[Fantasia International Film Festival Review]: Haunted Mountains: The Yellow Taboo

Having had its international premiere at this year’s Fantasia International Film Festival, Haunted Mountains: The Yellow Taboo is the feature directorial debut of Chia-Yung Tsai and delves deep into the terrifying Taiwanese folklore behind the urban legend of Mountain Gremlins – malevolent spirits that appear wearing yellow raincoats and straw hats who lure unsuspecting hikers into disappearing without a trace.

After their fellow hiker and friend vanishes on a hiking trip through the mountains, Chia Ming (Jasper Liu) and his girlfriend Yu Hsin (Angela Yuen) revisit the location years later in order to find answers to their friend’s disappearance. Once up on the mountain, the couple bear witness to a strange entity that seems to attach itself to them, forcing Chia Ming to slip into a time loop in which he experiences Yu Hsin’s inevitable violent suicide every day. 

With Taiwanese horror making waves in recent years, particularly with 2021’s The Sadness and 2022’s Incantation, Haunted Mountains: The Yellow Taboo is another remarkable entry into the country’s horror cinematic tradition exploring folklore and supernatural legends. Set against a backdrop of a spectral love triangle, the film is a portrayal of guilt, grief and the perils of not being able to leave the past behind, packaged up in a good old fashioned campfire ghost story. 

With characters that audiences can genuinely care about, Haunted Mountains: The Yellow Taboo is an inspiring and chilling debut from Chia-Yung Tsai that manages to strike the perfect balance of unsettling and atmospheric scares with an overwhelming feeling of sadness and loss. 

4 Screams out of 5