Film Review | Netflix

Mononoke The Movie: Phantom in the Rain (2024) — psychedelic Japanese horror brings its mystery to Netflix

A deadly and mysterious master of the occult travels across feudal Japan, seeking malevolent spirits called Mononoke to slay.

To anime connoisseurs, the word “Mononoke” will sound familiar, not only because of the famous Studio Ghibli film Princess Mononoke (1997). It brings to mind the cult classic 2007 series by Kenji Nakamura, titled Mononoke (which in turn was a spin-off of his 2006 anthology series Ayakashi: Samurai Horror Tales). Best described as a psychological horror mystery, Mononoke centres around the character of the Medicine Seller. In self-contained procedural arcs, the Medicine Seller hunts mononoke to exorcise them. Mononoke are vengeful spirits in Japanese folklore: they manifest through intense negative emotions and can possess people, causing disease, chaos, and death, taking many different forms.

The anime has remained fairly obscure until now, gaining access to a massive new audience as the movie sequel…