Matango (1963 film)

Matango (マタンゴ, Matango?), also known as Matango, Fungus of Terror and Attack of the Mushroom People, is a 1963 tokusatsu eiga (Japanese "special effects film"). It was directed by Ishiro Honda, written by Takeshi Kimura based on the story "The Voice in the Night" by William Hope Hodgson (an adaptation credit is given to Masami Fukushima and Shinichi Hoshi, but Kimura threw out most of their contributions), and had special effects by Eiji Tsuburaya.

The movie has developed something of a cult audience over the years; partly due to its bleakness and unusual themes, particularly when compared to other Japanese films of the same period.

The film was never released in mainstream American theaters, but probably did have limited exhibition in Japanese-American communities on the West Coast in its original language. When it was dubbed by American International Pictures in 1965, it was directly syndicated on 16mm color film to television as a TV-movie bearing the title Attack of the Mushroom People (the title is, in fact, placed directly over the original title painted on stone, part of which is cropped out of the image). With the advent of home video, used TV prints of this dubbed version found their way to well-established public domain dealers such as Something Weird Video, making it available for home viewing in Beta or VHS formats. It was at this time that it began developing its cult following and its reputation as an unusually disturbing film.

Synopsis
A shipwrecked yacht makes its way to the beach of an apparently deserted island, where the discover an abandoned ship on the beach, which is covered inside and out with a thick mold. As the crew explores the island they discover the crew is still alive, only completely merged with a strange fungus. It soon becomes apparent that the fungus aims to bond with each one of them, and they must leave before it can.