FeistyUpper If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

Moustroll Good movie but grossly overrated

Tayloriona Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

Kaelan Mccaffrey Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

tenshi_ippikiookami "Kuroneko" is a fascinating picture, with a languid and dark atmosphere, dreamlike, that catches the viewer's attention from the very beginning.The movie starts when some samurai kill and rape two women, leaving the bodies to burn with their house. But the women come back as vengeful ghosts that kill and drink the blood of samurais. The lord of the region decides to do something and gives the job to stop the spirits to one of his men.The movie has a very simple plot, but the work of everyone involved makes watching it a special experience. As said above the atmosphere is top-notch, full of images, lurid and languid moments, dances... The effort put into creating that world is clear in every shot. It is obvious that every moment has been thought of, of what it means and what it tells. The direction is creative and full of energy, and the acting is really good, with the actors having more than clear their job. It is seductive, it enthralls the viewer, it is half-dream half-nightmare."Kuroneko" is an amazing movie, not easy to forget.

Cosmoeticadotcom Japanese film director Kaneto Shindo's 1968 black and white horror film, Kuroneko (Yabu No Naka No Kuroneko or The Black Cat From The Groves), is a film both in step with its era- especially with the horror films coming out of Italy, and those from England's Hammer studios, yet it is also a much deeper and cinematic film. It got worldwide acclaim, upon its release, but didn't get good stateside distribution due to the cancellation of the 1968 Cannes Film Festival where it was considered one of the strongest entries. In a sense, it shares much with another horror film released the same year, from Sweden's Ingmar Bergman, Hour Of The Wolf, wherein the dead return to prey on the living. Yet it also owes a debt to Jacques Tourneur's classic 1942 horror masterpiece Cat People.Yet, unlike that masterful film from two decades earlier, the characters in Kuroneko are never really more than archetypes in this film; but it works because this is not a realistic film, but an allegory on evil, vengeance and choosing one's enemies well, on both ends of the dilemma presented. The characters are merely instruments to affect and communicate an idea to the audience. However, despite their non-realistic overall personae, the characters often speak realistically, in terms of their emotive reactions, and this juxtaposition of the expected with the not so expected adds a psychological tension to the drama, in its schisms, that its actual narrative does not necessarily bear. And it's in these moments that Kuroneko occasionally laps at greatness, even if it never fully lashes its tongue about the quality. But, sometimes a good lick is all one needs.

GyatsoLa I got this movie ('Masters of Cinema' DVD series) after having been blown away by the same directors 'Onibaba'. This is a similar movie in many ways - an indefinable ghost story that doesn't fit into any neat category. Even more than Onibaba it is clearly heavily influenced by traditional theatrical forms - the setting is literally theatrical at times, particularly in the ghostly house where the demons, in the form of dead women raped and murdered, take their revenge on samurai.While the story is stilted and owes more to folklore than conventional movie making narrative, it is full of memorable and chilling imagery. This is as much an art movie as a horror story, but its all the more effective for it. The special effects and photography are both beautiful and chilling. Kaneto Shinudo was truly a master at this type of movie making, and it is a must-see for anyone interested in Japanese film - or horror films for that matter. Its not quite of the brilliance and originality of Onibaba, but its not far off.

paulfoulger I saw this movie when it was newly released. In spite of the subtitles it was really enjoyable. The effects were great considering how long ago it was made. Counts as a real classic alongside movies such as Psycho.