In war-torn medieval Japan, weary samurai are drawn towards marshes to hide. There, they are ambushed by a ruthless mother and daughter-in-law team, who throw the bodies into a pit and barter weapons for food. When a neighbor returns from the war with bad news, he threatens the women’s partnership.

A primal, erotically-charged horror film from Japanese master Kaneto Shindo, this reimagining of a Buddhist folk tale is an expressionistic interrogation of the consequences of war. Uncannily allegorising the trauma of Hiroshima, Onibaba’s creeping unease soon gives way to full-blown demonic terror.