The Living Skeleton

The Living Skeleton (Kyuketsu Dokuro-Sen) (1968)

Runtime: 80 minutes

Directed by: Hiroki Matsuno

Starring: Kikko Matsuoka, Yasunori Irikawa, Matsumi Okada, Asao Uchida, Asao Koike

From: Shochiku

Viewing another Shochiku genre movie from the late 60’s came about due to-as happens sometimes-a recommendation from a Letterboxd mutual. In a comment, they mentioned that every other film in the When Horror Came to Shochiku DVD boxset was better than The X from Outer Space, singling out Goke, the Body Snatcher from Hell (something I’ll tackle either in September or October) and this picture. As nothing was on the agenda for last night, why not? The picture on the Criterion Channel stream was DVD-quality but as it was my only option…

The film wasn’t quite what I expected—not a negative by any means. The cold open is a band of modern pirates boarding a freighter and killing everyone on board, including a doctor and his newlywed wife. Three years later, the wife’s twin sister is drawn to the freighter when it mysteriously returns… from there are many things that I suspected once it became apparent what direction they were going in, along with several rather peculiar detours into moments out of left field.

There is plenty to enjoy: the curious yet effective score, the atmosphere, the performances, etc. I was in fact reminded at first of The Fog w/ the seaside setting, the ship and the visage of ghosts-in this case, actual skeletons. Those, along with some rubber bats, are charitably described as “quaint” in appearance but they didn’t ruin the great vibes of The Living Skeleton, which successfully blended Japanese ghost stories with a few different elements. It would be good for Spooky Season this year or any year, really—as long as you are not totally turned off from seeing something bad happen to a collie dog identified as JOHNNY in the subtitles.