FilmNRSupernatural Ghosts & Haunting Folk Horror

Carved: The Slit-Mouthed Woman2007

Name: Carved: The Slit-Mouthed Woman
Genre: Supernatural, Ghosts & Haunting, Folk Horror
Released: 2007-03-16
Rating: 5.6

“Am I Pretty...?”

Directed by Koji Shiraishi

5.6

Crypt Score

Blended from 2 sources

IMDb 5.4TMDB 6.0

✍ Review

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Year

2007

Runtime

90 min

Box Office

Budget

$34,600,000

Revenue (worldwide)

$45,900,000

The premise

Legend holds that 30 years ago, a suburban town was terrorized by the spirit of a woman whose horrid face had been grotesquely disfigured. Roaming the streets wearing a long coat and carrying large scissors, the spirit would approach her young victims and, while removing the mask, ask if she was pretty. The victim’s response would almost always lead to their violent death.

Horror Vault's take

An old urban legend resurfaces in a quiet suburban town when a masked, scissors-wielding woman begins preying on children — mirroring a wave of disappearances that terrorized the same streets three decades earlier. Rooted in one of Japan's most enduring pieces of folklore, the film pits everyday people against a relentless, otherworldly threat that seems impossible to reason with or outrun. The horror is deceptively simple: a single, chilling question whose answer may seal your fate. Blending J-horror atmosphere with deeply unsettling imagery, it earns its scares through dread and mythology rather than spectacle alone.

Content: Violence Against Children, Disturbing Imagery, Scissors-Based Violence, Jump Scares