Weekend One • Presented by Severin Films • Introduction by Kier-La Janisse

Also known as Ghost Cat of the Cursed Pond, Bakeneko: A Vengeful Spirit is one of the many mid-century Japanese explorations of “Kaibyo” or “ghost cat”  mythology, and one of the best. Director Yoshihiro Ishikawa was no stranger to kaibyo country, having co-written Nobuo Nakagawa’s equally chilling Black Cat Mansion (1958) and directed Ghost Cat of Otama Pond (1960). Released the same year as Kaneto Shindo’s more well-known Kuroneko, Bakeneko: A Vengeful Spirit mines that indelible trope of the cat ghost story: a violent and greedy Lord kills a young woman when she refuses to become his concubine, only for her cat to drink her blood and become her shapeshifting avenger. “Beginning in a quietly haunting vein reminiscent of Ugetsu,” wrote Spectacle Theatre in their promotional text for a 2016 screening of the film, “Bakeneko descends into a nightmarish parade of splattered blood, decapitations and ghosts gnawing on severed limbs.” Not to be missed by anyone with a beloved feline familiar! (Kier-La Janisse)

Directed by Yoshihiro Ishikawa
Japan, 86 minutes
Japanese with English subtitles
World Premiere of New 2K restoration from Severin Films

This screening of Bakeneko: A Vengeful Spirit is held in conjunction with the Miskatonic Institute of Horror Studies’ presentation of Alexandra West’s multimedia lecture “The Cat Came Back: Feline Familiars in the Horror Genre”.

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