Onibaba (1964)'s activity

In Onibaba ("Demon Woman"), director Kaneto Shindō (Kuroneko) shows a powerful ability to use nature in a filmic way - the tall grass, as much a refuge from the war as a labyrinthine killing ground; the night creating stark black and white images; and most of all, the pit, a hellmouth, dark and mysterious. Starting the story on that hole swallows us up and takes us to the other side, a hell on the periphery of armed conflict, where the horror genre is inferred, but only confirmed in the last reel - strange spaces, murderous women, sinful lust, and that music, driving beats punctuated by disturbing screams that might or might not be diegetic. The sound design is very strong. Two women, their husbands lost to the war, a forced to kill stray samurai and sell their gear for food, their dynamic disturbed by a callous deserter who wants sex from the younger woman. A cursed mask eventually enters the story as a means to bring back some semblance of order, but that order is hellish. At the end, I think we have to stop kidding ourselves that the original status quo was in any way normal. What's great about Onibaba is that you really never know where it's going to go next; it's wholly original.