I have noticed that many of the commentators in this forum have stated that this film gave them nightmares. No wonder. This film based on William Hope Hodgson's novel "The Voice in the Night", has a plot that is so bizarre that it could only have been inspired by someone's nightmares. The premise of intelligent fungus luring people to eat them and then the people slowly turn to "mushroom people" is so nightmarishly creepy that I can't imagine that Hodgson (or anyone else) could of dreamed this idea up when he was wide awake.

MATANGO (aka ATTACK OF THE MUSHROOM PEOPLE) is a surprisingly low key atmospheric Japanese horror fantasy. The film is a bit slowly paced at times and too much time is spent on the castaways bickering amongst themselves. There are some elements that I suspect were better developed in the novel. One scene has the two female castaways hearing the voices of dead relatives trying to lure them into the rainforest. This never occurs again and leads nowhere. I'm sure the stuff about nuclear experiments was not in Hodgson's novel. However, the art direction is excellent, the music creepy and the final sequence memorable. Overall, the boys at Toho did a good job.

I don't care what the Medvids think of this film, or the pseudo hip MST3K crowd thinks either, your old pal jim says, see this one.

Toho are mostly known for their dark bleak period pieces and their goofy monster flicks, but every once in a while they delved into something else and Matango is a great example of this.

Well ahead of its time it tells the story of ship wreck survivors trying to make it until help comes, but they don't appear to be alone on the island and tensions are beginning to build.

So okay I admit the concept is daft, the antagonists are a bit silly but lets be honest they aren't a million miles from those in The Last of Us (2013). Despite this they actually do the job quite well and look considerably better than you'd imagine considering this was the early 60's.

The film is a real slow burner and very little of it features the antagonists at all, the majority is the turmoil between survivors but it does this to a passable degree.

Though not everything it could have been there is a lot to be impressed over in Matango and it's a neat little forgotten Toho movie that deserves attention.

The Good:

Looks excellent for its time

Some good ideas

The Bad:

Cast and characters are pretty forgettable

Very slow burn

Things I Learnt From This Movie:

An opportune time to tell a woman you love her for the first time is straight after hitting her

Could easily have had a sequel about killer cheese people

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.

First of all, it takes guts on the part of the filmmakers to make a commercial movie about people turning into giant mushrooms. It's all a big modern morality fable. Once the characters get to the island, we the audience are sucked into a horrific world of constant rain where the only food that grows is fungus. The characters try to resist but most eventually give in to the temptation. This film is very creepy and maintains an atmosphere of dread. Even the final evolution of the mushroom people is convincing enough to keep you wrapped up in it. It starts off slow but give it a chance. It's a beautifully made and memorable little masterpiece of horror that rightfully seems to have been born of nightmares. It's too bad that even in our supposedly enlightened, politically tolerant world that there is no American distributor for the uncut Japanese version of this film. This film is hard to locate but well worth the effort. I even saw the American International Pictures version that is badly dubbed and it is still a powerful and original film. See it at all costs if you are a fan of Japanese horror films.

This is the seventh Honda film that I've watched but only the second that I found to be in any way satisfying – the other being, of course, GOJIRA (1954); actually, I've got five more of his titles to go (which I'll be checking out throughout the week)…though, in all honesty, I only expect the earlier effort RODAN (1956) to be any good!

The theme and setting of the film derives from a number of earlier horror/sci-fi classics: for instance, the flashback framework where the hero's tall tale is disbelieved by everyone – not to mention the scene in which he's seduced to the 'other side' by his transformed lover – was certainly inspired by INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS (1956). Conversely, it looks forward to another good Japanese genre outing i.e. GOKE – BODY SNATCHER FROM HELL (1968) with its disparate group of stranded passengers and the influence on them of the unfamiliar 'contaminated' environment (which slowly but surely leads to the disruption of the unit).

Incidentally, despite the distinction given to each of the characters (psychologist, author, entrepreneur, skipper, etc.) – including two females (one a sluttish chanteuse and the other a naïve student) – none are developed in enough detail to be allowed to take center-stage. Interestingly, too, the identity of the sole male survivor among them is not immediately disclosed; the revelation at the end, then, takes proceedings into unexpected amour fou territory! As for the mutant creatures (the U.S. title of the film, in fact, was the catchpenny ATTACK OF THE MUSHROOM PEOPLE), they're quite silly-looking in themselves – but, sensibly, these are mainly depicted as menacing shadowy figures.

