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Of all the female archetypes in narrative fiction, few are as reviled or misunderstood as the crone. This woman “of a certain age” has accumulated an arsenal of invaluable wisdom, but due to her age and fading conventional beauty, finds herself ostracized by the larger world. Often isolated, we think of crones inhabiting dilapidated huts on the outskirts of town conversing only with young strangers who seek out their counsel for insurmountable tasks. These visitors usually leave just as quickly as they came, shuddering at the thought of her solitary existence.

Though she’s often presented as a horrific harbinger or cautionary tale, the crone is still a human being, just as capable of complex emotions and desires as her younger counterparts. Sixty years before The Substance and Babygirl explored modern iterations of this misunderstood archetype, Kaneto Shindô imbued the crone with humanity in his 1964 film Onibaba. When men intrude on her simplistic life,...

“Once it’s dark, it can’t get any darker.”

Horror is filled with iconic masks, from Michael Myers and his vaguely humanoid contours to Peachfuzz and his unruly snarl. Some allow killers to hide their identities, attacking in secret while maintaining a relationship with their would-be victims. Others provide a persona of strength and terror that a would-be villain could not otherwise achieve. Though masks have been a genre staple since the dawn of film, few are as uniquely terrifying as the Hannya mask in Kaneto Shindô’s Onibaba. Set in 14th century Japan, this gorgeous film follows a fearful woman who dons a traditional mask only to find it slowly seeping into her skin.

Kichi’s Mother (Nobuko Otowa) is patiently waiting for her son to return from war. Left without a male provider, she lives with Kichi’s Wife (Jitsuko Yoshimura) in a hut surrounded by a large field of suzuki grass.

As with any cinematic genre, horror movies are nothing new. Audiences have sought out these terrifying works since the dawn of film. However, many older examples of horror quickly show their age. What was once an edge-of-your-seat thriller gathers dust and pales against its more modern counterparts, slowly falling into the ever-growing pile of “campy” old movies. Of course, not all early horror succumbs to this fate.

Kaneto Shindō’s Onibaba is the perfect example of such a timeless classic, and it’s been frightening filmgoers since 1964. Its success is a multifaceted combination of atmospheric, narrative, and visual perfection. Even after decades of progress, Onibaba remains a grotesquely captivating cinematic feat that has yet to be replicated. Moreover, while countless horror classics have received “updated” remakes, Onibaba has never been reshot. It’s been a candidate for a modern revival, though. Interestingly, the effort to recreate Onibaba was spearheaded by William Dafoe,...

by Palomo Lin-Linares

How does one categorize the films of Nagisa Oshima? Even among his brethren new wave directors, he stands as an auteur independent of any particular movement. “Japanese Summer: Double Suicide,” in all its absurdism, provocation, and politically charged imagery, is a perfect example of Oshima's non-conformist method of expression.

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The film opens with a series of left hook vignettes, connected by cultural imagery which serve as an introduction to the film's language and style. Nejiko, a young sexually obsessed woman (Keiko Sakurai) meets Otoko, a man obsessed with death (Kei Sato). This pseudo romance is interrupted when the couple are taken prisoner by mysterious gangsters and placed in a hideaway. Here they meet the rest of the movie's characters that are composed of equally obsessed oddballs: a television loving fascist, a trigger happy kid, an anarchist,...

There’s a new, more contagious form of the novel-coronavirus. It’s got a greater ability to evade our antibodies. And it’s spreading easier than ever.

You’ve read these words before, and you’ll almost certainly read them again as the Covid pandemic grinds into its fourth calendar year. But pay attention, because there’s something new about Xbb.1.5, also known as Kraken, the latest Omicron subvariant that’s quickly becoming the dominant form of Sars-CoV-2 across much of the world. Xbb.1.5 evolved after a couple of big genetic twists and turns.

Chicago – Halloween just isn’t the same without an Onryō. Thanks to America’s tireless remakes of Japanese horror films, the materialization of Onryōs in pop culture has become as much of a seasonal tradition as witches and goblins. They’re often characterized by long black hair, white robes, bodily contortions, tragic backstories and an unquenchable thirst for vengeance beyond the grave.

In short, Onryōs unnervingly embody the old adage that “Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned…even a dead one.” It’s easy to see how spine-tingling modern classics like “Ringu” and “Ju-on: The Grudge” followed in the ghostly footsteps of Kaneto Shindô’s overlooked 1968 masterwork, “Kuroneko” (“Black Cat”). Though the film is more hypnotic than scary, it still manages to creep under the skin as it spins a tale of real emotional and erotic power.

Blu-Ray Rating: 5.0/5.0

As in Shindô’s better-known 1964 classic, “Onibaba,” this film...

When watching the opening scene of Onibaba, Kaneto Shindo's “almost” horror and visceral fable on jealousy and death, we are introduced to the hole. A gaping natural well amongst a field of tall susuki grass in rural 14th century Japan. It's an ominous and a masterful set up of the mystery to come and, right before the drums and horns of Hikaru Hayashi Taiko drum soundtrack blow you into another dimension, it is both unsettling and beautiful. An unnamed woman and her daughter-in-law are surviving in a small cabin within the grass by hunting cowardly shogun who have fled the front-line of an unseen war. The pair sell the weapons and armor of the murdered to a local lecherous tradesman and dump the bodies down the dark hole in the grass as they await the return of their only son/husband from the battlefield. Their life's everyday moments pivot on...