(1964)
Dir - Kaneto Shindo
Overall: GOOD
Harsh, merciless, atmospheric, and cripplingly slow at times, Kaneto Shindo's Onibaba, (Demon Hag), utilizes its horror components in a bare, metaphoric way. The story is remarkably simple; in fact too simple to justify long stretches where nothing is propelled further and particular scenes grow monotonous. In a miserable, hopelessly uncertain time of civil war when begging and pillaging is all one can do to desperately survive, no one here comes out ahead. Having already been forced to live such loathsome lives, humans and demons become interchangeable indeed. The odd-ball score from Hikaru Hayashi mixes tribal drums, screams, and jazz instrumentation, making for an eccentric component when it is sparingly used. Another plus is Kiyomi Kuroda's shrouded cinematography which obscures entire characters in shadow and makes the wild, overgrown reeds surrounding undisclosed huts seem all the more labyrinth-like. None of the characters are likeable, but this gives its grim ending a moral footing as well as a tragic one.
(1968)
Dir - Nobou Nakagawa
Overall: GOOD
Several aspects of Nobou Nakagawa's Snake Woman's Curse, (Kaidan hebi-onna), are curiously realized, but it is an interesting work at the very least from one of Japan's most prolific filmmakers in the horror genre. It is another vengeful ghost premise this time set in the Meiji period where an unfeeling landlord and his brutish son meet their comeuppance at the hands of a bad omen via snake mischief. The ghost appearances are quite frequent and often very abrupt, as are some of the transitional choices between scenes. One such instance occurs when the camera randomly fades to black halfway through only to come right back to where the action was taking place. These moments where the pale, ghostly dead show up to repeat the same dialog they said to the people that they are haunting, (followed by hallucinations of snakes and then much yelling and breaking things), becomes rather repetitive after awhile. Nakagawa still pulls off some unique tricks along the way, especially by the finale where a religious exorcism ceremony of sorts goes predictably very wrong. There is also some tense, hand-held camera work and striking images that while arbitrary, do reinforce the supernatural nature.
(1969)
Dir - Yasuzo Masumura
Overall: GOOD
One of the earliest cinematic adaptations of a Edogawa Rampo work was Yasuzo Masumura's Blind Beast, (Mōjū). A morbidly strange examination of Stockholm syndrome and depravity, the film lays on its metaphors at point blank range. The characters theorize each other's behavior out loud and along with steady narration from one of them, this leaves the viewer with no choice but to just have a voyeuristic experience of the whole thing. Set primarily in an almost laughably bizarre "art" studio with the walls made up of molded body parts surrounding a giant naked woman's torso the size of a truck, things only get increasingly alarming from there. By the time the third act kicks into high gear, the rails come off and the film brilliantly manages to let the viewer share in the disturbing numbness the way that the characters now have. Masumura expertly maintains a tone of seriousness even as nearly every detail of the film is ridiculous. While it could be seen as a precursor to torture porn, it never becomes too visually explicit to be uncomfortable, instead even taking the opportunity to pile on even more symbolism in its very last act of violence.
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