Shrill Cries of Summer

I never watched the anime/read the manga this film was based on, which usually pans out pretty well. Going in with no expectation and seeing where the plot takes you is favorable for a film like Shrill Cries of Summer. The result is a pretty fun mystery with darker/horror-leaning details.

Keiichi moves from Tokyo to a small mountain village. The kids love him and it doesn't take him long to make new friends. The village is idyllic, but it also harbors some darker mysteries. When Keiichi hears about the local folklore he can't seem to get any straight answers from his friends.

The location is perfect and the actors do a decent enough job. The film starts off rather slow, but that's part of the setup. It does get progressively freakier and the finale has some pretty memorable imagery, but it never quite nails the contrast it set out to accomplish. Fun filler, but nothing more.