Five vacationers and two crewmen become stranded on a tropical island near the equator. The island has little edible food for them to use as they try to live in a fungus covered hulk while repairing Kessei's yacht. Eventually they struggle over the food rations which were left behind by the former crew. Soon they discover something unfriendly there...
Akira Kubo Kumi Mizuno Hiroshi Koizumi Kenji Sahara Hiroshi Tachikawa Yoshio Tsuchiya Miki Yashiro Takuzō Kumagai Yutaka Oka Keisuke Yamada Akio Kusama Kazuo Higata Katsumi Tezuka Haruo Nakajima Hideyo Amamoto Tokio Ôkawa Kōji Uruki Masaki Shinohara Kuniyoshi Kashima Toku Ihara Mitsuko Hayashi Tsurue Ichimanji
Attack of the Mushroom People, Matango: Attack of the Mushroom People, Matango, Fungus of Terror, Matango, il Mostro, Matango, A Ilha da Morte, Matango il mostro, マタンゴ, 蘑菇人玛坦戈, Нападение людей-грибов, Atak ludzi grzybów, 마탄고, Matango: A Ilha da Morte
Japan
Italy
USA
USA
Italy
Japan
USA
"They're half mushroom!"
"That may be the only way to live."
A culture still reeling from the obliteration of its physical space now deals with the gradual erosion of its spiritual space, all of it chipped away by cascading fallout neutrons. Perhaps survival is only possible through traumatic mutation. Even the mushroom monsters look like radiation burn victims.
This might be ridiculously pretentious, but in James Dickey's "To the White Sea" an American B-29 tail-gunner is being briefed by his Colonel about an impending bomb run over Tokyo:
"We're going to put him in it. That's saying, friends, that we're going to put fire around him, all around him. We're going to put it over him and underneath him. We're…
First off this should not ever be referred to as 'Attack of the Mushroom People' anymore, it creates expectations of a straightforward "monsters attack" (let alone kaiju) movie, which this is not. This I'd argue is far more interesting if you go in willing to be surprised. Body horror, cabin fever, social commentary (though that isn't new for Honda), it's got a bit of everything and there's an eerie, brooding vibe throughout the entire thing that would've been wasted on a less patient movie. Matango shows you the mold of human nature, knowing there's no way to fight conformity.
This was a fun surprise. I definitely didn't expect such a highly engaging film. I don't venture into the 60s much at all but this was delightful. A psychedelic nightmare that slowly creeps up on you like an actual mushroom trip. Mushroomploitation? An effective slow burner that never ceases to be creepy or unsettling. Throw in the camp and dramatic performances and you have a perfect balance of entertainment and terror.
A bunch of people get stranded on a mysterious island. It doesn't take long for things to get weird as reality evolves into a terrifying and surreal world. As people chow down on mushrooms their minds begin to play tricks on them. Soon enough the island evolves into a colourful yet dangerous reality as creepy figures begin to close in. Hold the mushrooms on my pizza dudeeeee!
The haunting laugh the mushroom people make = pure nightmare fuel 😟
Hopeless fog covered dread. Grotesque body horror fueled by addictive mushrooms worse than any drug imaginable. The increasing tension of a group of despondent castaways blind them to the ever growing horror spreading outside. It’s a bleak existence they must try and escape from lest they be swallowed up by the forsaken wasteland of mist and fungi.
Is it any wonder this scared the absolute shit out of me when I was a kid? Those mushroom people were and still are the stuff of nightmares and the suffocating atmosphere was simply too much for little ole me.
Upon a rewatch it’s still a nightmarish journey into the eerie unknown.
Wa? Where did this dark gem come from. This was just a bunch of fairly rich strangers on a boat taking a jaunt on a skiff wanting to unwind from there hectic idyllic lives who would expect such these diverse individuals would run into a storm and have there ship crippled by weather only to have salvation by finding this small remote island that is constantly covered in fog(Not ominous at all). This movie really captures a creepy and showcases the worst in people as they struggle to keep their selves alive over others but of course there are some that try to maintain decorum for the greater good.
So this movie achieves what I love about horror movies so…
Baltan, is that you?
From the first few notes of the opening musical cue, I knew this was gonna fuck.
Probably the purest encapsulation of Honda as a creative right next to the original Gojira. Absent of the more intentionally campy characteristics that come with all things daikaiju and instead what’s put in their place is a strictly and intensely stifling sense of claustrophobic paranoia.
I should preface that this isn’t a daikaiju film, in actuality it’s more so a semi-kaiju film; yes there is indeed a difference. More than anything Matango is a character driven film that is used as yet another means for Honda to express his concerns regarding the corruptive nature that capitalism…
Surprisingly, this plays much more like atmospheric psychological thriller then a “mushroom people” mutant/horror movie. And I must say, it works quite well. The setting is claustrophobic and effective. The ensemble is strong and the ending almost psychedelic. It does move a little slow at times but all in all, I had a very good time watching Matango.
Good evening and welcome fellow Children of Chaos
Watched for the Crap Movie Collective.
So that gun they found I'm pretty sure is bolt action. Holds less than a dozen rounds. And yet they keep shooting (And missing) with the thing never needing to chamber or reload the gun. It kind of just makes these smoke puffs and never seems to damage anything. We never even seem them put a single round of ammo in the damned thing.
That's it, that's the review.
Never thought Mushrooms would explore issues of classism. Took being under the influence to a new level.
"Hey, did you eat some of those mushrooms?" - Some Guy,
Pretty slow at times but eventually you do, in fact, see killer mushroom people.
☘️Daily Horror Hunt #21 – March 2020☘️
11. Let's get atmospheric by watching a movie on Hungkat's list: letterboxd.com/kun/list/atmospheric-slow-boiling-terrors-that-chill/genre/horror/.
😈HORRORx52 (2020)😈
23. Made in Japan.
Hmm, where have I heard this tale before. Seven passengers set sail on a yacht cruise (possibly for three hours?), there's a professor, a movie star, a wealthy businessman, a skipper, and one guy has a real fondness for red shirts and white hats. The seas get rough, things go amiss, and our crew of seven get trapped on a deserted island... nah, doesn't sound familiar at all. Fungi-lligan's Island?... sorry, I had to.
Sherwood Schwartz shenanigans aside, The American title of this Attack of the Mushroom People, really throws Matango into the wrong light.…
There can’t be that many movie directors who brought as much pure joy and entertainment to so many viewers as legendary Japanese monster maestro Ishiro Honda. But as much as I love and admire all his incredible giant Kaiju bashes and his imaginative sci-fi space operas, there is one film of his that will forever hold a very special place in my heart.
I’m talking of course about his masterpiece of mycotic surrealism, his slice of outrageous mushroom madness, his hallucinogenic fungal mind-fuck, his psychedelic Pop-Art fairytale, the unbelievable, the unforgettable, the one-and-only Matango.
This movie could not look any better if Mario Bava, Terence Fisher and David Cronenberg took a trip to Japan to direct a feature length Twilight…
