House by Nobuhiko Obayashi (top); Goke, Bodysnatcher from Hell by Hajime Sato (bottom)
Schedule and synopses from the American Cinematheque website.
Wednesday, September 23 – 7:30 PM
Japanese Cult Classics Double Feature:
HOUSE (HAUSU), 1977, Janus Films, 87 min. This long-lost fantasy/horror masterpiece from director Nobuhiko Obayashi has finally surfaced in America. Oshare can’t wait to spend the summer with her father…until he informs her that he plans to remarry. She decides to go away with some friends to visit an estranged aunt…who, unbeknownst to the girls is immortal and can only remain that way by feeding on virgins. Her evil house, with its girl-devouring piano, does the killing for her. Based on an idea given to the director by his then 7-year-old daughter. With Kimiko Ikegami.
GOKE, BODYSNATCHER FROM HELL (KYUKETSKI GOKEMIDORO), 1968, Janus Films, 84 min. Director Hajime Sato unleashed one of the scariest 1960s sci-fi/horror films with this blend of surreal visuals and a 1950s-style storyline. Opening with a shot of a jetliner against an ominously orange sky (to which Quentin Tarantino paid homage in KILL BILL, VOL.1), Sato plunges us into action as the plane is disabled by a flying saucer and crash-lands in a mountainous desert. Heroic pilot Teruo Yoshida tries to control the panic but can’t keep several passengers from wandering off and promptly getting invaded by a creeping blue gel that turns them into vampiric killers.
Screening preceded by a booksigning at 6:30 PM with author Chris D. and his re-released book Outlaw Masters of Japanese Film.
Japanese-horror, is Japanese contributions to horror fiction in popular culture, noted for their unique thematic and conventional treatment of the horror genre in light of western treatments.