What would seem at first glance to be a colorful but imitative riff on the vampire, alien-invasion, and airplane-disaster genres, turns out instead to be a remarkably original and extremely creepy exercise in doom and paranoia - not unlike the same year's NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD - and one of the straight-up coolest horror flicks to come out of '60s Japan.

Ominous omens abound during a Tokyo Air flight: the clouds around the plane glow an unnatural blood red, and birds fling themselves bloodily against the cabin windows. The passengers are already uptight enough - discussing the escalation of war, terrorism and murder in world events, namely the recent assassination of Japan's ambassador to the UK. (None of the above make for relaxing in-flight conversation, especially nowadays.) The tension comes to a head when co-pilot Sugisaka (Teruo Yoshida) receives an urgent report about a bomb hidden onboard. As if that weren't enough, the still-at-large assassin (Hideo Ko) is sitting among the passengers!

Paranoid that the bomb search will expose his identity, the smartly-dressed killer decides to strike first, and hijacks the plane to Okinawa. No sooner has he implemented his plan when a huge, glowing spacecraft (a cool model apparently fashioned after UFO photos making the media rounds at the time) strafes the plane, knocking out one of the engines and forcing the crew to ditch in a rocky, desolate valley.

Survivors of the crash include Sugisaka, flight attendant Kuzumi (Tomomi Sato), and the surliest, most self-serving cross section of society this side of an Irwin Allen disaster flick. Within seconds of discovering how little water is available, they practically leap for each other's throats. (Good thing there wasn't a rugby team aboard - they'd have been diced and tempura-fried before sundown.) The Captain's attempts to avert a riot fail miserably, and Kuzumi is seized by the white-suited assassin, who had been mistakenly left for dead.

Though he escapes into the hills with his hostage, the hijacker's victory is short-lived, as he runs smack-dab into the alien craft. Ensnared by its hypnotic beam (indicated by a series of ear-splitting BEEPS on the soundtrack), he is brought aboard to become host for a gooey silver blob - an alien vampire called a "Gokemidoro" - which enters his skull by graphically splitting open his forehead (a very groovy sequence, I might add). Now a very different kind of assassin, he returns to the downed plane to prey on the haggard humans by drinking their blood. Since most of them are already trying to kill each other by this point, it makes his job a helluva lot easier. A series of increasingly fatal events follows, as a pervasive feeling of dread closes in on the characters - and you, the unwitting viewer.

That doomsday groove is abetted by a nightmarish primary color scheme - which calls to mind Mario Bava's PLANET OF THE VAMPIRES - and a thoroughly eerie score, combining old-school orchestra horror cues with weird '60s electronic doodling (not to mention a musical saw). The resulting effect is an acid-tinged world where altogether different rules apply, and humans are reduced to a childlike level of self-preservation. The futility of their efforts is made clear by a shocking final sequence that has to be seen to be believed.

The most striking aspect of the film is its deliberate anti-war message. Affecting a new twist on a prevalent theme in post-WWII Japanese cinema, the film draws on current events - namely Vietnam, and the growing civil unrest in Japan - to illustrate the savage nature of Man, hiding just beneath the veneer of social order. The passengers represent a cross-section of human weaknesses: a slimy defense contractor forces his wife to sleep with a corrupt state official to help secure a business deal; a young anarchist smuggles a bomb aboard the plane for no apparent reason other than "there's no fun in the world anymore"; and a smug psychologist revels in watching people crack under stress. There's even a surge of xenophobia toward the token American (Kathy Horan), whom the others decide to offer to the hijacker just to see if he's really a vampire!

GOKE is a ballsy, nightmarish feast for the senses that's been long overdue for a proper DVD release, and the UK's Artsmagic have managed to serve it up in style. The gorgeous scope print is presented in anamorphic widescreen, and it's a beauty, with very few print flaws. The candy-colored palette is nothing short of stunning, and signature sequences like the blood-red sky of the opening sequence (which Tarantino copied for the Japan skyline shots in KILL BILL), or the pulsing, psychedelic interior of the spaceship itself, are incredible to behold. Some of the night scenes are a bit too dark in spots, but not so much as to obscure the action. The mono track is clean (though a slight tape hiss creeps in from time to time) and the sound effects pack a considerable punch. Removable English subtitles are mostly below the frame line; a couple significant lines from Horan (whose stilted dialogue was composed by someone with limited grasp of English) are subtitled directly on the print in Japanese. Extras are few, but include a cool trailer (which totally gives away the ending, just so you know), filmographies and a lengthy list of Asian titles from Artsmagic's "Shadow Warrior" label.

Although it bears many of the earmarks of '60s Japanese genre filmmaking, GOKE's darker sensibility, haunting subtext and surprisingly gruesome imagery place it on a whole new level, making it well worth re-discovering by today's culturally savvy horror community. Bear in mind, this is a Region 2 PAL release, so your player will need code-free and PAL capability. Cool flicks like this one make it worth every penny, believe me.

Pick up your very own copy of Goke on DVD at www.xploitedcinema.com!