Hiroshi Matsuno

The Living Skeleton

The Living Skeleton

In this atmospheric tale of revenge from beyond the watery grave, a pirate-ransacked freighter’s violent past comes back to haunt a young woman living in a seaside town. Mixing elements of kaidan (ghost stories), doppelgänger thrillers, and mad-scientist movies, Hiroshi Matsuno’s The Living Skeleton is a wild and eerie work, with beautiful widescreen, black-and-white cinematography.

Film Info

  • Japan
  • 1968
  • 80 minutes
  • Black & White
  • 2.45:1
  • Japanese

Available In

Collector's Set

Eclipse Series 37: When Horror Came to Shochiku

Eclipse Series 37: When Horror Came to Shochiku

DVD Box Set

4 Discs

$47.96

The Living Skeleton
Cast
Kikko Matsuoka
Saeko/Yoriko
Yasunori Irikawa
Mochizuki
Masumi Okada
Father
Nobuo Kaneko
Suetsugu
Kô Nishimura
Nishizato
Credits
Director
Hiroshi Matsuno
Produced by
Akira Inomata
Screenplay
Kikuma Shimoiizaka
Screenplay
Kyuzo Kobayashi
Cinematography
Masayuki Kato
Editor
Kazuo Ota
Production design
Kyohei Morita
Music
Noboru Nishiyama

Current

Eclipse Series 37: When Horror Came to Shochiku
Eclipse Series 37: When Horror Came to Shochiku

For a brief, shining moment, the genteel Japanese studio mutated into a fun house of grim ghouls and slimy aliens.

By Chuck Stephens

All Aboard the Ghost Ship: Hiroshi Matsuno’s Folk Phantasmagoria The Living Skeleton

Deep Dives

All Aboard the Ghost Ship: Hiroshi Matsuno’s Folk Phantasmagoria The Living Skeleton

This underappreciated 1968 film is a feast of dark delights, filled with vengeful ghosts, psychically linked identical twins, obsessed mad scientists, creepy priests, and seemingly sentient skeletons.

By Adam Nayman

Kim Newman’s Top 10
Kim Newman’s Top 10

Kim Newman’s books include the Anno Dracula series and Nightmare Movies. He is a contributing editor at Sight & Sound and Empire magazines and also writes for Video Watchdog.