Matango

Matango (1963) is Ishirō Honda's slow-burn horror you can watch online on iFILM — seven Tokyo friends sail off for a holiday and come back as something else.

A storm snaps the masts and kills the radio, and the drifting yacht washes up on a fog-bound island. Waiting there is a rotting wreck furred with mould and almost nothing to eat but strange mushrooms. The warning not to touch them doesn't hold for long. Hunger, paranoia and suspicion finish the group off faster than the island ever could.

Far from the giant monsters Honda is known for, the dread here stays quiet and clammy — the rot starts inside the group before it shows on their skin. Loosely drawn from a William Hope Hodgson story and starring Kumi Mizuno and Akira Kubo, the film was kept half-buried in Japan for years over its makeup. Slow, bleak and meaner than you'd expect. Stream Matango online on iFILM.