Unearthed Films are putting Bakemono out on Blu-ray on September 22, 2026, and if you’re wondering whether the practical-effects pitch is just marketing hype slapped onto the cover because horror fans like seeing the words “no CGI,” it really isn’t.
Written, directed, produced, shot, edited, and self-financed by Doug Roos – who also handled every single creature effect himself – the movie plays out inside a cheap Tokyo rental apartment where different guests arrive at different points in time, none of them realising something horrible is waiting inside.
Instead of telling the story straight, Roos chops the timeline up like Memento or Pulp Fiction, replacing hitmen and memory loss with a shapeshifting monster and a ridiculous amount of blood. Even the Japanese title gives the game away: bakemono translates roughly as monster or changing creature, which fits once the mutations and tentacles start coming out.
Roos spent over 80 days shooting with a cast of more than 40 actors, wearing his influences right on his sleeve – citing John Carpenter’s The Thing, The Blob, Aliens, and The Fly alongside Japanese anime like The Guyver and Wicked City. After premiering at Another Hole in the Head in San Francisco back in December 2023 and picking up several festival awards for its creature work, the Unearthed Films Blu-ray finally gives it a proper disc release with five extras:
- Making The Practical FX: Bringing A Gruesome Monster To Life
- The Dark Side Of Tokyo: The Meaning Behind The Film
- Principal Photography
- Bakemono Unleashed: Reactions And Surprises
- Festival Q&A In Germany
The practical-effects featurette is probably the main reason to pick this up – watching how one bloke actually built all those mutations from scratch over 80 days beats another generic studio behind-the-scenes promo reel any day.
Keep an eye on Unearthed Films for pre orders.
More Asian horror movie news.
- Kathmandu Horror Film Fest Returns to Kathmandu for Three Days of Horror, Fantasy and Folklore
- Visitor Q Gets a New Limited Edition Blu-ray from Radiance Films This October
- The Haunted Cop Shop Gets a 2K Blu-ray Restoration From 88 Films This September
- Cyclops Gets Its First-Ever North American Blu-ray Release from Visual Vengeance
- Confessions Of A Shaman Becomes Thailand’s Second Biggest Film of 2026 to Date
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