thrown into the final scenario, to face the beast, so that we have the final confrontation with a nonsensical antagonist that has no apparent motives other than to be evil simply for the sake of it. In a ridiculous ending scene, the story bids farewell with the usual horror movie cliché.
I don't recommend this movie on any possible hypotheses.