Hiroshi Matsuno
The Living Skeleton

Given that oriental cinema rarely disappoints me, today I'm reviewing a film I didn't know until a short time ago. My desire to discover new and old gems led me to watch this 1968 film directed by Hiroshi Matsuno. A very peculiar horror, certainly very intense for its time, although I'm not sure if in Japan they were already used to a more extreme cinema compared to us Westerners.

In any case, "The Living Skeleton" is a film that left me quite thrilled after watching it. It's a film that for the most part falls within what I call a “controlled horror,” meaning it never exaggerates with gruesome or overly “beyond” scenes for the time it was made. But after the halfway mark, the director catapults us into something decidedly more extreme, almost in splatter tones, I might say, and in my opinion, the film only benefits from it. There are indeed, bodies dissolved in acid and lots of other gory goodies. So for those who love a certain type of fairly “intense” cinema, it's well-served.

However, this is definitely not the strong point of the film, because let's always remember that a good horror doesn't necessarily need gruesome scenes to be a good horror, but in the most absolute terms, in this film the intense scenes are there but are relevant to the plot, so it's great they are included. As I was saying, the things that truly struck me are quite different, primarily the great importance that the director placed on religion in this film, there is much discussion about sin, about God’s punishment, and even if in a subtle way, many of the mysteries that man has never solved and will never solve are questioned. Around this revolves the entire story of this cursed ship where a massacre was committed and after a long time, when those bodies have become skeletons, events totally out of the ordinary begin to happen.

In a way, it vaguely reminded me of "Fog" by John Carpenter, maybe it's just my impression but surely Carpenter must have loved this film which, I reiterate, I'm convinced very few know... but maybe I'm wrong. What can I say, the film is well-directed, the young and beautiful actors and actresses are also convincing in their mystery, perhaps the special effects aren't entirely convincing, on the other hand in 1968 making a low-budget film that aims to have scenes requiring significant special effects work clearly faces difficulties. Despite everything, the "intense" scenes where the success of the special effect is what makes the scene good are well done and hit the viewer as they should. The beautiful final scene with the boy walking away from the cursed ship watching it dissolve due to tons of released acid, while he watches all this and cries because his beloved remained there... melting with the ship. You might say... why? Well... watch the film!

A very beautiful film, perhaps very niche, if you find it and have the opportunity to see it, I recommend it. A rare gem that is definitely worth watching. Great film!

VinnySparrow