Kiwako Taichi

Star Shintaro Katsu sits in the director’s chair for this psychedelic and unremittingly bleak entry in the Zatoichi series, which is unlike any other in its grind-house grimness. A tale of innocence corrupted by sadistic, sleazy criminality, the film is propelled by Easy Rider–esque editing and a trippy seventies funk score by Kunihiko Murai.

Kaneto Shindo’s classic, spectacularly eerie twilight tale is a poetic and atmospheric horror fable with a shocking feminist angle. A malevolent spirit has been ripping out the throats of itinerant samurai at a village in war-torn medieval Japan. When a military hero is sent to dispatch the unseen force, he finds that he must struggle with his own personal demons as well.