Forgotten Films: Attack of the Mushroom People (1963)

Forgotten Films: Attack of the Mushroom People (1963)

This is the 46th in my series of Forgotten Obscure or Neglected Films

This was a film that in those long ago pre-VCR days it took me a long time to see. It was rarely scheduled and you had to watch the paper or TV listings to see if it was on. And then, frequently, it would show at 2 AM or some other awful time. I am not much of a night person. Get me into a comfortable chair late at night with something less than an action thriller and I will be gone in no time. Such was the case the first few times I tried to watch it. Thirty minutes in and I was gone.

So I was pleased once I finally got chance to see it intact and without commercials. That was heaven. Sometime shortly thereafter I found out that the film was based on a classic horror short story “The Voice in the Night” by William Hope Hodgson. I became aware of Hodgson through the Ballantine Adult Fantasy series edited by Lin Carter which reprinted three of his four novels with introductions that spoke of his work. My first Arkham House book purchase was DEEP WATERS by Hodgson in 1973. That short story collection contained “The Voice in the Night”. I later acquired reprints of all four novels and read them. They were a mixed bag, sometimes short and brilliant (THE HOUSE ON THE BORDERLAND) to the long, stylistically difficult pseudo-Elizabethan horror (THE NIGHT LAND). I was glad I read them.

ATTACK OF THE MUSHROOM PEOPLE is an amazing Japanese horror. Some writers have suggested that it disturbs many people because the “mushroom people” look somewhat like the radiation victims of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. I don’t know about that. I do know that they are pretty disgusting.

This is the story of seven people (five men and two women) who set out for a small cruise on the yacht one of them owns. The people include the businessman Masafumi Kasai (Yoshio Tsuchiya); the singer Mami Sekiguchi (Kumi Mizuno); the writer Etsuro Yoshida (Hiroshi Tachikawa); the Professor Kenji Murai (Akira Kubo); the student Akiko Soma (Miki Yashiro); the skipper Naoyuki Sakuta (Hiroshi Koizumi); and the sailor Senzo Koyama (Kenji Sahara). Not exactly your household cast.

The group is out for a leisurely sail (perhaps a three hour tour) when they encounter a storm that breaks the mast of the yacht and pushes them out of the sea lanes and strands them on a misty island. Exploring the island they encounter a wrecked vessel which is larger than theirs and has some supplies. It is covered in fungus. They clean it up using some carbolic acid and find the ships log as well as references to the fungus called Matango. Everything warns them not to eat the indigenous mushrooms.

Things are OK for a few days but there are few edible things on the island and no meat. The women are a distraction. The businessman wants to be treated differently. The sailor steals turtle eggs and sells them to the businessman rather than giving them to the group. The sailor wants the girls. Everyone hunts for food and water and helps in trying to repair the yacht.

The skipper steals the canned food and takes the yacht away in secret when it is workable, leaving everyone else behind in a pickle. The writer is the first to break and he eats the mushrooms. Suddenly he has no additional hunger. He is sated. He comes to the others with the businessman’s rifle and convinces the singer to go with him. She is hungry and he promises food. The sailor wants the singer and attacks but is killed. The singer eats the mushroom and entices the businessman to go with them. Suddenly it is the Professor Mary Anne (sorry) the student Akiko who are left.

The yacht returns. The skipper has died and it has drifted back to the island. The Professor wants to go but Akiko is tired and just wants to either give in or die. She bites the mushroom to the Professor’s horror. Suddenly giant fungoid creatures are attacking him and he runs to the ship and sets out to try to find civilization. He is eventually rescued but is placed in an insane asylum when he tells his tale.

I reread the short story after watching the film and, though fleshed out to cover a 90 minute film, it does a pretty good job of relaying the story. I think Hodgson would have liked it. I know I did.

But not everyone does. This was in the original Golden Turkey listing that Harry and Michael Medved did in 1981. I no longer remember why they did not like it. Possibly the title. While being known as ATTACK OF THE MUSHROOM PEOPLE, it is also known as MATANGO; MATANGO, FUNGUS OF TERROR; CURSE OF THE MUSHROOM PEOPLE; FUNGUS OF TERROR; and MATANGO, ATTACK OF THE MUSHROOM PEOPLE.

It runs 90 minutes and is generally available through the usual methods.

Series organizer Todd Mason hosts more Tuesday Forgotten Film reviews at his own blog and posts a complete list of participating blogs.