This movie fails on every level. In the first place, the screenwriter and director never develop any sense of mystery. In the movie's opening minute we are dropped into a conversation in which the slit mouthed woman is already being described. No mysterious, dramatic, creepy, or suspenseful action precedes this exposition, signaling the movies primary weakness, which is a truly awful script. The police don't investigate past disappearances or search places which would clearly would have been searched; there is no sense of urgency among the police or other characters; no explanation is ever offered for whatever it is that began the cycle of events we see unfold repetitiously throughout a movie which seems too long at 95 minutes. This lack of explanation is not artful ambiguity or mystery; the explanation isn't missing because the movie is so very clever and subtle that "explanations" just aren't the point; and the explanation isn't missing because the movie is so defined by visual style in the manner of an Argento flick, from which we just don't expect complete coherence because that really isn't the point. The explanation is missing because Slit-Mouthed Woman is poorly written. To top it all off, naturally it concludes with one of those stupid, clichéd gotcha endings which renders all of the preceding action pointless, and which is the true hallmark of unimaginative writing.
J-horror classics such as The Grudge, Ring, and Pulse succeed because they are expertly paced, have interesting characters we care about, and develop a strong sense of mystery, suspense, and creepiness through literate scripts, competent editing, moody cinematography, and skilled direcion.
Slit-Mouthed Woman lacks every single one of these strengths. And by the way, be forewarned that this movie contains some of the most brutally depicted child abuse I've seen in any movie, with punches, kicks, and slaps realistically depicted rather relentlessly throughout the last half an hour or so of the movie.
J-horror classics such as The Grudge, Ring, and Pulse succeed because they are expertly paced, have interesting characters we care about, and develop a strong sense of mystery, suspense, and creepiness through literate scripts, competent editing, moody cinematography, and skilled direcion.
Slit-Mouthed Woman lacks every single one of these strengths. And by the way, be forewarned that this movie contains some of the most brutally depicted child abuse I've seen in any movie, with punches, kicks, and slaps realistically depicted rather relentlessly throughout the last half an hour or so of the movie.