King Kong vs. Godzilla/Matango: Fungus of TerrorN/C 8+

This double bill celebrates the work of Japanese director Ishiro Honda, father of Godzilla and famed for his special effects or tokusatsu movies, and is a rare opportunity to enjoy both films on 35mm and expansive widescreen TohoScope.

King Kong vs. Godzilla was the first film to feature either King Kong or Godzilla in colour and widescreen. Surprisingly, it was also only the third outing for Japan’s most celebrated movie monster, and only the second in the series helmed by the director of the original Godzilla (1954); they would come thick and fast after this one, with a total of fifteen in the original series until Honda’s final work as a director, Terror of Mechagodzilla (1975). Produced to celebrate Toho studio's 30th anniversary, it remains the most commercially successful of the series to date.

Followed by

Matango, Fungus of Terror is a hallucinogenic horror adapted from the 1907 short story ‘The Voice in the Night’ by English author William Hope Hodgson. A yacht-full of privileged Tokyo-ites are forced to face their primordial selves after they wash up on deserted tropical island festooned with clumps of fungus. Scripted by Takeshi Kimura, this is a considerably darker, more pessimistic affair than Honda’s more exuberant titles like King Kong vs. Godzilla. Truly horrifying stuff! 

Tickets: £12 full price / £10 concession / £10 CineCard full price / £8 CineCard concession