Kuroneko (1968)

Vividly stylized cinematography and audacious themes combine to create this criterion of Japanese horror.

Directed by: Kaneto Shindô

Cinematography by: Kiyomi Kuroda & Norimichi Igawa

Country: Japan

Genre: Horror/Fantasy/Drama

Bizarre, yet astonishingly gorgeous and utterly unique, Kuroneko (aka The Black Cat) sits near the peak of the mountain of Japanese horror.

After two women are raped and murdered by a band of roving samurai, the women trade their souls for vengeance in a deal with the underworld. Transformed into semi-demonic spirits, the women then haunt a bamboo forest where they seduce passing samurai, and after bedding the men, the women transform into giant catlike creatures and savage them, tearing out their throats with teeth and claw.

Around the same time as the brutal murders begin taking place, a man returns home victorious from war after killing an enemy general. As a reward, the man is elevated to the status of a samurai, and his first mission is to hunt down and destroy the bloodthirsty ghosts that have been plaguing the area. Much to his horror and dismay though, he finds that the infernal ghosts are the vengeful spirits of his mother and young wife.

He learns the fate that befell them while he was away, and from there, love and oaths are tested: the man to his newfound honor as a samurai; the wife and mother to their pact with the underworld, risking eternal damnation if they break it. If that juxtaposition seems a bit one-sided, it’s intentional.

Full of feminist themes, darkly mystical aesthetics, and an atmosphere so dense you can feel it, you’d be hard-pressed to find many horror films before the horror boom of the 1970s that can match the cinematic quality and content of Kuroneko.

Distributed by: The Criterion Collection / Janus Films / Toho Company