Bakemono Review: Practical FX Shine in Disjointed Japanese Horror

A multitude of guests visit the same cheap Tokyo Airbnb at different times, unaware of the gruesome creatures waiting for them.

Bakemono is written and directed by Doug Roos, an American who has lived in Tokyo for six years and has created this film not just to showcase the use of practical FX as opposed to digital FX in his horror feature but to shoot Bakemono as a social commentary on the real dark side of Tokyo.

There are over 40 characters in Bakemono and it gets very confusing to keep up with them all as they become guests of this Tokyo-based AirBnB, we explore gender roles and how men are seen as superior in Japan, rape culture is exposed as it is still a serious problem in Japan. Mental health, suicide and more are all explored woven around all of the film’s characters from all walks of life.

Bakemono is Japanese for monster which combines the words bake which means ‘changing or transforming’ and mono which means thing or creature.

Our shapeshifting creature stalks each one of our characters in individual ways but it’s so hard to keep up that the creature’s intentions, motives and reason for being are almost non-existent as I’m frantically trying to keep up with the bouncing timeline.

Shot very much in Pulp Fiction style where timelines bounce back between the past and present without much of a guide as to what is what Bakemono gets lost in a convoluted mess of its own making.

Far too many characters and far too many stories become the film’s downfall as many characters are killed off in the process (with some very gory practical FX might I add) but this only further helps me to understand the film a bit better as this exhaustive cast is dwindling by the minute.

With a minimal plot, you’d think that the cast would be culled to explore their backstories and to understand more about them as people but they’re simply served up like dishes on a rotating sushi counter for the slaughter. 

One comes around, one gets consumed and the others rotate and the process repeats itself as sometimes the creature kills them immediately whilst others it preys on their emotions and has them acting out on others they are residing with in the accommodation.

Whilst this rather brief social commentary does pick up on a few key issues it unfortunately never manages to grapple my attention, it feels all over the place and no one story is ever given enough time to grow.

Confusing and convoluted in equal measure Bakemono has some serious potential to be great if it just dialled it back considerably.

The practical FX work is superb with the creature being very foreboding and incredibly creepy as though it has been pulled straight out of the Channel Zero series (I’m thinking of the tooth man specifically).

Gory kills galore and there are some beautiful shots of the city and some beautifully cut shots that intertwined between the lowly lit apartment shots, there’s so much potential there but sadly it becomes too complicated for its own good.

The runtime of Bakemono certainly drags on and I can’t say that I was hooked throughout, far from, I was merely intrigued as to how the next kill would play out if only to settle my anxiety that was induced trying to keep up with who was who, what was happening and asking myself why am I still watching.

I’d have happily toned down the occupants of the apartment to 5 or 6 over time and focused on their stories and their relationships rather than cramming a whole room full of occupants into one story and jumbling things up in the process.

It’s ambitious to have a cast of that size in the film and there are some shots and parts of the film that work beautifully but sadly this creature feature is lost on me from the off.

Bakemono review by Sean Evans