Onibaba (1964)

"I've never seen anything really beautiful since the day I was born."

Mark Kermode, in his recent BBC4 documentary on cinematic genres, said that this was one of the most terrifying films ever. Having seen it, I quite agree.

Not that you'd think so, in spite of the disturbing camerawork and cinematography throughout, playing on the long grass and that deep, ancient hole; for most of its length, this film is a drama centred around but three characters, seeming almost to be a stage play if not for the cinematography and the deep, disturbing mood of the long, long grass.

The mother and daughter-in-law around whom this film centred are not named, but when their son/husband's mate arrives, back from the war, self-centred and uncaring about the death of his friends, so important to the two ladies. And yet the widowed daughter-in-law soon starts an affair with this unmannered brute, much to the profound horror of her mother in law. Oh, and, incidentally, there's a never-ending civil war (it's the 14th century), and the two ladies are killing wounded samurai and selling their stolen possessions for millet. It's war, brutal war, and morality s long gone in the desperate urge to survive. None of the characters are likeable, but the fact that much of the film has the intimacy of a stage play with its limited cast of (pretty much) three characters, none of whom are likeable but all of whom feel real and are compelling.

It's kept ambiguous whether the mask that forms the horror is supernatural or not, but that's as it should be as unease erupts into terror. This film is superb and truly horrifying.