Tetsuo: The Iron Man

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1h 7m

Horror

Sci-Fi

Animation

List

82%

Tomatometer

17 Reviews

76%

Audience Score

10,000+ Ratings

A "metal fetishist" (Shin'ya Tsukamoto), driven mad by the maggots wriggling in the wound he's made to embed metal into his flesh, runs out into the night and is accidentally run down by a Japanese businessman (Tomorowo Taguchi) and his girlfriend (Kei Fujiwara). The pair dispose of the corpse in hopes of quietly moving on with their lives. However, the businessman soon finds that he is now plagued by a vicious curse that transforms his flesh into iron.

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Ed Gonzalez

Slant Magazine

Tetsuo and Fetishist's transformation into Iron Man becomes a response to the machinization of the individual in a systematically regimented Japan.

Rated: 3.5/4

Aug 27, 2001

Full Review

Marc Savlov

Austin Chronicle

Rated: 4/5

Jan 1, 2000

Full Review

Sean Axmaker

Stream on Demand

... Shinya Tsukamoto draws on the marriage of flesh and technology that inspires so much of David Cronenberg’s work and twists it into a manga-influenced cyberpunk vision.

Oct 29, 2022

Full Review

Josh Larsen

LarsenOnFilm

...the sound design disturbed me the most.

Rated: 3/4

Jun 9, 2022

Full Review

Justin LaLiberty

Screen Slate

A hysterical, histrionic ode to cyber-punk fetishism, Tetsuo owes as much to William Gibson as it does the body horror cinema of David Cronenberg & the stop-motion theatrics of Jan vankmajer.

Oct 8, 2021

Full Review

Emilie Black

Cinema Crazed

Tetsuo, The Iron Man is one of those completely insane, yet enjoyable (?) films that seem to be the precursor to many other insane Japanese horror films that came since 1989.

Rated: 3.5/5

Apr 14, 2020

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Daniel C. M

This is as much as a movie as someone's bad trip. Though not recommeding this movie would be a complete disservice. The pratical effects and stop motion are marvellous and i would be lying in saying this movie because a legit source of inspiration for me.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

05/09/24

Full Review

Brody C

It’s good at what it wants to be good at, body horror. The plot is minimal, which is OK. The visuals and cinematography are what make the movie interesting. But at a certain point it can tend to be just random shots of metal….just to really hammer home the point (pun intended). Just not very entertaining, more so interesting.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

04/28/24

Full Review

Charles T

Just another Japanese-language, surreal, horrifying, chilling, gross, sadistic, industrial sixty seven minute nightmare in glorious black and white. What can I say about the plot? A victim of a hit-and-run accident has his revenge on the couple that ran him over. That sounds like a pitch to an average Hollywood movie, and it has been done, but "Tetsuo: The Iron Man" quickly leaves all safe Hollywood ingredients in its wake. The victim somehow gets the male driver to slowly turn into a raging machine. It starts with a small wire sticking out of his cheek. Soon, he is being chased in a subway terminal by a woman with the mechanical affliction. He escapes her, but still tries to make it with his girlfriend. In the film's most horrific scenes, he grows a giant ugly drill, and the two spend many minutes both trying to kill and love each other. Halfway through, we find out what the victim is trying to do, and the climax involves the two men joining together in more ways than one. Surrealism is so hard to describe- quick, give me the plot of "Un Chien Andalou," but this film is one of the most violent films I have seen. So much can be read into this, from machines taking over our world, to impersonal love relationships, but all in all, director and writer Tsukamoto stuns the viewer with eye imploding visuals. The stop motion special effects work well, and everyone involved seems to be in actual pain in many scenes. The makeup and mechanical costuming are top notch, and the music totally kills- not quite heavy industrial, but not just another rock soundtrack, either. There is not a lot of blood here- there are torrents of it. This is a blood monsoon. The soundtrack has little dialogue, and the sound effects consist of a lot of metal scraping metal, which had me climbing the walls. Watch for the now infamous scene as the unnamed man feeds his girlfriend breakfast. "Tetsuo: The Iron Man" is a hard core sci-fi/horror fan's dream, I'll never curse my car or microwave again.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

10/08/23

Full Review

Becca S

Some classic Japanese Body Horror that defined the genre at the time of its release!

Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars

01/06/23

Full Review

federico m

Hard to watch, and that's good. Everything makes sense yet you'll ask yourself "what am I watching?" all the time. Great movie.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

03/30/23

Full Review

ben l

Absolutely brilliant. The most batshit episode of power rangers ever.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

03/31/23

Full Review

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Shin'ya Tsukamoto

Director

Tomorowo Taguchi

Man

Kei Fujiwara

Woman

Nobu Kanaoka

Woman in Glasses

Shin'ya Tsukamoto

Metal Fetishist

Naomasa Musaka

Doctor

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Synopsis

A "metal fetishist" (Shin'ya Tsukamoto), driven mad by the maggots wriggling in the wound he's made to embed metal into his flesh, runs out into the night and is accidentally run down by a Japanese businessman (Tomorowo Taguchi) and his girlfriend (Kei Fujiwara). The pair dispose of the corpse in hopes of quietly moving on with their lives. However, the businessman soon finds that he is now plagued by a vicious curse that transforms his flesh into iron.

Director: Shin'ya Tsukamoto
Screenwriter: Shin'ya Tsukamoto
Production Co: Palisades Tartan Films
Genre: Horror, Sci-Fi, Animation
Original Language: Japanese
Release Date (Streaming): Feb 13, 2015
Runtime: 1h 7m