Didn't see a thread for this so here we go.
This is definitely one of Honda's more adult films alongside The H-Man (I have not seen his other mutant film The Human Vapor). In fact, The H-Man feels like a precursor to Matango in many ways, especially the spooky and atmospheric ghost ship sequence. Matango is basically the feature film version of that as you see the characters and their environment slowly deteriorate. It's almost the opposite of his larger scale films where people, entire nations, band together to take on a global threat. Here a tiny group of people eat at each other until tragedy strikes for all of them.
Unfortunately the final twist was ruined for me thanks to the back of the Media Blasters DVD, but it's still a very striking note to end the film on. I'd really love to see this film receive a Criterion alongside Godzilla.
Here's a nice article on the movie with the original short story by William Hope Hodgson -
http://www.scifijapan.com/articles/2007 ... t-matango/