Hiroshi Teshigahara's 1964 collaboration with novelist and screenwriter Kobe Abe has at its core a central premise so ubiquitous, so mythic, that one can only conclude that it must resonate with something primal in our understanding of the world. A figure or figures leaves their home and familiar social surroundings, setting out for the countryside, the unexplored. They may be driven by fear, occupation, or curiosity. Along their way they find a beacon of the familiar in this territory, a semblance of what they've left behind and are drawn to it -- the home of another. But rather than finding a recreation of the social order they recognize, the familiarity is a trap which now imposes terrifying new rules upon them -- rules that resist all attempts at reason or logic. From Hansel and Gretel to The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, this premise ignites our most terrible nightmares about the foundation upon which we build our lives. Shifting sands, indeed.
