The Black Cat (1968)

The Black Cat is a love story. A vampire story. A ghost story. A samurai story. A family drama. A tragedy. A morality tale. It is emotionally and psychologically complex, but narrativistically simple.

A beautiful young woman and her mother-in-law are raped and murdered by a group of samurai. They sell their souls to 'the evil gods' in exchange for revenge: eternal blood-thirst for all samurai. The husband of the young woman got lucky and killed an enemy general, earning him instant promotion to samurai. The myriad conflicts that ensues you'll have to watch to see.

Japanese horror of the '60s had a fixation on several elements that are instantly recognizable: 1. Samurai. 2. Morality tales. 3. Raped women. 4. Vengeful, life-sucking ghosts. 5. Exquisite cinematography. I've only seen three myself, Kwaidan, Ugetsu (which isn't quite a horror film), and The Black Cat. While Kwaidan is the most beautiful visually, it achieves this with glacial pace. You wouldn't think short, anthologized stories could move so slowly. Ugetsu has the greatest story and the strongest impact with its morally complex vision. But The Black Cat is the best out and out horror film with the superior kinetics.

The Black Cat can only be described as choreographed. It's like a ballet with the celluloid as the stage. Every element of movement is controlled: the women somersaulting through the air, the fog in the wind, the samurai's blade. Disorienting jump-cuts accompany the highly mobile evil spirits whenever they're fighting, giving them a much more vital feel than the actually living people. Their vitality is their hatred. Where emotions like greed or ambition are self-serving, love and hate are purely other-directed. They expend all one's energy. In The Black Cat they are pitted against one another.

This is a gorgeous example of the fine era of Japanese fantastique cinema, to be watched alongside Onibaba, Woman in the Dunes, Kwaidan and even Ugetsu as an equal.