HORRORS OF MALFORMED MEN

released 17 september 1969 | 18 | blu-ray Director teruo Ishii Cast teruo Yoshida, Yukie Kagawa, teruko Yumi, mitsuko aoi

“You’re dreaming a warped dream!” Watching this deranged Japanese exploitation flick, which recalls The Island Of Dr Moreau and The Human Centipede, that line of dialogue rings true. Based on Edogawa Ranpo’s 1926 novella The Strange Tale Of Panorama Island, with elements of a couple of his other stories, it sees an amnesiac in an asylum go in search of his identity. The clues lead to an island ruled by a webbed-fingered loon with a scheme to overrun the world with “malformed men”. Cue artificially conjoined twins, women sprayed silver, and others grafted to goats to create centaur-like beasts.

Brace yourself for outlandish twists, a casual scattering of taboo topics like incest and cannibalism, and a score that largely consists of a whirly tube being swung in the air. Late in the day, everything grinds to a halt for seven minutes while a character dumps a ton of exposition, but that aside it’s intoxicatingly irrational.

Extras Two expert commentaries; a careeroverview interview with screenwriter Masahiro Kakefuda (14 minutes); 23 minutes of directors Shinya Tsukamoto and Minoru Kawasaki paying tribute to Teruo Ishii’s ouevre; 14 minutes of footage from Ishii’s trip to an Italian film festival; gallery; trailer; booklet. Ian Berriman