12 Underrated Horror Movie Gems From The 2000s

Yūdai Yamaguchi and Jun’ichi Yamamoto’s splatterific sci fi chiller is based on a 1999 film by Yamamoto. The 70 minute original is greatly expanded upon in this bigger budget update that gives us the NecroBorgs: humans turned into biomechanical monsters.

All of the special effects, make-up and NecroBorg molds were crafted by acclaimed effects whiz, Yoshihiro Nishimura. Nishimura would move on to eye popping features such as Tokyo Gore Police and The Machine Girl in the years after.

Main characters Yōji and Sachiko are tragically doomed, would-be lovers both leading lonesome lives as factory workers. When Yōji discovers an insect-like alien, he and everyone else is in for a gore-stuffed time. Now both amongst the monstrous NecroBorgs sweeping Japan, the 2 gradually set foot on a collision course with one another.

A gross body horror wrapped up in a sad, romantic drama, Meatball Machine delivers the goods in both mayhem and character development. The transformations the lead characters go through leave them looking somewhere between zombies and Transformers. Impressively, the humanity of the actors is mostly retained in the wake of their monstrous transformations.