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We’ve seen movies from several countries so far over the course of this list. The U.S. of course, Italy and Sweden, but so far the Asian side of horror (specifically films from Korea, Japan or China) has been conspicuously absent. I’m not intentionally avoiding those types of movies, but Asian horror (and we’ll be focusing on Japanese horror here) is a strange beast. Most modern movie audiences will remember Ringu or Ju-On: The Grudge (at least their anglicized adaptations) and their freaky-ass ghost children, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Anyone who's seen House or the underworld scenes in Jigoku can attest that Japanese horror, like the rest of Japanese pop culture, is made of pure-grade insanity, and I wasn’t sure that said insanity would necessarily translate into an enjoyable movie. But I rolled the dice, and what I ended up with is Tetsuo: The Iron Man
I’m not sure whether it’s actually worth trying to describe the plot, because the plot doesn’t make any fucking sense, but I’ll give the bare minimum. One day, after inserting steel rod into his leg, a metal fetishist (director Shinya Tsukamoto) is struck and killed by a car. We then cut to a salaryman (Tomorowo Taguchi), who lives with his cat in a cramped apartment and occasionally has hot sex with his girlfriend. One other day, when the salaryman is waiting for the train, he is attacked by a strange woman who seems to have been mutated into some kind of metal zombie. Though he eventually escapes, the salaryman eventually discovers that he has become infected by this metallic sickness as well, slowly becoming more and more metallized as time goes on. A punishment from some angry god, or perhaps something much more sinister? Watch and find out…
So what is this industrial art house movie about? I couldn’t really say, something about sex and art or some other crap. It does feature some of the freakiest body horror this side of Cronenberg though, perhaps even freakier, and Tsukamoto’s visual design is physically disturbing and in stark contrast to what we know of as human. Like Häxan, this is a film that feels more like you’re experiencing a nightmare, something that is fearful precisely because it refuses logic and order. It’s also something you probably shouldn’t watch while high, much like Häxan. If you’re planning to have a sober Halloween for some reason, and you’ve been looking for some crazy cyberpunk bullshit, then come no further than Tetsuo: The Iron Man. And if that’s not enough, there’s two more Tetsuo films, so you can get freaky all night long.
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