Ghost Revenge

 

 (imdb)

EMPIRE OF PASSION-1978-In a village, a married woman (Kazuko Yoshiyuki) has an affair with a much younger man (Tatsuya Fuji). At the man's urging they kill her rickshaw driving husband and throw his body in a well. 3 years later, their passion has cooled except for brief periods and her lover has grown distant Then her husband's ghost shows up. A police officer investigates as her life crumbles against ghost sightings and gossip. 

This Japanese-French co-production is renown director Nagisa Oshima's only real foray into a ghost story but it's excellent. Too bad he didn't do another one. He also wrote the screenplay based on a novel. Oshima made the infamous IN THE REALM OF THE SENSES in 1976 (also with Fuji). His next movie was 1983's MERRY CHRISTMAS, MR. LAWRENCE.

Thanks for reading!

Skulls R Us

 

 (imdb)

THE SCREAMING SKULL-1958-Eric Whitlock (John Hudson) takes his new wife Jenni (Peggy Webber; in SPACE CHILDREN the same year) to the house that was designed by his first wife Marion, now dead. Rev. Snow (familiar TV actor Russ Conway) and his wife (Tony Johnson) are there to welcome them. So is Mickey (director Alex Nichol), the weird gardener who doesn't believe Marion is dead (she's buried on the estate). When she's alone, Jenni (who's rich and once spend some time in a mental hospital) gets spooked by noises and some skulls that show up. Eric blames Mickey but Jenni thinks she's cracking up. Eric seems devoted, maybe too much so. But when a skull shows up after they burn a portrait of Marion, John’s real intentions are revealed. 

Very low budget ghost story. The best part is the finale where Marion turns the tables on John. A short disclaimer at the beginning says that the producers will pay the funeral expenses for anyone who dies of fright during the viewing. 

This was actor Alex Nichol's first film as a director. His later work was mostly for TV except for his last, 1971's POINT OF TERROR. Male lead John Hudson did a lot of TV work and was the twin brother of William Hudson (Harry in ATTACK OF THE 50 FOOT WOMAN). Lead actress Peggy Webber, still alive at the time of this writing, had earlier played Lady MacDuff in Orson Welles' MACBETH. The soundtrack was composed by future Oscar winner Ernest Gold.

Thanks for reading!

Ghost Stories From Japan

 

(tmdb.org)

KWAIDAN-1965-"The Black Hair"- A samurai (Rentaro Mikuni) abandons his devoted wife (Michiyo Aratama; CHUSHINGURA (1962)) and marries into a noble family just to gain a position. Finding his new bride (Misako Watanabe; SAMURAI SPY (1969)) to be cold and self-possessed, he realizes too late he still loves his first wife and misses their life together. Eventually, he returns to her. Everything seems the same until….

"The Woman of The Snow"-Woodcutters Mosaku and his apprentice Minokuchi (Tatsuya Nakadai; later the star of FACE OF ANOTHER (1964)) are caught in a blizzard. They find shelter in a hut. They are visited at night by a mysterious eerie woman in white who kills Mosaku but allows the young man to live provided he never tells anyone of their encounter. Later he meets Yuki and they marry and raise a family. Then one night he tells Yuki about his encounter…

"Hoichi the Earless"-The battle of Don-no-ura is a great battle sequence. Hoichi, a blind biwa player lives at a temple with several other attendants. One night he is visited by a mysterious samurai who says his master wants to hear Hoichi play. He goes with the samurai every night but refuses to say where. He won't even tell his master (Takashi Shimura; in GHIDORAH the same year). He also appears to be growing paler. When Hoichi leaves during a storm, 3 attendants follow him. It turns out Hoichi has been playing his biwa in a graveyard to the spirits of dead warriors. There's more though…This also features a great battle of Don-no-ura sequence.

"In a Cup of Tea"-A writer relates a story that has no ending. Sekini, a samurai guarding a lord, sees the face of a mysterious man in his teacup. Later that night he is visited by the same man who appears to be a ghost. When he tells the other guards, they laugh at him. Later he duels 3 ghosts who are attendants of the other man. Sekini seems to beat them but there the story ends. The writer's publisher comes to visit him. He and the landlady find the writer trapped in a large jug of water.

 (imdb)

This is director Masaki Kobayashi's (THE HUMAN CONDITION series) only foray into the realm of Japanese ghost stories. It's an excellent anthology but some “western” audiences might find it too slow moving. The stories come from a 1904 book by Lafcadio Hearn, an author born on a Greek island, who had a hardscrabble childhood, lived in several countries (including the US) but settled in Japan permanently in 1890.

Thanks for reading!

Low Budget Trilogy

 

 (imdb)

ENCOUNTER WITH THE UNKNOWN-1973-Very low budget trilogy of tales involving the supernatural much of it narrated by the great Rod Serling. In the first, 3 smart ass college kids set up Johnny, a naive guy with a phony date. When he's accidentally shot and killed, his spooky mom (Fran Franklin) puts a curse on the 3. One of guys tells the story to a priest who gets upset when the curse seems to come true. In the second story, after a kid loses his dog, he and his father discover a mysterious giant hole in the ground. The father is lowered into the hole. When they bring him up, he's gone crazy. What he saw is never revealed. Annabelle Weenick (DON'T LOOK IN THE BASEMENT) is his wife and (Larry Buchanan regular) Billy Thurman is a hillbilly. The third is based on “the legend of the girl on the bridge”. After a car drives off a bridge, a dude picks up a mysterious young woman (Rosie Holotik) who says she wants to go home. In a flashback we find out that the girl Susan had a fight with her father (Gene Ross) over a guy she wanted to marry. Of course, it turns out Susan is dead and her ghost is trying to get home. Holotik and Ross had also been in DON'T LOOK IN THE BASEMENT the same year. 

 (imdb)

Another narrator sums up everything at the end with a kind of condensed version of the movie shown again. Filmed in Little Rock, Arkansas by Harry Thomason who filmed another movie SO SAD ABOUT GLORIA simultaneously with this extremely low budget anthology. Thomason (still alive at the time of this writing) was a close friend of Bill & Hilary Clinton and later worked on the TV show “Designing Woman”.

                                  Rosie Holotik on the cover of Playboy magazine in 1972!

Thanks for reading!

Nightmare

 

 (asiancult.com)

THE NIGHTMARE OF GIRL'S DORM-2009-A college student Ran stays behind in her dorm after everyone leaves at the end of the semester. Only one other student stays (plus the house mother and a guard). The mysterious Wu Xia gives Ran a bracelet. It's said that during the off time the dorm is haunted by a girl who hanged herself. Ran is also pregnant by one of her teachers. She starts to see and hear strange things. Later her roommate Tong returns and tries to help. Wu performs a ritual to contact the ghost. Later it seems the ghost is terrorizing Ran but there are a couple of twists in this strange but not original ghost/horror from China, directed by Fu Yicong.

Thanks for reading!

Japan Ghosts

 THE LIVING SKELETON-1968-Eerie, atmospheric ghost story from Japan. A group of pirates board a ship to steal it's cargo of gold bullion. They kill the crew and all the passengers. However one passenger Yoriko (Kikko Matsuoka) has a twin sister Saeko (also Matsuoka) and they have a kind of symbiotic connection. Through her sister Yoriko conducts her revenge. Or does she? Could it just be the killers' imagination? 

THE LIVING SKELETON starts off like a moody art film but becomes a full fledged horror story with a sea full of skeletons, a mad scientist and a powerful acid that can disintegrate anything. It's a little confusing plot wise but I liked it. This one of only two films directed by Hiroki Matsuno. Too bad!

Thanks for reading! Happy New Year!