Tamami: The Baby's Curse (2008) User Reviews

When bad babies lose shyness

[krakanova · 5/10 · 10 April 2009]

This is what happens when bad, teethy babies lose their shyness. They destroy the house playing with their sisters.

There are definitely better baby monster films than this one (such as It's Alive and Dario Argento's Phenomena). It's got enough gore and kill scenes to keep it interesting but it is one hour and 45 minutes of what looks like a boring Japanese remake of an '80's American horror movie (which is funny considering the numerous American remakes of Asian films).

The movie has a low budget but appropriately used (and minimal) CG.

Movies like this should attempt to create a horrific psychological stigma towards having children or being around them but this just does not. I cannot recommend it.

Terrible and Cheesy!

[shattering_glass47 · 4/10 · 27 March 2010]

Tamami starts out good. Creepy, slow, mysterious. A common yet potent ingredient for an Asian horror movie. The heroin was a beauty and one character, the old day act brilliantly as a creepy, serious...old lady, duh. The movie features an amazing eerie soundtrack, but that's as far as the praises go.

The acting is terrible. Sometimes the actors go with the over-the-top shouting, syllable by syllable. Unnecessary and cheesy.

The plot is usual B-grade horror movie. We have a mutant baby (Tamami), why it's mutant was never told. Why it's evil, also - no, it's not evil. Just misunderstood, as the baby's mother say, "She's just a baby." Any of you remember how many people you killed while you're a baby, with elaborated vine traps and stuffing your victims in inconspicuous places?? The movie tries too hard. It starts as typical Asian horror and ends as an incredibly cheesy Western B-grade horror.

The villain is just BAD, cheesy bad which the cheese has gone rotten and filled with maggots. At first, you don't see the baby's face. Sometimes glimpses. Then, you're treated to the whole thing via CGI which was ridiculous as the heroin and villain duke it out, girly style. The villain is the most ridiculous looking thing in the movie, annd it's in title! Avoid this movie.

Fanged Flying Mutant Baby

[gpeltz · 3/10 · 10 April 2015]

The movie here represented is, Akanbo Shojo, (2008) and it is directed by Yudai Yamaguchi. it was also released as, Tamami; The Babys Curse. I will be be discussing this film so I offer Spoiler Alerts, you might want to check it out yourself, and then see if we agree. I for one was not very impressed. What was it about? Our teenage damsel in distress is Yoko, played by Naku Misausawa. She is an orphan, at last to be reunited with her birth parents. Everything goes down hill from there. Whereas her father, played by Goro Naguchi seems halfway sane, His wife, played by Takumi Saito is lovely and a fruitcake. Severe mental issues here. Yoko was correct in her first instincts to flee, but then had she done so, we could have all avoided this fiasco. To it's credit, it opens well. establishing a casual air of things being off kilter. but once we meet the "Baby Monster" It's all over. This little creature gives the term, "a bouncing baby boy" a new meaning. Super flying and bounding baby, even doing the mid air freeze frame, as it strikes an attack pose! awesome, We see it performing feats of strength and acrobatic mayhem as only a mutant fifteen year old baby can. It turns out this mutant fanged flying monster is just plain evil and sadistic as well, finding a way to do in all the members of the cast. There are numerous sadistic simulated gore scenes, as the infant rips heads off. The effects are low budget sleaze. It was entertaining enough if you just let go and make a silly soundtrack in your mind, as the baby is chasing people around the house, you could hear it saying, "Change Meee" Three out of Ten "I'm turning Japanese" stars.

Cute Little Girl + Mutant Killer Baby = A Splendid Slugfest to the DEATH!

[ebossert · 8/10 · 7 June 2009]

A young girl arrives at her new mansion home, but must survive the attacks of a deadly mutant baby. This is based off of the works of Kazuo Umezu, and those who have seen the interesting short films within the "Manga Horror Theater" (2005) series know that such works are highly original and entertaining to boot. There's no denying the imaginative flare and entertainment value of "Wish", "House of Bugs", "Diet", and "Present." Even the weaker entries – "Snake Girl" and "Death Make" – were at least different and original.

It should not be surprising that "Tamami" (2008) has a number of similarities to "Wish" in terms of pitting a young child against an equally small (yet vicious) demonic entity. "Wish" started off slow but eventually provided a wild slugfest between a little boy and his possessed puppet. "Tamami" as a full length feature has the added advantage of providing greater visual eye-candy as well as a much healthier helping of violence. The cinematography is great and the mansion environment is sufficiently moody. The opening 20 minutes of visuals and scoring are really great, even mesmerizing. The soundtrack is eerily reminiscent of old school classics like "Halloween" and "Suspiria", but it isn't used often enough during the more climactic moments, in my opinion.

While starting off as a traditional creepy house endeavor, this morphs into a full-blown action-horror flick. The baby's got an ugly mug and has a short fuse. The filmmakers know this, so they do the right thing and toss in an absurdly long, extremely bloody slugfest between the little girl, the baby, and anyone else who's unlucky enough to get in the way. I kid you not, the final series of killings and attacks last a solid 40 minutes! Some of the death scenes are really cool too.

This is not a deep film by any means. Complex psychological and philosophical contemplations are unnecessary because "Tamami" relies heavily upon it's quirky setup, basic relationships, and suspense sequences. In this sense, it's an undeniable success that may not click with mainstream viewers very well. Why is that? Well, this film has a very playful, light aura of cheesiness that is somewhat difficult to pull off amidst the variety of serious overtones that surround it. If you're the kind of viewer who laughs giddily to the finale to "Evil Dead Trap" (1988), enjoys Hong Kong sorcery flicks of the early 1980s, or takes pleasure in the "Manga Horror Theater" series, then "Tamami" is right up your alley. I'm that kind of viewer, and I can honestly say that killer mutant babies occupy the same level of awesomeness as that of killer alien fetuses. Even more so when the filmmakers give me enough of what I want, and in the case of "Tamami", there's a LOT of mutant baby action.

This is a fun, wildly amusing movie that basically obliterates any American horror film from 2008 in terms of pure entertainment value. Oh yeah, when was the last time you saw an American girl under 13 years of age engage in acts of bloody violence with a mutant killer baby? Good luck sifting through all the lame torture flicks and remakes in your attempt to answer that riddle.