Tetsuo Review

Tetsuo
Shinya Tsukamotos black-and-white original follows a couple of hit-and-run drivers who mutate into half-human, half-machine, all-monster creations, alternately indulging in sexual congress and trying to drill, slash, hack or splatter each other to bits.

by empire |
Published on
Release Date:

01 Jan 1988

Running Time:

67 minutes

Certificate:

18

Original Title:

Tetsuo

Barely an hour long and in black-and-white, this follows three mutating characters in an industrial Japanese Hell.

A scrapheap casualty causes the couple who trashed him in a hit-and-run accident to turn into hideous half-man, half-machine, all-monster creations and to alternately indulge in frenzied and painful sexual congress or try to drill, slash, hack and splatter each other to bits.

With monster costumes that seem like the X-rated equivalent of the tatty outfits that used to crop up on Dr. Who or Lost In Space, this features some of the strongest screen stuff in recent years: at one point, the nominal hero sprouts a pneumatic drill penis and his girl rides him to a messy death, redecorating the wall. Painful, funny, pretentious and pointed.

This is alternately painful, funny, pretentious and pointed.
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