Though not quite the sci-fi masterpiece that Enrico Ghezzi (eccentric presenter of "After Hours", the programme during which the Honda TV marathon was held) proudly claimed in his introduction, it's quite an engaging and effective piece – if somewhat lacking in pace. All in all, I wouldn't mind owning the SE DVD of MATANGO from Media Blasters eventually (also given the fact that the Italian subtitles on the version I watched were too rapid to read through at times, while the image itself suffered from occasional momentary freezing!)...

We have a yacht cruise that wrecks on a deserted island. We have a skipper;a goofy first mate who constantly wears a hat;a singing/movie(?) star;a plain down to earth girl; and wait a minute! This isn't Gilligan's Island! But now we know where the "inspiration"(rip off)came from!

This movie has a bad rap and it is undeserved. When I was growing up it was on about 8 times a year on saturday afternoons.Upon repeated viewings you can see what you missed when you were younger. Claustrophobia,reverting back to savagery madness,the ever present rain with its shadows of hopelessness and those rassin' frassin' mushrooms!! Got to admit the walking mushrooms are quite funny.

But this movie packs quite a punch as it races to the end. The last 10 minutes will stay with you for a while.It is available on VHS.

MATANGO, directed by Ishiro Honda, is an exceptionally beautiful fantasy film from the mighty Toho. Bastardized for its American release, badly dubbed, retitled ("Attack of the Mushroom People") and afforded very little respect, its recent re-emergence as a special edition DVD confirms its place in the realm of fantastique cinema.

What makes this amazing film so effective is its seductively spare but intelligent screenplay, nightmarish atmosphere, serenely creepy score and stunning special effects. Tonally, it recalls underrated Japanese genre flicks such as "The Mistress in a Cave", "Horror of Malformed Men" and the delightful "Living Skeleton". Like the mushrooms the shipwrecked survivors of a pleasure craft are drawn to, it seduces us with its simple structure, pleasing taste and rich subtext.

The film operates on a number of thematic levels, but Honda's achievement is that he never allows the dense thematics to weigh the very human drama down. Like all classic stories of survival, human greed, envy, love and hunger are the engines of the conflict. The search for a state of being free of responsibility and consequences is the dream driving the conflicted.

It is of curious interest to me that the characters in this "uncharted island" fantasy include a Skipper, a Millionaire, a Professor, a First Mate and a Girl Next Door. Produced before "Gilligan's Island" debuted on American TV, it could surely be argued that this orchestration of characters was a template for Sherwood Schwartz, the creator of "Gilligan's Island".

A palpable sadness permeates the last twenty minutes of MATANGO, a sense of blinding melancholy that elevates it to a dizzying level of achievement.

MATANGO explores how we are all drawn to pleasures that we know may sign our death warrants while daring to suggest that death by pleasure is a demise more preferable to death without love.

Stunning.

The score here is rather high, but this movie to me was kind of low. Low and really slow. It had some good parts to it, do not get me wrong, but it was incredibly slow moving. Most of the mushroom action takes place at the end, before that you get lots of build up and infighting between the characters and it just really made for a somewhat boring film. The story started out good, a group on a yacht are traveling the seas and are hit with a storm, they are adrift for a while and end up near an island. There is virtually no food on the island other than mushrooms, however, the captain's log plainly states you do not want to eat these particular mushrooms called Mantango. Well time passes on the island, tensions build and you just know someone is going to eat a mushroom and then the action begins. Only this does not really happen, the movie seems to want to really show these people passing away time in the island so I am guessing we can understand why they finally broke down, but I wanted to watch a film with a bit more things happening. Like I said, overall I was disappointed with this one, especially considering it was made by Toho studios who make my beloved Godzilla films, but this one just was a bit hard to watch for me personally. The good, the first scenes on the yacht and them finding the island initially. The makeup was good in places too, especially considering the time period. I also liked the ending. Overall, just not a movie for me I am afraid. I would love to have that rifle they used, however, I mean it was not particularly strong, but it never ran out of bullets!

