Onibaba

Onibaba (1964) is Kaneto Shindo's stark Japanese horror film, available to watch online on iFILM. It unfolds in the 14th century, deep in a sea of tall reeds beside a black swamp while civil war tears the country apart.

With the men gone to fight, an older woman and her son's wife stay alive by ambushing lost, exhausted soldiers in the grass, killing them and trading their armor for millet. Then a neighbor named Hachi comes back from the war alone — the old woman's son is dead. He and the young widow fall into a heated affair. Terrified of being left without her only helper, the mother pulls a demon mask off a dead samurai and uses it to scare the girl away from him.

Shindo strips the story almost bare of dialogue: the real lead is the reed field itself, hissing in the wind across every black-and-white frame, with Hikaru Hayashi's percussion pounding underneath. For anyone who likes slow, physical dread over jump scares, this one lingers. Stream Onibaba (1964) online on iFILM.