Horror novels scare readers through the power of their imaginations, but sometimes, adapting these words straight on screen limits the fear factor. That’s what happened with Lumberjack the Monster. While the film crescendos nicely into the intense graphic violence director Takashi Miike is known for, the introduction is a bit shaky, alternating between the cops and protagonist Akira Ninomiya without a neat balance, and having to reveal key points of the mystery only through dialogue. The film does still retain some of novelist Mayusuke Kurai’s contemplations about the consequences of clinical psychopaths placed in critical roles, but Lumberjack the Monster feels a tad too uneven.

The film is more boggling than scary, to be honest.