The Mouths, or A Survey about Mouths, is a Japanese supernatural horror film (org. title: Kuchi Ni Kansuru Enquete) that had its North American premiere at Fantasia International Film Festival 2026. Personally, I was very excited to see a new title from Ju-On and The Grudge director Takashi Shimizu. He’s had his peak, of course, during the Asia mania/J-horror era. I was wondering what type of project would bring him back into the international market.
A Horror Adaptation
A Survey about Mouths is a horror novella by up-and-coming writer Sesuji. His other work, About a Place called Kinki, was adapted last year with the same name by the found-footage legend Koji Shiraishi. It is interesting to see that another of Sesuji’s novellas is adapted so soon after, and by another big name in the J-horror sphere.
The movie opens with a statement that a survey will be taken at the end. Then The Mouths starts off with a familiar-seeming premise — 4 young adults go to a creepy place in the woods at night because of an urban legend about a cursed tree. While they visit the tree, one by one, a sudden creepy feeling surges over them when it is Ann’s turn. They then find her in the tree, covered with cicada carcasses, screaming, “They will all be devoured.”
Folklore Meets Psychological Horror
What follows is a detective listening to the group’s different statements. It’s all eerie and non-linear in structure. It all accumulates in a creepy telling of events through unreliable narrators. Each with their own agenda, jealousy, and distrust amongst their ‘friends’. And yes, once it is all over, you get a survey.
The movie mixes different folklore and themes, blending them into a creepy, atmospheric horror reminiscent of those early 2000s J-horror days. We deal with the symbolism of cicadas, which echo themes of impermanence, but also “Like a cicada, dying at the peak of happiness”. We see several instances of a long-necked woman or Rokurokubi. A lot of the plot is also driven by misdirection, jealousy and revenge. The relationships are not what they seem. In general, they’re just a bunch of ‘frenemies’ showing that you never know who your real friends are. In the end, manipulation and constant deception prove worse than a supernatural curse.
Festival hit or miss?
Takashi Shimizu applies his signature style of unsettling locations and situations. Even though the production isn’t groundbreaking and it’s deceptively repetitive until it’s not, The Mouths delivers above its grade in the end. I hope this is the start of a fresh new horror era for director Shimizu. I look forward to more adaptations of Sesuji’s works, as he is two for two with me.
Miss Rabia Sitabi-Stigter
I am a Pop Culture Expert & Trend Analyst, and a Horror specialist who focuses on Asian titles. During the year I am the marketing director of Imagine Fantastic Film Festival and Kaboom Animation Festival. In the rest of my time I write for The Cultured Curators, Ghouls Magazine, do talks at festivals and more, and co-host a podcast. I am a member of the UK & Irish Horror critics. If you want to read or listen to intersectional layers of cinema from a European-born Arab, African, Asian, Queer, Disabled lens, then you might like my words. But mostly I share lists, lotsa niche lists 😛
