"Horrors of Malformed Men" is a truly bizarre Japanese horror flick that reminded me far more often of Jodorowsky than of anything in the supernatural genre.
If it has any other similarity, it's with avant-garde dance, as the movie often looks like a stage performance someone filmed from the front row.
The plot, if it can be said to have one, is a mess. A man is somehow in the female cell of an insane asylum, where all of the women are young, beautiful, and topless. He has no idea who he is. He realises that he is the spitting image of a recently deceased man, and so travels to that man's home and pretends to be him. On an island near-by, the titular "malformed men" reside.
The movie doesn't feel scary or suspenseful, but I don't think it means to be. Instead, it is a series of extravagant and strange set pieces, with much nudity, elaborate costumes, body paint, and kitsch.
Unfortunately, there's not enough of a plot - or a plot easy enough to follow - to keep your attention in between these admittedly quite impressive sequences. I found myself wanting the movie to end quicker than it did.
If it has any other similarity, it's with avant-garde dance, as the movie often looks like a stage performance someone filmed from the front row.
The plot, if it can be said to have one, is a mess. A man is somehow in the female cell of an insane asylum, where all of the women are young, beautiful, and topless. He has no idea who he is. He realises that he is the spitting image of a recently deceased man, and so travels to that man's home and pretends to be him. On an island near-by, the titular "malformed men" reside.
The movie doesn't feel scary or suspenseful, but I don't think it means to be. Instead, it is a series of extravagant and strange set pieces, with much nudity, elaborate costumes, body paint, and kitsch.
Unfortunately, there's not enough of a plot - or a plot easy enough to follow - to keep your attention in between these admittedly quite impressive sequences. I found myself wanting the movie to end quicker than it did.