Have you ever heard of Howling Village? What about Inunaki Tunnel or Inunaki Village?
Among the Japanese, it is pretty well-known as an urban legend.
Director and writer Takashi Shimizu released Howling Village (Original title: Inunaki mura) based on Japanese urban legend. However, the story has been modernized. Takashi combines the old story with current events.
Howling Village Movie Ending Explained in Details
* * * Spoiler Alert – If you haven’t seen the movie yet, turn back now! * * *
In the movie’s opening scene, we see Akina & her boyfriend, Yuma, standing in front of a telephone booth. This is late at night, almost 2 am. They came here to explore the rumours associated with a village called Inunaki.
There is common folklore: every night at 2 am, a call comes from Inunaki village at the phone booth next to the Red Bridge. And if anyone receives the call, then in a miraculous way, a path is created through the tunnel next to the bridge.
But the exciting thing is there is no such village called Inunaki in the government history of Japan. This Inunaki village is commonly famous as a cursed urban legend worldwide. That’s why many online content creators & explorers try to make content about this place. Many have been lost or even died while trying to revive the mystery of this village.
Also, tonight, Akina and Yuma will reveal the secret.
At precisely 2 o’clock, the telephone rang, and Akina received the call. However, no one can be heard from that pass of the call. Instead, sounds like water flow is heard.
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Now, according to legends, the path should be opened. So, they started heading through the tunnel. Akina was in the lead, and Yuma was shooting with the camera.
At one point, they reached the very end of the tunnel. And surprised to see a board where it was written that
From this point forward, the constitution and laws of japan do not apply here.
This means after this point; no Japanese rules will work here.
Here, Yuma keeps talking about backing up. But Akina is determined to move forward.
After going some distance ahead, they saw some old & abandoned houses. At this time, Akina needs to use the washroom. So, she decided to use one of these houses’ toilets.
Yuma was now alone. So he was looking around the place. Suddenly he found a cage and heard the sound of a barking dog. Yuma went near the cage and was surprised to find no animals. There was just after the old skeleton of a dead dog.
Meanwhile, as Akina enters the washroom, she realizes someone has locked her door from the outside. She also heard some noises outside the door. Suddenly few hands tried to attack Akina from outside. So she was terrified and immediately moved from the house.
Yuma also saw a dark spirit, and he was scared too. Akina & Yuma meet again and decide that leave the village as soon as possible.
Movie scene changes here.
In the next scene, we see a lady named Kanaya, a psychiatrist. We saw another lady come to Kanaya for his boy named Roytar.
For the last few days, Roytar became silent & depressed. He wasn’t talking to anyone. Roy has had horrible dreams several times in the last few days. And woke up scared.
Roy’s parents thought he was hiding something from them. So they decided to consult with a psychiatrist.
Kanaya wanted to talk with Roy alone, so all but two left the room.
In this session, Roy let Kanaya know that he has been seeing a spirit for the last few days and the spirit introduced herself as Mother. The spirit didn’t want to tell Roy to his parents about her existence. This was Roy’s secret.
At the end of the session, Roy suddenly points to one side of the room when he leaves. Kanaya noticed the spirit of a woman standing on that corner.
Here scene changes and back to Akina.
The incident at Inunaki village has badly affected Akina. After the event, she became mentally unstable. She sketches many weird things, suddenly starts laughing for no reason, sings the same song many times, and even urinates when walking.
In the next scene, we saw Yuma & Kanaya talking. From their discussion, we know they are brother-sisters, and Yuma wants help from Kanaya for Akina. Yuma told Kanaya that the strange behaviours of Akina started after the Inunaki village events. He also assumed that the main reason for abnormal Akina was the curse of Inunaki.
In the middle of the conversation, a boy came towards them named Kota. He was their younger brother. Kota got a project from his school about the rumour of Inunaki village. So he wanted to hear more about Inunaki village from Yuma.
Their father, Mr. Morita, came there and told Kota angrily to avoid any Inunaki matters.
The next day Kanay visited Akina’s house. Kanaya noticed some negative ghostly vibes at the house and felt very uncomfortable. Then that day, Akina committed suicide in front of Kanaya by falling from a high tower.
Dr. Yamanobi performed the autopsy of Akina and informed them that the death of Akina did not occur by falling from a high place but she died by drowning in the water. He also reported that Akina was pregnant.
By all knowing, Yuma fully believed in the curse of Inunaki village and became very angry. He decided to seal the tunnel so that in the future, none could go to the village.