The cast of this film all consider it one of their proudest achievements. This film is about false friendships, utter hatred, and abandonment of values. Constructed from William Hope Hodgson's rather simple horror story, in which a man hailing a schooner for food tells how the virtuous (abstinent) unmarried couple (himself and his fiancee) were in a shipwreck and tried to make their home on an island encrusted with fungus, first in a ship and then in two tents on an unidentified sandy substance, only to eat the fungus and become it, takes on a whole new dimension by placing the man, here a psychology professor, and his student fiancee with a rich couple together only for the money, a serious writer, and the two-man crew. Though they never abandon the fungus-encrusted ship for tents, they soon become embittered over food, and the men all want the virgin, not the rich showgirl. Hodgson was on the way to becoming a minister before he was killed in WWI, and his story is explicitly Christian. This film takes out explicit religion (though the Japanese version has a brief scene related to Akiko's Shinto beliefs, which was deleted because most Americans wouldn't understand it), but retains the morals. The psychologist is unable to cope with the degrading values, particularly after the mate is shot over money (useless) and turtle eggs (food). The skipper takes the ship (which isn't his, Kasai wearing a captain's uniform to prove it (and how stuck up he is)) after repairing it, without anyone else, but he dies at sea, Murai soon finding the abandoned ship. The voyage reveals the true character of the relationships with one another, and their attempts to break down the virtuous couple, which ends with the psychologist in the asylum, where he tells his story. He gets succumbed, too. "My friends are alive; I'm the one who died," he tells them. The crew dead, his friends are left on the island, slowly merging with the fungus...

And you thought that YOU ate some funny mushrooms back in your college days! Just take a look at the 'shrooms that the seven island castaways in the 1963 Japanese horror outing "Matango: Attack of the Mushroom People" partake in! In this film, the seven people in question go on a yacht outing, get trapped in a storm and are washed ashore on a desert isle. The seven--the skipper, his first mate, a beautiful TV star, another pretty girl, a millionaire (hey, wait a minute...could "Gilligan's Island," which premiered the following year, have stolen from THIS film of all films?!?!), a writer and a psychiatrist--feed on the funny fungi and are soon turned into walking shiitakes themselves. Actually, despite the outrageous title and bizarre plot, this is a fairly levelheaded, reasonably intelligent and restrained film, not the laughable piece of crap you might be expecting. The picture is very well shot, and appears just fine on this pristine-looking, wide-screen DVD. The first half is a bit slow but nonetheless suspenseful, as the characters explore the perpetually fog-enshrouded island, and the second half, in which the fungus folk get it on, is occasionally quite trippy and hallucinatory. Remarkably, this DVD also features loads of interesting extras, including interviews with some of the folks behind the cameras and some fun trailers for other Toho Studios pictures. All in all, this film is certainly worth a rental...if only so that you can tell your coworkers that you saw a movie last night called "Matango: Attack of the Mushroom People"!

I think most adults can remember seeing this movie on Creature Double Feature about 20 years ago. This movie always gave me the hebee-geebees, because of the creepy music and creepier Mushroom people. Back when I was a teen, mushrooms growing out of the grown freaked me out. Not sure why or what it was about them, but I can remember staying clear of those nasty fungi. So when I watched this movie it really gave me the willies.

The story is basically Gillian's Island meets the mutating mushrooms. A happy band of people get shipwrecked on a deserted island covered with the creepy mushrooms. The castaways take shelter in a broken down boat. The crew is no where to be found and a recording tells them of the tragic happenings to the crew on the island. They also find out that the mushrooms shouldn't be eaten under any circumstance.

After some time passes the food runs out and no rescue boat has come. The castaway start to freak out from starvation and end up eating the mushrooms. You can pretty much figure out what happens after that. The movie has some of the worse dubbing in a Japanese film and the acting is average at best. The only REAL reason to see this movie is because on the nature of the film (Mushroom People?). There hasn't been any movie like this before. It's creepy nature and horrific music is reason enough to watch this at least once. The ending wasn't to bad either. A great rental for late night when you have absolutely NOTHING else to do. (Rating 5/10)

If you look around on the Internet you can see that almost all the entries for this movie, are above average and there are probably a million different reasons for that. I think they all have in common that somehow this movie really gets people on a sub-conscious level and represents something.

