Mudborn [Movie Review]

Mudborn [Movie Review] | I watched this one with a group of friends during one of the Hari Raya open houses. We were waiting fro some other guests/ friends to arrive, so we gave it a watch.

SYNOPSIS

Mudborn (2025) Trivia

• Starring: Tony Yang, Cecilia Choi, Derek Chang, Puff Kuo & Tracy Chou
• Director: Shieh Meng-ju
• Producer: Leo Chen & Lien Yi-Chi
• Production Company: WOWing Entertainment Group, Gift Pictures & Flash Forward Entertainment
• Distributed by: Machi Xcelsior Studios Co., Ltd
• Release date: October 9, 2025
• Running time: 110 minutes
• Rating: MA
• Country: Taiwan
• Language: Taiwanese Mandarin
• IMDb: 6.0/ 10
• Tomatometer: NA
• Metascore: NA
• The film draws from the Taiwanese nursery rhyme Ni Wa Wa (泥娃娃). While the song depicts a doll with no parents, the movie taps into the urban legend that these clay figures serve as vessels for restless spirits. 
• The crew collaborated with folklore experts to ensure the Taoist rituals and talismans remained both culturally authentic and bone-chillingly realistic. 
• A mid-credit scene suggests a shocking twist that Ah-Sheng and Liu Yen may have secretly conspired to harvest spirits for a sinister resurrection plot. 
• A massive box office hit, the film raked in over NT$100 million, securing its spot as Taiwan's third biggest domestic release of 2025.

The movie starts with two colleagues, Chang and Ah-Yi, are tasked with scanning a decaying, overgrown mansion to create assets for a hyper-realistic horror game. The estate carries a grisly legacy of a man possessed who slaughtered his family with a knife, though the body of his artist wife, a woman who spent her days crafting eerie, lifelike clay dolls, was never recovered. 

When Chang hands Ah-Yi a crude ceramic infant doll found in a dusty workstation, a disembodied voice whispers a chilling command "Put it back" that made Ah-Yi accidentally drop the  doll and causes it to crack. In a panicked scramble to escape, Ah-Yi suffers a head injury and a single drop of blood hits the clay surface. The doll drinks it, turning a shade darker and a curse is reawakened. While Chang meets a his end trapped inside a kiln, the doll hitches a ride out of the shadows and into the life of an unsuspecting family.

Hsu-Chuan, the lead game designer, brings the relic home as part of his research, entirely unaware of its latent thirst. His wife, Mu-hua, is a professional artifact conservator who is currently expecting their first child. Rather than feeling the instinctual dread the doll should provoke, her maternal instincts kicked in and she feels a deep, obsessive need to "fix" the broken infant doll. What begins as a simple act of restoration slowly turns into an obsession she cannot explain.

Through home security feeds and VR headsets, Hsu-Chuan watches from his office as his wife’s sanity withers in real time. Mu-hua’s behavior turns increasingly violent and erratic as she begins feeding the doll with her own blood, convinced it needs to be kept alive. 

Desperate for a way out, Hsu Chuan seeks help from Ah Sheng, a spiritual practitioner versed in Taoist rituals. The truth that emerges is far darker than expected. The doll was never meant to be harmless. It was created by a grieving mother using graveyard soil and something far more personal, designed to contain restless spirits within it.

By restoring it, Mu hua has done the unthinkable. She has opened what was meant to stay sealed.

As the seventh day approaches, one reality becomes impossible to ignore. The spirits are no longer content with simply existing. They want to be reborn.

When the ritual to seal the spirits fails, a devastating choice emerges that tests the very limits of sacrifice. 

Who will be the latest victim of the ever hungry and demanding spirits in the doll?

MY REVIEW

What I Like:  

• The idea that a doll might be conduit for something darker somehow becomes a constant reminder in my head - your next doll might be haunted.    
• Strong performances from the cast.
• Seems like there might be a sequel and I live for it!

What I Don't Like:

• Why is it too dark - literally dark like no light at all? Why?

Will I Watch It Again: Yes, I would.

Overall: 4.5/ 5.0

The pictures are taken from multiple sources on the Internet. Thank you.

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