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Tuesday, November 8, 2016

Goke, Body Snatcher From Hell (1968)

Starring Teruo Yoshida, Tomomi Sato, Eizo Kitamura, Hideo Ko, Kathy Horan
Directed by Hajime Sato
(actor & director credits courtesy IMDB.com)

A Japanese flight crashes after encountering a UFO, and something from the spaceship takes over one of the passengers, transforming him into a human vampire.

We have here a very memorable horror film from Japan, which despite its effects showing their age, still has the power to unsettle viewers.  After establishing an actor's possession by the aliens in a gruesome scene, the filmmakers are able to build suspense without showing anything more than his sinister expression below a simple makeup scar in eerie closeups, and the terror in the actors trying to elude him.  It makes for an exciting and effective feature, enhanced by a haunting music score from Shunsuke Kikuchi, and the frightful use of color in the reddish skies that the plane plunges into, as well as the luminous shades of the kaleidoscope-like flying saucer.

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