10 Most Savage Japanese Horror Films Ever

5. Tetsuo: Iron Man (1989)

Grotesque Film
Kaijyu Theatres

A weird man with a metal fetish finds maggots festering in his body so he's just a little perturbed by this discovery and runs out of his abode in a distraught state. A rich man called Tetsuo is driving in the car, with his girlfriend alongside him, and accidentally mows down the distraught man and they try desperately to dispose of his body. After this incident, we realise that the metal fetish man has put a curse on Tetsuo, who begins to turn into metal from the inside. This is actually quite amusing, if slightly disgusting and horrific.

High points of the film include Tetsuo trying to conduct sexual intercourse with his girlfriend only to spout a giant metal drill of a penis that snuffs her out. His poor cats are turned to disgusting warped metal creatures. Somewhere along the line, the metal fetish guy reappears from the dead. After hostilities are suspended following an epic battle between Tetsuo and Fetish Man, they come to the conclusion that two heads are better than one. And with that in mind, they swan off with their goal to turn the whole world to metal.

This grotesque film is definitely one of a kind. It was brought to our screens by director Shinya Tsukamoto, a highly regarded cult film maker in his native Japan, who is able to illustrate graphically, and stylishly, both Tetsuo's metamorphosis, and his coming to terms with his tampered body.

It is a real 'can't take my eyes of this disgusting spectacle' film that probably could only have emerged from the Japanese Horror film industry where anything bizarre is cherished and allowed to flow freely (except pubic hair).

Contributor
Contributor

My first film watched was Carrie aged 2 on my dad's knee. Educated at The University of St Andrews and Trinity College Dublin. Fan of Arthouse, Exploitation, Horror, Euro Trash, Giallo, New French Extremism. Weaned at the bosom of a Russ Meyer starlet. The bleaker, artier or sleazier the better!