Films about fatal encounters with inhabitants of forest depths or mountain fastnesses have long been horror staples in Japan. One early example is Morihei Magatani’s 1959 shocker “The Bloody Sword of the 99th Virgin,” in which “primitive” mountain villagers sacrifice virgins in a completely fictitious ritual.
For his latest feature, “Yellow Dragon's Village,” 25-year-old director Yugo Sakamoto came up with a fresh twist on this classic horror scenario that garnered invitations from film festivals in Austin, Texas, and San Sebastian, Spain. Based on his own original script, it begins as a localized variant of all those 1980s slasher movies in which obnoxious young adults get their bloody comeuppance.
A group of eight college-age kids drives into the countryside for a day of fun and a night of what promises to be erotic frolics, at least for the two girls and two guys whooping it up as their minivan drives deeper into the mountains. Two muscular guys sitting in the back — Kento (Masayuki Inou) and Keisaku (Jingi Umemoto) — are quieter, as are the weak-seeming Mutsuo (Kenta Osaka) and his sister Makoto (Shioka Ishizuka).