Kaidan hebi-onna (Snake Woman's Curse) (Ghost Story of the Snake Woman) (1968)

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Long credited with being the father of the Japanese horror film, Jigoku director Nobuo Nakagawa helms this tale of a wealthy landlord who incurs the wrath of a vengeful peasant. Chobei rules over his rural village with an iron fist, callously exploiting the small people for all they're worth. One… More Long credited with being the father of the Japanese horror film, Jigoku director Nobuo Nakagawa helms this tale of a wealthy landlord who incurs the wrath of a vengeful peasant. Chobei rules over his rural village with an iron fist, callously exploiting the small people for all they're worth. One day, Chobei takes things too far and causes the death of a poor farmer. Instead of paying penance for his horrible misdeed, the greedy landlord forces the dead man's wife and daughter to become his personal servants. Later, when Chobei kills a snake that the farmer's wife had been protecting, he starts experiencing visions or rotting corpses, and gradually loses his grip on sanity. When Chobei's son Takeo's beautiful new bride begins displaying the disturbing characteristics of a serpent, the fearful father races to set things right before the spirits of the dead take their gruesome revenge. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi