Sometimes Japanese horror goes for ghostly chills, sometimes for kaiju-sized spectacle. 1963’s Matango, however, takes the road less travelled: stranding a group of bourgeois day-trippers on a rotting island and feeding them psychedelic mushrooms until they lose their humanity and their dignity. Directed by Ishirō Honda, best known for Godzilla, this damp, mouldy little nightmare…
Tag: Supernatural
The Plague of the Zombies (1966) – Review
Hammer Films wasn’t just about Peter Cushing creating monsters or Christopher Lee hissing over a candelabra. They also dabbled in voodoo, Cornish superstition, and the occasional zombie infestation. 1966’s The Plague of the Zombies is one such detour; a gothic, fog-drenched curiosity that manages to be creepy, silly, and weirdly influential all at once.
The Haunting (1963) – Review
Robert Wise’s The Haunting remains one of the creepiest haunted house films ever made, despite the fact that you never actually see a ghost. Instead, it’s all shadows, creaking doors, ominous wallpaper, and the fragile unravelling of Julie Harris’s nerves. What Wise delivered wasn’t a carnival of scares, but a psychological chamber piece that still…
Castle of Blood (1964) – Review
Italian Gothic horror doesn’t get much more gloriously moody than Castle of Blood, or Danza Macabra if you’re feeling fancy and prefer your titles in the original Italian. Directed by Antonio Margheriti (sometimes moonlighting under his Anglo pseudonym, Anthony M. Dawson), it’s a chilly black-and-white fever dream where superstition, Poe, and Barbara Steele’s haunting eyes…
Black Sabbath (1963) – Review
Few horror anthologies achieve the hypnotic mix of atmosphere, terror, and pulp like Mario Bava’s Black Sabbath. A triptych of tales ranging from modern urban paranoia to folkloric dread to ghostly terror, this film is a gothic playground where shadows and colour collide. Anchored by the legendary Boris Karloff, this film remains one of the…