FilmSupernatural Psychological Survival

Onibaba1964

Name: Onibaba
Genre: Supernatural, Psychological, Survival, Folk Horror
Released: 1964-11-21
Rating: 8

“The most daring film import ever...From Japan!”

Directed by Kaneto Shindō

8.0

Crypt Score

Blended from 3 sources

IMDb 7.8Rotten Tomatoes 90%TMDB 7.7

✍ Review

Share this title

X Facebook Reddit Pinterest

Year

1964

Runtime

105 min

Box Office

🏆 2 wins total

The premise

While her son, Kichi, is away at war, a woman and her daughter-in-law survive by killing samurai who stray into their swamp, then selling whatever valuables they find. Both are devastated when they learn that Kichi has died, but his wife soon begins an affair with a neighbor who survived the war, Hachi. The mother disapproves and, when she can't steal Hachi for herself, tries to scare her daughter-in-law with a mysterious mask from a dead samurai.

Horror Vault's take

Set against the chaos of medieval Japan's endless civil wars, Onibaba follows two women eking out a brutal existence in a vast, isolating swamp of tall grass — killing and robbing wandering samurai just to stay alive. When a survivor from the front returns and disrupts their uneasy bond, a poisonous jealousy takes root between them. Director Kaneto Shindô weaves primal sexuality and creeping dread into a stark black-and-white parable, building toward a confrontation with something ancient and terrifying. Few films from any era match its suffocating atmosphere or the raw, animalistic tension simmering beneath every frame.

Content: Violence, Murder, Sexual Content, Disturbing Imagery