Matango

Matango is a 1963 Toho film directed by Ishirō Honda. It's also known as Matango, Fungus of Terror and Attack of the Mushroom People. See what fungus run amok can do! It's an eerie, psychological piece right down my alley.

It reminds me of a horror story I read: The Voice in the Night, a 1907 story by William Hope Hodgson.

DVD Talk calls it "a minor classic -perhaps the most mature of Japanese monster movies," says, "Matango at first appears to be some kind of twisted morality tale. Some elements are like a ghost story -the ever-present fog, the empty ship with its rotted sails- but other trappings are definitely science-fiction" and concludes:

Production values are impressive. The large ship set is meticulously detailed and the early stages of fungus entirely convincing. The island settings are rich and atmospheric, adding greatly to the ultra-weird conclusion. ... Matango plays like a superior horror short story.

The Toho Kingdom review opens with this: "Matango is a simply wondrous film. Ishiro Honda made many fine and criminally underrated works in his long career as director at Toho, but Matango could honestly be his finest film of all" and concludes, "Overall, Matango is a triumph, far from a campy monster movie and a seminal work in Honda’s oeuvre." DVD Bearer opens by saying, "This is a much better film that you could imagine." Stomp Tokyo says, "if you've got any interest in Japanese fantasy films it's a must have."