Willem Dafoe Loves This Terrifying Japanese Horror Film
Recently, Letterboxd asked the Poor Things team to share their four favorite movies. While everyone provided a lovely mixture of obscure and original cinema, it was national treasure Willem Dafoe who knocked it out of the park. Anyone familiar with Dafoe’s work knows his default setting is 165%. The award-winning actor even channels Shakespearean gravitas when giving Spider-man the business. He is clearly on a different level than the rest of us.
So, of course we all leaned forward to hear what movies would make Willem Dafoe’s list. Our favorite Willem had a 1960s Japanese ghost story in the chamber, and he dropped the title as easily as most people drop a good habit on the second day of January. He cited Onibaba as one of his top four films of all time. That’s right, nerds! His first thought when he was put on the spot was a cinematic horror deep cut.
Watch the full clip:
If you’re like me, lay awake at night needing to know more about this haunting tale that Willem Dafoe namedropped. If so, you have opened the right article because I’m about to give you a crash course on what sounds like a really cool movie.
In the film,
“While her son, Kichi, is away at war, a woman (Nobuko Otowa) and her daughter-in-law (Jitsuko Yoshimura) survive by killing samurai who stray into their swamp, then selling whatever valuables they find. Both are devastated when they learn that Kichi has died, but his wife soon begins an affair with a neighbor who survived the war, Hachi (Kei Satô). The mother disapproves and, when she can’t steal Hachi for herself, tries to scare her daughter-in-law with a mysterious mask from a dead samurai.”
Onibaba was written and directed by Kaneto Shindo. It was released on DVD in 2004 in Criterion Collection. They then released it on Blu-ray in 2021. The film is currently streaming on Max.
You can see Willem Dafoe in Poor Things which is currently in theaters.
I love horror movies and fully support all murderous women in the genre. So, Willem Dafoe is speaking my language, and I plan to inject this directly into my eyeballs posthaste. Let me know if Onibaba is also on your agenda this weekend at @misssharai.
Categorized:News
