Carved: The Slit-Mouthed Woman

Noboru Matsuzaki experiences a chilling, whispered question in the air: 'Am I pretty?' The unsettling voice marks the first supernatural touch in the town's growing fear. As rumors swirl, Noboru senses a malevolent presence nearby.

An earthquake cracks open an abandoned house, and a corpse matching Kuchisake-onna's description crawls out of a closet. The shocking emergence confirms the legend's reality and triggers a wave of dread across the town. Fear spreads as the community contends with a new, terrifying omen.

Panic grips the town and the school orders students to head home in groups, escorted by staff. Corridors fill with whispered rumors as parents and teachers try to maintain order against the spreading fear. Noboru and others watch the situation escalate from a distance, trapped between routine and horror.

Mika Sasaki opens up about her troubling home life, revealing that her mother hits her. Kyōko Yamashita's fraught relationship with her own daughter deepens the sense of vulnerability in the town. These personal tensions heighten the horror, linking the legend to ordinary family strife.

Noboru continues to hear the eerie voice, a chain of echoes that foreshadow the appearance of Kuchisake-onna and the danger looming over the children. The haunting audio ties Noboru’s personal history to the town’s spreading torment. The mystery deepens as the spirit’s influence grows.

A boy who had gone searching for the spirit with friends is suddenly grabbed by Kuchisake-onna on the playground. The incident confirms that the entity actively targets children and raises the stakes for adults trying to protect them. Fear spreads as parents hurry kids home under cover of dusk.

Mika confronts Kuchisake-onna and manages to knock the mask off, exposing the disfigured face that haunts the town. The act shifts the momentum, offering a temporary glimmer of hope while drawing the spirit’s wrath. The moment cements Kuchisake-onna as a tangible, deadly threat.

Back at school, Noboru presents Kyōko with a thirty-year-old photograph of a woman who strongly resembles Kuchisake-onna—the late Taeko Matsuzaki. The revelation ties the legend to Noboru's abusive upbringing and suggests that the horror is personal as well as communal. The photograph becomes a crucial clue to understanding the haunting.

The voice guides them to a house where a rescue is possible: another boy is held by the spirit, and the group fights to pull him free. The house becomes a battleground where the boundary between life and death blurs, and the spirit shifts forms to test their resolve. They press on despite fear and danger.

Kuchisake-onna can possess women, occasionally taking the form of a seemingly ordinary housewife and is often accompanied by a telltale cough. This revelation deepens the sense that danger lurks behind familiar faces and ordinary routines. The entity manipulates the vulnerable, crossing the line between the everyday and the supernatural.

Taeko Matsuzaki's backstory is laid bare: Noboru's mother was abusive and unstable, a memory that fuels his fear and drives his determination to confront the spirit. The revelation links the past to the present threat and shows how trauma can spawn recurring hauntings. The family history becomes a core motive for the characters' actions.

In the basement, Mika and Kyōko face a brutal assault from Kuchisake-onna. Kyōko stabs the spirit in the neck, ending the immediate danger and leaving behind the body of Natsuki Tamura's mother as a grim sign of the evil still lurking. Noboru fights with everything he has, but his injuries prove fatal as he decapitates Kuchisake-onna to purge the threat. However, the only way to end the terror is to destroy Taeko's corpse hidden in the closet, and even then the spirit endures, possessing Kyōko and implying the nightmare will continue beyond this moment.