Bakemono was written and directed by Doug Roos. It takes place in Japan and follows numerous characters as they enter an Airbnb. Little do they know, the grounds are haunted by a foul entity.  

The characters are interesting. There isn’t one who gets the amount of exploration or development the audience might expect from a protagonist because there is no central protagonist. Almost none of the characters are one-dimensional. There is a recurring theme of repressed thoughts and emotions, and that makes it easy to give depth to the characters in a short amount of time. Everyone staying at the Airbnb has their own story, problems, and ways of exploring societal norms. The relationships are deconstructed, destroyed, and affirmed along the way. The performances behind these characters run the gambit from good to bad, but there’s a lot more good than there is bad. The dialogue is generally good with a few highlights. 

Bakemono is well paced. It takes its time revealing its mysteries, but there was so much other stuff happening it never felt sluggish. It is suspenseful and funny when it wants to be. There are a few jump scares. They are well done, but all of them are done the same way, so they get old and ineffective quickly. Those stop after the first third of the runtime. There’s a Lovecraftian approach to how things are portrayed and delivered. You are not intended to know or see a lot before specific points. It kept me guessing. It got the imagination pumping. It was also frustrating. To start with, it’s dark. It’s dark in every way, but I’m referring to lighting. It isn’t so blinding I couldn’t tell what was going on because of darkness alone, but I would have appreciated it if it was a notch brighter. The lighting indoors is slightly yellow. The lighting outdoors is completely different. Outdoors looks like a movie you’d see in theaters. Indoors looks like something I filmed on my flip phone in 2006. I don’t consider this a problem or a flaw. I believe it is an intentional stylistic choice, and I believe it adds authenticity. It is also a divisive creative decision. The way things are filmed when the monster attacks is also going to be divisive. The creature looks as if it was designed around darkness. All the darkness and close-ups prevented me from seeing or fully understanding what was happening in several instances.  I have one gripe with the effects, some blood looked too translucent to me. It looked like it was 75% white blood cells and 25% red blood cells. It can be argued what I saw wasn’t blood because of how confusing some of these scenes appear, but it doesn’t matter because I shouldn’t be in a situation where I have to assume what is and isn’t blood. Everything else is good stuff. Most of the effects are practical. There are instances of digital effects, but they are expertly executed. They’re used at the right time in the right way to make it as hard as possible to tell them apart from the practical stuff. There is also nudity. I don’t know to what extent. The version I saw was censored. 

Bakemono is flawed, but absolutely fascinating. Doug Roos is from Missouri, and he has produced, written, and directed a Japanese horror film that isn’t based on an existing IP. That alone is incredibly interesting. Bakemono will not have mass appeal, but I do recommend seeing it if you’re curious.

7 out of 10