Some people say that the scariest thing is to not show the gore because whatever you come up with in your own head is scarier than anything you can see. That’s the kind of bullshit tossed around by non-horror fans (along with the term “elevated horror”, we hate that, horror is horror) because real fans know that seeing gore on full display is a far different and more intense experience than fucking imagining it while it happens off-screen. That’s why films like Dead Alive are still talked about reverently decades later while people forgot that Throughbreds existed as soon as it came out. Other aspects of horror are not so cut and dry because there is a balance that must be maintained and knowing how much of the scary thing to show to build the appropriate amount of tension is the art of creating something genuinely frightening. Fail to do that and you might end up with the kind scenes on display in Bakemono where the monster likes to hang around the kitchen in full view for an almost comically long amounts of time. I do genuinely appreciate writer/director Doug Roos’ commitment to all practical effects, but he may have been a little too eager to show the creature in all its glory when a less is more approach may have been more effective.
Speaking of less is more, I’ve seen my fair share of slashers that feature bloated casts of kill-fodder but I don’t think I’ve ever witnessed the shear cavalcade of characters that are paraded through Bakemono only to be killed as soon as you start to get a handle on who the hell they even are. The unifying feature is the low-rent apartment building that the demon (or demons?) use as their slaughterhouse for reasons that are as vague as they are unsatisfying. It felt like a condensed version of Game of Thrones the way characters were being introduced and killed off only to have new ones pop up all throughout the movie. The fact that most of the murky low-light film seems to have been shot in the same room representing multiple identical spaces and the singular demon seems to be attacking in multiple places at once contributes to the disjointed, confused tone of the film.
That’s not to say that there aren’t good things to appreciate about Bakemono as well. The practical effects deserve another mention as more filmmakers should be putting in the work to utilize visuals that will hold better over time and not immediately take the CGI route where things are guaranteed to look like washed-out, cartoony shit. There are some delightfully brutal kills on display here and some genuinely shocking and disturbing moments like when a girl gets disemboweled, raped, and strangled with her own intestines. While the effects don’t always land it’s nice to see a film leaning into the gore as much as the special effects capabilities will allow.
There is some great work being done here visually especially for a micro-budget film and little things like the way the demon’s tentacles whip around look absolutely top notch. I also appreciate subtle nods to visual effects classics like The Thing and Possession. This is why it’s especially unfortunate to see the overall product derailed by a vague, murky plot that feels like an afterthought and no real narrative through-line to drive the story forward. It’s more of a collection of scenes than a cohesive film and when you don’t anchor your story with solid characters or a compelling plot, any of the action that occurs feels hollow and unimportant. There’s no question that there’s a lot of passion on display here but I wish there had been an equal amount of forethought and pre-production so the overall film could rise to the level of its ambition.
Availability: Upcoming Release
The film is releasing in North America for the first time on 9/22/26 through Unearthed Films.