Yuma called some of his friends and went to the tunnel. But they were shocked to see that the tunnel was already sealed. Yuma was shocked, too, because he knew the tunnel was open when they came here last time. So, he decided to go inside the tunnel and find the reason.
In the next scene, Kota hides in the back of Yumas’ car. So he also reached the tunnel. Kota came here with a hand camera and started shooting everything.
After some time, Kota heard noises from the inside of the tunnel-like someone called him by his name. So Kota became confused and entered the tunnel.
Then we saw Yuma screaming into the tunnel because many spirits surrounded him. His friends heard the sound of Yuma’s screams and became terrified. They went back to Mr. Morita and told him what had happened.
Mr. Morita called the police, and they all again back to them in front of the tunnel. Police found Kotas’ hand camera. So they ensured that Yuma & Kota was inside the tunnel and something terrible happened to them. But the situation was so complicated that the police feared entering the tunnel. Even the police didn’t want to allow others to enter. Yuma’s mother tries to enter the tunnel so hard, but the police stop her too. Middle of this, she saw something inside the tunnel and became stunned. After that, she started behaving strangely and abnormally.
Here scene changes to Kanaya. Roy’s mother called Kanaya and told her that Roy had become so sick that he was admitted to the hospital. In the meantime, she informed me that Dr. Yamanobi (who performed the autopsy of Akina) was also admitted to the hospital. Kanaya went to the hospital and decided to stay at night.
At night Kanaya sat next to Roy’s bed and slept a little. After a while, she woke up and saw that Roy wasn’t in his bed. She found Roy standing in front of Dr. Yamanobi’s cabin.
Kanaya asked Roy what he was doing there. Roy replied that he had come here to call his grandfather. Kanaya became very confused. She entered Dr. Yamanobi’s room and saw many dark spirits surrounding them. All the spirits were singing the same song. The meaning of the song:
If the crop goes wrong, then destroy it.
Suddenly those spirits started to catch Kanaya and Roy. So they ran away to the corridor. At that time, they saw Dr. Yamanobi’s spirit, and it shouted to Kanaya & Roy,
Only your blood has the power to destroy the curse.
A nurse enters the place out of nowhere, and surprisingly everything becomes normal as if nothing had happened. The nurse informed Kanaya that Dr. was dead just 2 minutes ago.
At that moment, Kanaya realized that somehow Roy was connected to the tunnel, Akina and Inunaki village. Because when she met Akina, she was also singing the same song sung by the spirits.
The next day Kanaya went to meet Roy’s parents, and they revealed that Roy was not their child. Their child died on the day of birth. At the same time, another woman gave birth to a boy and died. So the baby boy had none to look after. Then they decided to adopt the child, and now that baby boy is Roytar.
The scene changes here, and we see one of Yumas’ friends standing towards the tunnel. His car broke down. He called other friends for help, and two of them came after a while. When they reached, they saw the broken car was still there, but their friend was missing. They were looking around the place but failed.
Thus, it is 2 a.m., and the call comes to the phone booth. One of them received the call, but the other was silent. Suddenly they feel that the booth is locked from the outside and many spirits are surrounding it. Suddenly, water began to seep into the booth, and it began to fill up. The spirits sang the same song, filling the booth with water. They died here.
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In the next scene, we see Kanaya and Mr. Morita talking about the Inunaki village, and Mr. Morita tells her that their family was related to this curse.
So Kanaya went to her grandfather for more information. After going there, she remembers that her grandmother was the ability to see the spirits too. She realized that the gift she got came from her grandma.
Kanaya asked her grandfather about the village. Then he said that a long time ago, there was a little village named Inunaki. But the dam broke, and the village was washed away in flood.
After that, Kanaya came outside and remembered one day she was sitting in that place with her grandmother. That day she saw a boy standing in some distance. Strangely she noticed that boy standing in the same place now. The boy looked the same age and the same dress.
Today Kanaya came to get acquainted with the boy. The boy’s name was Kenji, and he enlightened Kanaya that he had a massive collection of Inunaki village. Then Kenji gave some documents about the village, and Kanaya started to watch them.
We know from the documents that Inunaki was a little village. But one day, a power company came to the village to build a hydraulic powerhouse. So they want the land of the village. But the villagers were not agreed to leave their land.
The power company was so hungry for profit. Thus they decide to abandon the villagers darkly. After that, the power company did with the villagers was no less than any curse.
