13 Nights of Shocktober: Kuroneko (Black Cat)

by A.J.

This is my favorite time of year, second only to Christmas. Autumn has arrived, the weather is cooling down, and, October becomes the month long celebration of scary movies called Shocktober. There are a lot of horror movies out there, but as a genre, horror is still looked down upon by some mainstream critics and moviegoers. It doesn’t help that, admittedly, there are so few quality horror movies made but, like comedy, it’s a very difficult and subjective genre. So, in the days leading up Halloween I’ll be posting some recommendations for scary movies to help you celebrate Shocktober.

Night 5: "Why have you taken the forms of my mother and wife?" Kuroneko (Black Cat)

I first saw Kuroneko, or Black Cat, very late at night on TCM a few years ago and for the first time in a long time I knew I would have trouble falling asleep. But late at night in a dark room is the perfect setting to watch Kuroneko. This Japanese ghost story from 1968 is shot in stark black and white, making it as beautiful as it is eerie. The film begins with a band of samurai descending upon a house occupied by two women: a mother, Yone, and her daughter-in-law, Shige. The samurai attack and rape the women, burn the house, and leave them to die. A black cat finds their bodies.

The women return to haunt a bamboo grove and kill and drink the blood of samurai. In what form they return is unclear: ghosts? demons? cats? Yone’s son, Gintoki, was abducted by samurai and drafted into their ranks. He is now a war hero tasked by a samurai chief who is more bureaucrat than warrior to find and destroy the demon ghosts that have been killing samurai. When Gintoki finds them he wonders why they look so much like his mother and wife, and, if they are his mother and wife, why would they want to kill samurai?

Kuroneko is effective, low key horror at its best. Otherworldly moments are downplayed giving the film a tone of eerie wonder. When one of the women’s long black hair moves like an animal’s tail, or when one reaches for a kettle, but we see a hairy claw pour the sake, the music cues do not shriek; they are subtle or non-existent. The cinematography and set design create an atmosphere and environment that is beautifully haunting and ethereal. Shots are backlit giving white robes, curtains, and the pale skin of the characters a ghostly glow. Everything in the scenes in the haunted bamboo forest and the house where the mother and daughter-in-law now live is made of glowing whites or pitch black darkness. There is no in-between, so the ghosts literally appear and disappear into darkness. I watched Kuroneko again in daylight was still haunted and entranced by what I saw.