This film essentially begins with three teenage girls named "Akina" (Rinka Otani), "Mizuki" (Riko) and "Shion" (Koki) livestreaming a visit to a supposedly haunted building in a rural part of the Hokuriku region of Japan. Once there, both Akina and Mizuki play a trick on Shion by putting an ox mask on her and then pushing her into an elevator in that building. Having not been used in quite some time, the elevator plummets to the bottom floor and Shion is never seen again. And from that point on, neither are the other two girls. The scene then shifts to a teenage boy named "Ren" (Riku Hagiwara) showing a high school girl by the name of "Kanon" (also played by Kiku) a video of the three other girls with the one named Shion bearing a strong resemblance to Kanon. Intrigued by this, both Ren and Kanon decide to travel to that exact same area to check it out. What neither of them count on, however, is the horror that waits for them the closer they get to their destination. Now, rather than reveal any more, I will just say that this was the final film in the "Village of Terror" trilogy with the only connection being the director (Takashii Shimizu). At least, that's the only similarity I could find. Be that as it may, although the acting was sufficient for the most part, I thought that the horror was somewhat diluted due to the rather slow unfolding of events. Likewise, the ending seemed a bit too cliched and could have used some improvement as well. That being said, while I certainly don't consider this to be a bad horror film by any means, it wasn't quite as horrific as it should have been, and I have rated it accordingly. Slightly below average.
Review of Ox-Head Village
