Horrors of Malformed Men

1969 [JAPANESE]

Action / Horror

16
IMDb Rating 6.4/10 10 2184 2.2K

island cult film butoh dual role medical student

Plot summary

After escaping from an insane asylum, a medical student assumes the identity of a mysterious dead man, who appears to be his doppelganger, and gets lured to a sinister island ruled by a mad scientist and his malformed men.

Director

Teruo Ishii Photo
Teruo Ishii

Top cast

Teruo Yoshida Photo
Teruo Yoshida as Hirosuke Hitomi / Genzaburô Komoda
Kichijirô Ueda Photo
Kichijirô Ueda as Doctor
Minoru Ôki Photo
Minoru Ôki as Kogorô Akechi / Manservant
Yukie Kagawa Photo
Yukie Kagawa as Shizuko
720p.BluRay 1080p.BluRay
812.47 MB
1280*544
Japanese 2.0
NR
Subtitles jp  
23.976 fps
1 hr 39 min
Seeds 3
1.56 GB
1920*816
Japanese 2.0
NR
Subtitles jp  
23.976 fps
1 hr 39 min
Seeds 12

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by Elvoid

A Doctor Moreau... that's Japanese.

It's funny that Ishii says he was not familiar with the Moreau storyline because this flick looks so much like a crazy adaptation for it. Not an intense feature but one that will serve you very memorable freaky and somewhat psychedelic moments that, out of the wild context, will remind you of all the Japanese contemporary horror everyone yells for (think Ring, Dark Water as much as video games like Siren and Project Zero...). Very poorly written plot, but who cares when they're served such crazy visions and a final I would place in my top 10 of mindblowing movie endings - but that's just me... That's a very hard to see movie, and well worth seeing if you get the chance.
Reviewed by kluseba 7 / 10

A murder mystery thriller that turns ino a supernatural horror film

Horrors of Malformed Men is a quite experimental movie by veteran director Ishii Teruo that has been inspired by the tales of famous mystery and horror author Edogawa Rampo who had himself been inspired by Western authors such as Edgar Allan Poe. This experimental movie at the pulse of its time combines several of these tales. The main issue is that this fusion isn't always fluid and leads to two completely contrasting parts.The first half of the movie is a murder mystery tale. A medical student without any recollection of his past is trapped in a sinister asylum. He manages to escape when one of the guards attempts to murder him. The fugitive discovers the photograph of a recently deceased man from a prosperous family who looks exactly like him. The medical student decides to take the dead man's identity to find out the truth about his origins and escape from the police.The second half of the movie is a supernatural horror tale. The medical student travels to the island of a mad scientist who transforms perfectly normal humans into hideous freaks to create a better society. He gets captured, manipulated and threatened by the scientist and attempts to escape the island and prevent the scientist's megalomanic plans.It's probably a matter of prefence whether you prefer the first or the second half of the movie but they are so different from each other that few people will equally appreciate both parts. The first half is atmospheric, mysterious and surprising as it convinces with clever storytelling and intriguing characters. It recalls numerous European murder mystery films as especially the German Edgar Wallace films and the Italian giallo genre come to mind. The second half is much more brutal, experimental and frantic and ventures into experimental cinematography with hectic camera work, numerous flashbacks and colourful locations. It's a mixture of Japan's very own pink film genre of the sixties and American pre-war science-fiction and horror cinema somewhere between King Kong and Island of Lost Souls.In the end, Horrors of Malformed Men is certainly daring, entertaining and unconventional. However, the script is all over the place and the conclusion might even be too unconventional for most open-minded cineasts. Ishii Teruo should have created two different movies here instead of putting together two ideas that don't gel.
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