I remember seeing this movie at various times growing up on the late night horror shows, in Houston, Texas, called "Weird" and "Late Wierd", and then in California on "Creature Features".

There is something about watching this movie about a groups of somewhat related friends who are out on a cruise in their rich friends sailboat, well, actually the exact details escape me, and I am not sure that the English tranlation accurately tells what was supposed to be going on in the original story.

The boat is caught in a storm, and they drift through heavy fog to a deserted island where everything is misty, moist, and fungus ridden. To survive they look for food, and find that people have been to the island before, in fact a large group of people on a freighter ship that has wasted away.

There are some clues on the ship as to what happened, and some strange goings on that stress these "friends" to the breaking point, and their cohesion starts to unravel.

There is just something special about this eerie and fun movie that if I ever see it in DVD format I will pick it up.

A group of mostly wealthy people from Tokyo go out on a yacht, and the movie starts off a bit deliriously happy. Later on, after much unhappiness, another sort of happy delirium will occur.

They're hit by a storm, and while they get the main sail down, the boat sustains some damage to the sails, masts, and electrical system. After drifting for some time, they come to an apparently uninhabited island that they optimistically hope is part of Japan. They find there isn't much identifiable as food, and that birds avoid the island. They discover a derelict research vessel covered in mold, and they stay aboard it when they are not foraging for food or trying to repair the yacht. The log on the ship indicates the mushrooms on the island are dangerous, so they're initially avoided....

Those looking for a monster movie may be disappointed, since this is more of a suspenseful weird horror movie, I think. A creepy atmosphere abounds, and the mushroom-covered island and moldy derelict ship are very well designed.

Someone mentioned a scene involving a Shinto ritual not in all prints of the film. If it was on the Media Blasters DVD, I overlooked it; I wonder if anyone knows more about what that scene depicted?

Based on a 1907 story "Voice in the Night" by William Hope Hodgson (readily available on the internet) that had been previously, and more faithfully, adapted for TV for the Alfred Hitchcock-produced "Suspicion" (1957) TV-Series 1957-1959. I haven't seen that episode, but it was favorably reviewed by Variety, and others.

'Godzilla' director Ishiro Honda turned away from his usual giant monster fare for this early 60s science fiction/horror movie. It is really worth a watch. The same focus he showed in combining human themes with fantastic elements in Godzilla is put to good use here. Except here, the there's a lot less spectacle for a much smaller scale story.

While this is ultimately a 60s style sci-fi flick, those genre elements don't really show up in any relevant way until the last twenty minutes. For the bulk of the runtime this is a straight up castaway movie. Since I'm a sucker for those, I was hooked immediately and stayed hooked. Although I admit I did ask myself a few times when the mushroom folks were going to make a real appearance when it was an hour in and we were still focusing on the castaways and their castaway troubles.

'Matango' begins with a group of clueless yuppies from Tokyo crammed together in a yacht that seems far too small to fit them and their minimalist crew. Due to the owner's inept commands, they sail directly into a storm and wind up shipwrecked. Once there, they find another shipwrecked ship to stay in, avoiding the usual castaway tropes of having them build shelter. While the skipper shows some initiative to keep them alive, the passengers and rest of the crew range from incompetent to intentionally harmful. So it winds up being a problem when it turns out the most prominent potential food source on the island is a fungus with mutational properties.

If you go into this movie dead set on getting your monster fix you may be disappointed. Honda puts the focus on the survivors' attempts to survive and the immediate problems they face as lack of experience, class disrespect, and finally mutant mushrooms foil them at every turn. The characters are not the most fleshed out, but they work well enough and the actors and writing pull it together.

Don't be deceived by the goofy title this was given when released in America, 'Attack of the Mushroom People.' This is just a quite good castaway movie with sci-fi and horror elements.

Ishiro Honda directed this surprisingly effective Japanese science fiction/horror film that sees seven people on a sailing ship encounter a fierce storm, and survive, but find themselves shipwrecked on a mysterious and deserted island, where they find a derelict vessel covered in moss, but loaded with canned food, which has a most unfortunate side-effect on these castaways, just like it did before...

