Shipwrecked survivors slowly transform into mushrooms.Shipwrecked survivors slowly transform into mushrooms.Shipwrecked survivors slowly transform into mushrooms.
- Director
- Writers
- Takeshi Kimura(screenplay)
- Shin'ichi Hoshi(adaptation)
- Masami Fukushima(adaptation)
- Stars
Top credits
- Director
- Writers
- Takeshi Kimura(screenplay)
- Shin'ichi Hoshi(adaptation)
- Masami Fukushima(adaptation)
- Stars
Takuzô Kumagai
- Doctor
- (as Jirô Kumagai)
- Director
- Writers
- Takeshi Kimura(screenplay)
- Shin'ichi Hoshi(adaptation)
- Masami Fukushima(adaptation)
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaThe film was nearly banned in Japan due to the fact that the makeup that some of the cast wore as they were turning into humanoid mushrooms was very reminiscent of how many people looked after the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
- GoofsWhen Kasai shoots at Yoshida and Mami as he chases them off the boat, you can see the bullets ricochet off the ground before he even fires a shot.
- Crazy creditsThe opening credits of the Japanese version are on animated sails.
- ConnectionsFeatured in Chiller Theatre: Attack of the Mushroom People (1975)
Review
Featured review
You know when you've been Matango'd.
The first half of Matango (AKA Attack of the Mushroom People) is rather mundane, but the second half is such a weird, one-of-a-kind experience that I ended up having a lot of fun(gi) with it.
Directed by kaiju legend Ishirô Honda, Matango is far removed from his Godzilla movies: it's an Invasion of the Bodysnatchers-inspired tale imbued with an otherworldly Lovecraftian atmosphere, in which seven people wind up on a strange, fog-shrouded, deserted island after a storm trashes their yacht. The group explore the island and set up base in a wrecked scientific ship found stranded on the beach. With food in short supply, and no sign of rescue, tempers become frayed and loyalties crumble.
So far, so humdrum, but things get interesting when, one by one, the starving survivors take to sampling the strange fungi that proliferates the island, the result being hallucinations and a gradual transformation from human into walking mushroom. Is life as a giant agaric preferable to death?
It sounds ridiculous, but Honda succeeds in making the crazy premise extremely creepy through excellent use of his locations - the rusty, fog-bound, deserted ship and the mushroom covered jungle (which is like something out of a really twisted fairytale) - as well as truly nightmarish sound effects. Honda keeps the mushroom people hidden for the most part - we're only given glimpses of their distorted features, which adds to the horror: one presumes that they're so hideous, the director is reluctant to show too much for fear of scaring away viewers.
At the end of the film, we finally get to see the full consequences of eating the fungi, and while it's clearly people shuffling around in rubber costumes, the idea of being turned into a walking mushroom monster is so freaky that it still works.
7/10. Stick with it - it gets better.
Directed by kaiju legend Ishirô Honda, Matango is far removed from his Godzilla movies: it's an Invasion of the Bodysnatchers-inspired tale imbued with an otherworldly Lovecraftian atmosphere, in which seven people wind up on a strange, fog-shrouded, deserted island after a storm trashes their yacht. The group explore the island and set up base in a wrecked scientific ship found stranded on the beach. With food in short supply, and no sign of rescue, tempers become frayed and loyalties crumble.
So far, so humdrum, but things get interesting when, one by one, the starving survivors take to sampling the strange fungi that proliferates the island, the result being hallucinations and a gradual transformation from human into walking mushroom. Is life as a giant agaric preferable to death?
It sounds ridiculous, but Honda succeeds in making the crazy premise extremely creepy through excellent use of his locations - the rusty, fog-bound, deserted ship and the mushroom covered jungle (which is like something out of a really twisted fairytale) - as well as truly nightmarish sound effects. Honda keeps the mushroom people hidden for the most part - we're only given glimpses of their distorted features, which adds to the horror: one presumes that they're so hideous, the director is reluctant to show too much for fear of scaring away viewers.
At the end of the film, we finally get to see the full consequences of eating the fungi, and while it's clearly people shuffling around in rubber costumes, the idea of being turned into a walking mushroom monster is so freaky that it still works.
7/10. Stick with it - it gets better.
helpful•30
- BA_Harrison
- Feb 9, 2021
Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Language
- Also known as
- Attack of the Mushroom People
- Filming locations
- Production company
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
- Runtime1 hour 29 minutes
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 2.55 : 1
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