They illegally convinced the government and removed every village symbol from the map. So, officially there was no such village named Inunaki. After that, a signboard was funded in the tunnel’s entry, which we saw in the movie’s opening scene.
From this point forward, the constitution and laws of japan do not apply here.
Power companies leave wild dogs in the village, and many villagers die for that. Men from power companies caged villagers and tortured them in a very gruesome way. Then one-night power company opened a dam, and the broken village was washed away forever.
In the video footage, Kanaya finds out that the owner of the power company was none other than her great-grandfather. That’s why Inunaki villagers curse their families.
Then we saw Kanaya & Kenji waiting for the call in front of the phone booth. As usual, the phone rings at 2 AM. Kanaya received the call. Kanaya heard that Yuma & Kota wanted help from the other side of the call. And then Kanaya & Kenji headed through the tunnel.
When they reached the village then, it seemed like they had reached in the past. The village was broken but not abandoned yet. They found Yuma & Kota captive in a cage. Kanaya freed them.
After that, they found a recently born baby boy in the next cage. And the mother was senseless near the boy.
Kenji told Kanaya that the village would flood very soon. Also, Kanaya should take the baby and go outside the tunnel. This boy will be the last bloodline of the Inunaki village. So if the boy lives, then the curse will be removed.
So all of them were moving through the tunnel. At that time, Maya (the baby’s mother) chases them to take her boy. She had already transferred into a demon. Yuma & Kenji tried to stop Maya, and Kota & Kanaya, with the boy, finally skipped the tunnel.
After coming out of the tunnel, Kanaya didn’t find the baby. Then Kanaya & Kota became unconscious.
When Kanaya woke up, she was in a hospital. After that, she was informed by police that her brother Yumas’ dead body was found in the tunnel with two ancient skeletons. It is easy to understand that the other two skeletons were Kenji & Maya.
In the last scene, we saw a baby boy lying on the road, and a family took the baby with a smile. The scene looked like somehow the place was in the past.
The movie ends here.
Review of The Movie Howling Village (2019)
It seems that the bad aspects outweigh the good. The movie is genuinely boring and disappointing for my taste.
Director Takashi Shimizu tries to connect the village’s curse with a family. Is it necessary to have a secondary plot about the boy and his late mother? I don’t think so.
Although these are the movie’s best parts, they are mostly broken before the final scene.
The movie won’t be a problem for me if this is the only problem. There is nothing logical about the whole final scene, which completely undermines the movie’s impact.
What piercing do you have? There’s a friendly ghost involved, along with a trip back in time.
Another exciting aspect of Inunaki is that it is an absolute urban legend. Director tries to alter folklore and solve the curse. He changes Inunaki but in no way makes sense.
The walk through the town is another problem. As the film progresses, the village spirit becomes creepier and more terrifying, making you feel like you’re being chased by it non-stop. Is this the direction the movie should take? Huh! No fear, no chills, not even something terrible. A terrible, terrible disappointment. The whole climax of the movie ruined my movie because it was so ridiculous.
The visual effects, especially for Maya, are also awful. Her transformation is not terrible; it is uncomfortable rather than terrifying.
The visual effects in spirits aren’t particularly spectacular, but they’re decent enough and scary enough when it counts. Honestly, I was expecting some excellent horror footage, but what I saw was J-horror’s usual fare.
It took me two-thirds of the movie to watch Howling Village. Despite some unnecessary slow parts, I enjoyed it generally. There is a plot, the characters are interesting, and the premise absorbs all the elements of a good horror film!
The beginning of the movie and the middle of the movie seem like they have a lot of potential. It suddenly changed from creepy and horrible to stupid and absurd in the film’s last third. This ruined all the progress made by the film. The result was incredibly dull and unsatisfying.
Good Points
- There are some interesting materials in the film.
- Some scenes are creepy and remind me that it’s a horror film.
- The two-third is enjoyable.
Bad Points
- The whole third is bullshit!
- Poor visual effects.
- Too many plot holes.
Recommendation
Howling Village (2019) is recommended as a ‘one-time watch’ supernatural horror film by Brainless Pen.
Summary
Original Title: Inunaki mura
Other Titles: Howling Village
Genre: Horror/ Thriller/ Supernatural
Runtime: 1hr 48min
Original Language: Japanese
Directed by Takashi Shimizu
Written by Daisuke Hosaka, Takashi Shimizu
Release date: February 7, 2020 (Japan)
Origin Country: Japan