Plot does strangely resemble "Gilligan's Island" in many ways, but this film is made in eerie and atmospheric style, with a most effective and striking ending. Later retitled "Attack Of The Mushroom People" for America! (A really dumb title that does this picture an injustice.)

Sandwiched between the quick, somber opening, reprised in the last moments, and the meaningful kick-off of the drama and the horror to follow, it was a curious choice to present the opening credits and the first few minutes of active plot in a jaunty fashion recalling Hollywood's South Seas adventure flicks of the 40s. I'm not complaining, just observing. More concerning is that this doesn't fully meet its potential. It's not just "I can imagine something better"; in a couple instances the sinister vibes are undercut when the picture inelegantly skips over a scene, beat, or idea, or fails to effectively capitalize on it, such as when Murai and Akiko's initial discovery late in the length of what's truly happening is rather represented only in dialogue. "Late in the length" is a key phrase, actually, for the most flavorful facet of the feature is found foremost in the final third, with only building suggestion previously. It's not that there's no worth before that - on the contrary, 'Matango' is solid and engrossing all around - but for everything that it is, it could have pursued its best worth more deeply instead of latching onto a fairly ordinary tenor, presiding for most of the first two-thirds, that ranges from drama to horror-thriller. The door was open to take the premise in a more gnarly direction, but that's not entirely what happened here, to the movie's detriment.

It's worth mentioning these matters from the outset just because the film isn't all that it could have been in and of itself, let alone where our own imaginations might take us. Yet it's also the case that the sum total is much stronger than not, and to the extent that we may critique some odds and ends, it's a point of discussion more than a question of substance. And the substance to be had is fantastic, for Hoshi Shinichi and Fukushima Masami's story is ripe for cinematic treatment as storm-swept shipwreck survivors find themselves on a deserted island with more than first meets the eye. That said vessel is in fact a yacht, and that our characters were on a pleasure cruise, should be evidence enough that they're mostly decidedly unlikable, but in case we had any doubts this will be seized upon as personalities clash and tempers flare amidst growing desperation. That disunion constitutes the chief thrust of a bulk of the runtime, with darker notions gradually taking hold, and while one wishes that the best elements had been woven more completely into the proceedings, the saga that we do get is engaging and compelling from start to finish. Rich scene writing fuels the viewing experience while propelling the plot, and as is commonly the case, Honda Ishiro's direction is roundly excellent in shaping the tableau to his vision with all due impact.

To wit: I'm given to understand that Honda understood the material to be of a more serious and even grim slant than the kaiju and other tokusatsu fare for which he is most famous. That really does come across in the acting, a fine credit to all of the cast as the gravity of the survivors' scenario is brought to bear, and just as much to the point, Honda enforces a dour tone while facilitating a stark atmosphere of unease. Those airs manifest in part through Bekku Sadao's music, an array of themes with high strings that put us on edge; the score isn't outwardly remarkable, perhaps, and it reminds of other such work in the horror genre, but it most definitely does its job. Much of that atmosphere is also summoned by the crew operating behind the scenes, however, for smart, fabulous production design, art direction, and lighting go a very long way toward evoking a sense that something is terribly awry. Distinctly dreary, with gloomy hues, both the unlucky boat and the jungle are readily off-putting - but also overflow with stupendous detail that makes the setting even more foreboding. Everyone who worked on this poured their creative hearts into crafting striking, memorable visuals, and not least where all representations of fungus are concerned, whether set pieces or dressing, special makeup, or costume design, they nailed it.

At large 'Matango' is very good, and the last stretch is wonderfully vibrant as the most wicked ideas are at last realized. I still can't help but to feel a little put off that the title didn't explore those ideas more; what especial strength there is in the last ten to fifteen minutes or so could have extended to a bigger portion. Even at that, however, the end result is very well done and highly enjoyable, and I can't be too mad at the production when all told we do get just what we came for. This isn't something that wholly demands to be seen, but whether one has a particular impetus to watch or is just looking for something good, 'Matango' continues to hold up all these years later, and I'm happy to give it my warm recommendation.

When I first saw this film on a local late-night horror movie show, it was the late 1960s and our family hadn't yet purchased a color TV. Growing up with films and TV shows produced and viewed in B&W made me sensitive to the unique qualities of this medium, particularly the way in which it focuses the viewer's attention on the quality and play of light. It is this element of "Matango" which most impressed me—the cold ethereal light of the fog-shrouded forest covered in great lumps of pallid fungus sent a real shiver down my back. Although I had cut my teeth on such midnight horror movies, this one actually stole away my sleep for a couple nights!

