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Two women kill samurai and sell their belongings for a living. While one of them is having an affair with their neighbor, the other woman meets a mysterious samurai wearing a bizarre mask.
(NR, 102 min.)
7:00 PM
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Deep within the wind-swept marshes of war-torn medieval Japan, an impoverished mother and her daughter-in-law eke out a lonely, desperate existence. Forced to murder lost samurai and sell their belongings for grain, they dump the corpses down a deep, dark hole and live off of their meager spoils. When a bedraggled neighbor returns from the skirmishes, lust, jealousy, and rage threaten to destroy the trio’s tenuous existence, before an ominous, ill-gotten demon mask seals the trio’s horrifying fate. Driven by primal emotions, dark eroticism, a frenzied score by Hikaru Hayashi, and stunning images both lyrical and macabre, Kaneto Shindo’s chilling folktale Onibaba is a singular cinematic experience.
Starring: Nobuko Otowa, Jitsuko Yoshimura, Kei Satô
Director: Kaneto Shindô
Languages: Japanese
Genre(s): Horror, Drama, Thriller
"One of the absolute peaks of atmospheric black-and-white horror."
— TV Guide
"A harsh and savage tale where a ravenous hunger defines every action."
— Matt Brunson, Film Frenzy
"A creepy, interesting, and visually striking 1963 feature by Kaneto Shindo."
— Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader
"Shindô re-imagines a famous Buddhist legend as a chilling parable on the ravages of war."
— Scott Tobias, A.V. Club
"A lush darkness fills every trippy scene in this stone cold (black-and-white) classic of Japanese horror."
— Cole Smithey, ColeSmithey.com
"A frenzied pressure cooker of desire: where carnal longing finds itself manifested in both the natural and supernatural world."
— Julian Singleton, Cinapse
"Onibaba is a chilling movie, a waking nightmare shot in icy monochrome, and filmed in a colossal and eerily beautiful wilderness."
— Peter Bradshaw, Guardian
"Shindo's transformation of the tale into an erotic noir tale of psychological horror is brilliantly subversive, and yet in its way intuitive and faithful."
— Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian
"Given its historical setting, visually dynamic presentation, and open-ended conclusion, Onibaba lends itself to interpretation and symbolic readings."
— Brian Eggert, Deep Focus Review
"Here, Shindō moulds a childhood Buddhist fable warning against duplicity for his own means. In Onibaba, truthfulness is about finding the limits of your own freedom in an unfathomable moral sea."
— Nicola Woodham, Electric Sheep
"Shindo’s film is a chilling horror folktale of how desperation, sexual guilt, and hatred can twist people into the worst versions of themselves. With cinematographer Kiyomi Kuroda’s beautifully evocative shots of windswept marshes swaying ominously in the breeze coupled with a thunderous and frenzied score by Hikaru Hayashi, Onibaba isn’t just an excellent spooky movie — it’s an absolute feast for the senses."
— Toussaint Egan, Polygon
