Motion Picture [V/A]- Eclipse Series 37: When Horror Came to Shochiku (The X from Outer Space / Goke, Body Snatcher from Hell / The Living Skeleton / Genocide) (the criterion collection)

Label: Criterion 

Originally released 1967-1968, reissued 2012

FOREIGN / HORROR / SCI-FI - Following years of a certain radioactive rubber beast’s domination of the box office, many Japanese studios tried to replicate the formula with their own brands of monster movies. One of the most fascinating dives into that fiendish deep end was the short-lived one from Shochiku, a studio better known for its elegant dramas by the likes of Kenji Mizoguchi and Yasujiro Ozu. In 1967 and 1968, the company created four certifiably batty, low-budget fantasies, tales haunted by watery ghosts, plagued by angry insects, and stalked by aliens—including one in the form of a giant chicken-lizard. Shochiku’s outrageous and oozy horror period shows a studio leaping into the unknown, even if only for one brief, bloody moment.