Also released as
- 藪の中の黒猫
- El gato negro
- Kolasmena Pathi
- The Black Cat from the Grove
- Yabu no naka no kuroneko
- Black Cat in a Bamboo Grove
- 쿠로네코
- 薮の中の黒猫
- O Gato Preto do Túmulo
Filed under
Kuroneko
Kuroneko is a 1968 Japanese horror film directed by Kaneto Shindō.
Two women murdered by samurai return as cats bound by a promise to drink the blood of every samurai they meet.
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Kaneto Shindo made this four years after Onibaba and it is the more formally beautiful of the two.
A mother and her daughter-in-law are raped and killed by a passing troop in a burning house. They come back as vengeful spirits in a bamboo grove that appears at night, luring warriors home.
The trick is that the son returns from war a decorated samurai and is ordered to destroy them.
Shindo shoots the ghosts with wirework and reversed footage so they move through the air in a way that is graceful and wrong, and the entire film is high-contrast black and white with black backgrounds that swallow the frame.
The obligation the film ends on, a mother choosing between her promise and her son, is the sharpest thing in Japanese horror.
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Trailer
The sleeves
The same film, sold as a different film in each territory. Click any of them.
Where to watch
UK
USA
Legal sources only. Availability data from JustWatch via TMDB.
Checked 9 Aug 2026
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