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The online film magazine Combustible Celluloid offers new movie reviews, DVD reviews, film reviews, actor interviews, actress interviews, director interviews, film books and all things cinema related for the thoughtful and passionate. Online for ten years! Over 3000 reviews!

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Carved: The Slit-Mouthed Woman (2007)

Rating: 3 Stars (out of 4)

Jaws for Alarm

By Jeffrey M. Anderson

Buy Carved: The Slit-Mouthed Woman on DVD

Shiraishi Koji's primal and perverse new film ventures into precarious places. Based on an actual urban legend, the slit-mouthed woman wears a long coat and a surgical mask to cover up her sliced-open mouth, and kidnaps children. In Koji's film, she appears supernaturally by inhabiting people's bodies (they cough just before the beastie appears). A teacher, Ms. Yamashita (Eriko Sato), who has been forbidden to see her child due to past physical abuse, sees one of her students kidnapped and tries to solve the case. The film is rushed and a bit of a mess, but its effective, low-tech imagery and sound effects more than make up for the slick professionalism. The "Carved" part of the title was added at the last minute.

DVD Details: Tartan's new DVD comes with a making-of featurette, cast interviews, a trailer, TV spots and optional subtitles.

Starring: Eriko Sato, Haruhiko Kato, Miki Mizuno, Kawai Chiharu, Kuwana Rie
Written by: Shiraishi Koji, Yokota Naoyuki
Directed by: Shiraishi Koji
MPAA Rating: Unrated
Language: Japanese with English subtitles
Running Time: 90 minutes
Date: September 12, 2007