Toho offered horror icon John Carpenter the chance to remake their darkest monster movie Matango. From producing the most famous works of Akira Kurosawa like Seven Samurai to distributing anime classics like My Neighbor Totoro, production company Toho has a rich history behind it. Arguably their most famous creation is Godzilla movie franchise. Godzilla isn't their only famous creature, and maybe their bleakest monster movie is 1963's Matango, helmed by original Godzilla director Ishiro Honda. This sees a group of rich, young Japanese friends stranded on an island overgrown with a strange breed of mushroom.
As supplies run low and tension run high, they fight among each other and discover those who eat the mushrooms turn into hideous monsters. Matango is a pessimistic tale with few likable characters, and while the effects have aged poorly, it's still an affecting horror tale. Self-professed Godzilla fan and director John Carpenter recounted to The Thing remake building off similar themes of isolation and mistrust.
Why Matango Was Almost Banned In Japan
Unfortunately, Carpenter didn't give a timeline for when he met with Toho about Matango, or why he didn't feel "ready" to make it. Assuming it was after The Thing, maybe he felt he had already covered similar ground. While mushroom monsters may not sound immensely terrifying, The Last Of Us' Clicker monsters proved that fungus has the potential to yield some body horror nightmares. Matango was also controversial in Japan during its original release and was nearly banned due to its makeup effects.
Chiefly, the movie features characters with facial disfigurements caused by eating the mushrooms, with the makeup used being cited as too close to those who survived the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombings. While films like Godzilla dealt with the atomic bombings in a coded way, the makeup used in Matango was deemed too realistic; however, it was eventually released in August 1963, but quickly underperformed. After being released with catchier subtitles like Fungus Of Terror overseas, it eventually became a cult favorite among horror fans for its sheer uniqueness.
Carpenter Wasn't The Only Filmmaker Linked To A Matango Remake
Carpenter may have ed on remaking Matango, but he wasn't the only filmmaker linked to it. In a 2017 conversation with Steven Soderburgh movies such as Unsane had horror elements, but Matango would have been his first true monster movie. For whatever reason, it appeared Toho didn't want to revisit the film during that period.
