MOTW- ATTACK OF THE MUSHROOM PEOPLE (1963)

[Xenorama ™]

Akira Kubo ... Kenji Murai
Kumi Mizuno ... Mami Sekiguchi
Hiroshi Koizumi ... Naoyuki Sakeda
Yoshio Tsuchiya ... Fumio Kasai
Kenji Sahara ... Senzo Koyama
Hiroshi Tachikawa ... Etsuro Yoshida
Miki Yashiro ... Akiko Soma
Eisei Amamoto ... Skulking Transitional Matango
Jiro Kumagai ... Medical Center Doctor
Akio Kusama ... Medical Center Doctor
Yutaka Oka ... Medical Center Doctor
Kazuo Higata ... Medical Center Doctor
Keisuke Yamada ... Mushroom Monster
Tokio Okawa ... Mushroom Monster
Mitsuko Hayashi ... Dancer

a movie i quite enjoy, but has recently become completely overpraised by some fans. it deserves it for the most part, but it's not the best thing ever, come on!

and that planted rumor about being the inspiration for Gilligan's Island is still around, and still funny.

[Shonokin]

It's a great mix of silly and horrifying and one of the few Japanese scifi movies to gets its roots from Western pulp horror (aside from some of the stuff Auggie has mentioned before based on Capt. Future). It is based on William Hope Hodgson's The Voice in the Night. There was a TV adaptation of the story on Hitchcock's 1950s series Suspicion.

I think the ending gets the point across but in such a last minute "shocker" that it might be hard to realize the import of what's happened to the narrator. I think reading the story and then watching the movie actually adds to the creepy mood because it's more internalized and understandable what is going on.

In context of the story/movie plot I think the "mushroom people" themselves are quite silly and the drug-induced wacky run-ins with them tend to remind me a bit of "Laugh-In", but they are darn cute nonetheless.

[hman]

It gets points for its thematical material, creepy atmosphere, and for Kumi Mizuno being at her most attractive.

I have a review of it posted on my blog: blog.360.yahoo.com/blog-TILuJn41aaiLdEBODM4-?cq=1&p=13

[Xenorama ™]

good review.

this is another one of those movies you'd never think would have shown up like this- it's just an amazing thing. i was looking back at all the MOTWs, and it sure is interesting to see just what is available legit now- most everything!

[Gwangi]

While the monsters in their final form aren't very realistic, their first form is suitably creepy--they still look sort of human, but are hideously deformed - Hman

Heck, when I first saw this as a kid, the mushroom people (in their first form), actually scared me!

My favorite parts of the movie are with Kumi Mizuno! While others who eat these mushrooms turn monstrous, she turns more beautiful (although was a rather sinister look!). Unusal but very effective horror film from Honda and the gang.