Cinematheque: Kaneto Shindo

This witchy, animalistic horror film is one of the most spellbinding works to come out of the Japanese New Wave. Hidden in a windswept marsh, a mother and her daughter-in-law subsist by murdering passing samurai in order to sell their swords, dumping the bodies into a deep hole. Notorious for its macabre violence and feral sexuality, Onibaba is a black-and-white CinemaScope nightmare par excellance. (MK)