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Meyumi is a
bubbly teenage girl with good friends and
a loving family. Everything seems to be perfect in
Meyumi's life until one day when everything changes.
As she falls victim to an acid attack, her face is
horribly disfigured and both her family and friends
start distancing themselves from her. To make things
even worse, Meyumi is having visions of a ghostly
woman with a pair of scissors - and it seems as if
this ghostly woman is killing off anyone close to Meyumi.
Carved (aka A Slit-mouthed Woman) is one of the most
overrated J-horror flicks of all time if you ask me.
That movie was mediocre at best and I can't say that
I was thrilled about a sequel being made. Well, Carved 2
(or The Scissors Massacre as the official English
title is - probably due to the fact that Tartan no
longer exists and they needed to be able to sell it
as a stand-alone movie) is not much of an improvement
on its predecessor. In fact, it's pretty much the
same as the first movie. What surprised me was what
little connection this had to the first movie. So
little that it even contradicts a lot of the things
that happened in the first movie. See, Carved 2 works
as a prequel but it felt as if the writer and director
of this prequel never took the time to see the first
movie since there are so many inconsistencies between
the two stories.
Carved 2 is about a young girl, Meyumi, who's horribly
disfigured after an acid attack to her face. Soon
enough a ghostly woman shows up and starts killing
off anyone close to Meyumi - or so it seems. It's
an okay plot, I'll give it that but the title promises
more than the movie delivers. Carved 2 is a very
slow burner. One would think after the horrible pacing
of the first movie that they would speed things up
a little this time around but instead they've decided
to slow things down even more. This results in a
ridiculously tedious movie that doesn't get going
until the final 10 minutes. Up until that point it's
painfully slow and boring, and the big climax just
isn't good enough to make up for the first 80 minutes
of the movie. However, there are some good things
to be found in here as well.
Rookie director Kôtarô Terauchi seems to be comfortable
behind the camera and isn't afraid of trying new
things. This is one of the reasons why Carved 2 looks
so much better production-wise than its predecessor.
Also, the acting is much better this time around.
Obviously the first movie must've been somewhat of a
success. The little action that we get is quite good
and even though I'm opposed to prequels where you get
to know the villain, the back-story is pretty neat
and you can understand why the villain is so pissed
off. Still, Carved 2 was just way too slow for my
personal liking even though I'm sure that fans of the
first movie will enjoy this as well. I wouldn't waste
my time trying to get a copy of this unless you
loved the predecessor.
Some minor gore including stabbings, a gory head
wound, fingers off and some more.
Beautiful piano music but other than that I wasn't
really impressed.
Ignores its predecessor almost completely and acts
as a stand-alone production. Nothing special this
time around either though and doesn't get going until
the final act. Worth checking out only if you LOVED
the first movie. If not, don't bother.
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