Testsuo: The Iron Man is not the sort of movie that you stumble upon. Shinya Tsukamoto's cult 1989 horror film follows a Japanese businessman turned accidental killer, as the one they call the Metal Fetishist slowly transforms his body into a living pile of metal and tubes and wires. Despite this off-putting premise and scenes that might seem laughable on paper (a gargantuan power drill of a penis), the film is a surrealist body-horror masterpiece. Industrial to the core, the sets provide gloriously complex mechanical backdrops, while imaginative camera angles show them off with a harsh modernist flair. Often music is omitted in favour of horrifying scratching or breathless quiet, but when it is used, it bangs and grinds and pops like some hellish factory. Synths drag themselves from countless iron smokestacks, raining nuts and bolt down on sweating hammers and vicious, spark-fuelled saws. It's the monstrous soundtrack to a monstrously engrossing film.
Listen to the opening credits on Youtube after the break.
