The Hole = Onibaba [Widescreen]

Set in the 16th century at a time of brutal clan warfare, peasants are driven to desperate remedies just to stay alive. If that means killing samurai and flogging their amour, then so be it. The two leading characters - a widow (Nobuko Otowa) and her daughter-in-law (Yitsuko Yoshimura) are engaged in just such a racket. Shindo spares us none of the details: victims are speared, stripped and unceremoniously dumped in the concealed pit that hides the evidence of their crime. A samurai, separated from his troops, stumbles into the lakeside village bizarrely clad in the mask of a demon. He wears it, he says, to protect his handsome features from the ravages of war. Like many before him, he is slain and his mask is purloined and used by the widow to terrify her daughter-in-law, of whose unabashed sexuality she is jealous. But the plan misfires, the mask shrinks and clings to her face and when it has to be forcibly released, it discloses the worst horror of all. Music by Mitsu Hayashi. In Japanese with English Subtitles.