Over time I had lost track of this film. The Saturday Night horror show became a thing of the past and no one seemed interested in rebroadcasting these old films. Then very recently, on a lark, I asked our local (independent) video rental place if they had this film in their data base, and Lo! there it was, available on VHS. They ordered it, held it for me, I rented it and prepared to sit down and be scared by it again after a hiatus of over 25 years.

Imagine my surprise to find that the film is in color! In color, it didn't have the same impact at all as it did when I watched it on our B&W TV back home. Quickly, before it got too deep into the story, I changed all the settings on my TV to a nicely balanced black and white, and WOW! There it was, the scariness, the moodiness, the mystery, and the visual subtleties which make it a very nice piece of art.

Really, folks—you gotta see this film in black and white to really appreciate how well it was photographed, lighted, constructed and dressed. This is quite a gem of a film, but one which should have been in black and white to begin with.

Seven stranded castaways on an equatorial island find the veneer of civilization chipping away as supplies dwindle and the allure of the ubiquitous psychoactive mushrooms grows. Either arrogant, selfish or weak, none of strandees are very likable, and social resentment and sexual tension permeates their claustrophobic shelter as they slowly realise that there is something else on the island. Despite the ludicrous title bestowed upon the English version ("Attack of the Mushroom People"), the film is a somber, well done horror yarn with creepy sets (especially the derelict ship in which they take shelter) and an entertaining story (based on "The Voice in the Night", a short story by William H. Hodgson). The characters are interesting, but as I watched a reasonably well done English dubbed version, I can't comment on the acting. The 'shroom motif and surreal scenes as the mind (and body) altering nature of the titular fungus becomes evident guaranteed the film cult status among trippy-hippies in the '60s and '70s. Worth watching for fans of 'body-horror' films, director Ishiro Honda's work, or Japanese fantasy cinema in general.

Forget the social and political upheaval: back when the world was still black and white, a kid could count on one thing, and one thing only- the Friday night fright fest. A daily dose of DARK SHADOWS, after school, was enough to get you through the week. Come the weekend, Friday or Saturday night 'round midnight, the real fun would begin: SHOCK THEATER (usually a double feature, hosted by some local stalwart in whiteface and black tie and tails, more often than not sporting a black cape). Thanks to Netflix, I was able to relive one of my fondest late-night childhood memories just this past week: I rented (via mail, no less) ATTACK OF THE MUSHROOM PEOPLE. Surprised first to find that this Nipponese nifty was actually in color, I was pleasantly surprised, also, to find that it was still creepy, after all those years. Want to know what "old school horror" was really all about? Check out this one. You won't be disappointed.

Nitwits get off at the wrong stop when they walk onto an island inhabited by zombie mushrooms.

Things become a free-for-all after our heroes discover they are not alone. 90 minutes later, everybody is still running to and fro, half the time looking for a way off the island, the other half staving off those annoying shrooms which have been wandering around in the jungle. A Japanese film from the famed Toho Studios, this one was later English-dubbed and released in the U.S. as 'Attack of the Mushroom People'.

OK sci-fi/horror movie; fun to watch at 3 AM with all the lights off.

First of all, if possible avoid the dubbed version of this one (ATTACK OF THE MUSHROOM PEOPLE). The dubbing is no worse than usual for a Japanese sci-fi/horror movie, but this one really needs the subtitles so the viewer won't be distracted by the cartoonish dubbed voices. There is an excellent widescreen/subtitled edition of this available from Video Daikaiju ( if they're still in business; they somehow got away with putting out excellent-quality subtitled versions of the films that Toho released for the Japanese video market), and it is also pretty easy to find at various comics/sci-fi/media conventions.

MATANGO scores very high on the slow-burn creepiness meter, and the story of a bunch of hapless castaways slowly descending in to distrust and madness is utterly compelling. What they find on the island is truly disturbing, and I can't put into words how thankful I am for not having seen this during my formative years. This is one of those movies that can royally mess up your mind if you're a little kid. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.