“Matango” (also known as “Attack of the Mushroom People”) is an interesting Japanese film from director Ishirô Honda (“Godzilla”, “Destroy All Monsters”). This is one of those movies that has a slow start and a lot of it feels rather uneventful but then the ending makes it all worthwhile.

A group of people on a boat encounter a harsh storm and find themselves shipwrecked on a mysterious island. They soon struggle to find food and start mentally suffering from the stressful situation. They resort to feeding on the island’s mushrooms. This will have horrifying consequences for the group as its members begin to physically transform.

The characters in this movie are not the most exciting. They are still better than the ones that you see in most films where a bunch of survivors are stranded. The highlight is of course the Mushroom People. You don’t really get to see them properly until near the end but they look great. They remind me of some of the creatures from the original “Star Trek”. The make-up during the transformation sequences almost led to the film getting banned in Japan as it made the characters look similar to people affected by the nuclear radiation after Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

I can see a lot of people getting bored with “Matango” and abandoning it but if you stick with it, I think you may be won over by the end. Although the costumes look cheesy, the film is surprisingly disturbing at times. The decision to rename it “Attack of the Mushroom People” in some territories is intriguing. It’s a fun title that certainly caught my attention but I can’t help but wonder what it would have been like seeing this without knowing there would be strange creatures on the island. Either way, this is an enjoyable film worth watching.