Goke, Body Snatcher from Hell (1968)

"The universe is filled with things of which mankind knows nothing"

Goke, Body Snatcher from Hell is a misleading title, the Gokemidoro were not from hell, but rather outer space. To be fair, the surreal orange and blood red sky they conjured did resemble a hellscape.

A plane carrying passengers to Osaka appears to be cursed. Birds splatter against the passenger windows (how fast and high were those birds flying?). An assassin AND a suicide bomber are on the plane. A corrupt politician is being wooed with bribery by a defense contractor in the form of money and his wife’s services. A grieving American widow is on route to claim her husband’s remains. Rounding out the passengers are a space biology professor and a psychiatrist. When a glowing ball of light passes over the plane the instruments stop working and the plane crashes on a remote island. The only crew that survives are the co-pilot and a flight attendant. The assassin/hijacker takes the flight attendant hostage, leaves the plane and gets more than he bargained for when they stumble across the spaceship.

This film reminded me of the equally bizarre Matango (1963), except Matango’s stranded passengers kept their veneer of civilization longer than this cabin of miscreants. Immediately upon crashing the passengers began to turn on each other. Only the crew, Sugisaka and Asakura, were worth rooting for and even then Asakura was constantly fainting or screaming.

The space creatures and the special effects for them were on par with similar B movies. The pulsing mercury Blobs that inhabited the humans through a slit on the foreheads they created turned the bodies into mindless, blood sucking creatures. Similar to the phallic shaped mushroom creatures in Matango, Goke’s inhabited humans had giant female genitalia shaped creases on their foreheads. More frightening than the aliens were the way the humans betrayed each other.

Unusual for a creature feature from the mid-1960s, was the oft mentioned Vietnam war and war atrocity images highlighted in bright orange-red. There was a strong anti-war sentiment. Man’s senseless wars against each other was why the aliens were able to invade. Instead of working together against a possible invasion, people preferred to kill each other off themselves. I was reminded of the T2 quote: “We’re not going to make it are we?” “It’s in your nature to destroy yourselves.” Wars, political corruption, terrorism, assassinations, and utter selfishness coupled with a lack of compassion were real fears about the state of the world and humanity’s lack of humanity. This film was around a 6.50 for me, but director Sato Hajime’s disturbing ending driven by the hopelessness and despair permeating the previous 80 minutes followed through with the theme, so I bumped it up. Only for fans of the genre and the era, it’s effects and acting are dated.

22 October 2025
Triggers: for the squeamish-the alien possession was a little gross, but tame by today’s standards. The vampires drew no visible blood if you are concerned about that.

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