Colibel Terrible acting, screenplay and direction.

BoardChiri Bad Acting and worse Bad Screenplay

Erica Derrick By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

Zandra The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

edchin2006 The only good thing I can say about is that it is not a horrible "Horror" film.There are actually some interesting aspects to the movie. It has a plot! And, the plot is sort of interesting - even if we have to wait to the end of the picture for it to make any sense. It's interesting but boring because the story/plot is narrated to us. It would have been much more interesting the conventional way - letting us figure it out for ourselves. But, to think of it, lots of Sherlock Holmes films and others of that ilk have someone explain it all to us at the end.Contrary to another opinion, I find the last half more interesting than the first. However, that is not to suggest that either is not boring. Both halves are boring! Possibly the most boring Pinku film that I have ever seen.As a Horror flick it is, also, boring. I expected a Horror film which might be so bad that it is good - meaning comedic. Well, disappointment abounds.

locohombre80 My buddy showed up with this a few nights back. "You got to see this movie," he says. "You won't believe it." He sure was right. I don't know what it was I saw. Was this a horror movie or a comedy or a just a weird collection of crap? I'll be damned if I could tell.What I do know is that it was entertaining from start to finish. It's not like any Japanese movie I've ever seen before. Lots and lots of nudity. No monsters to speak of, but there is a horror movie edge. And it's got one of the weirdest endings I've ever seen. Did the couple get blown up? Were their heads still supposed to be alive? Was this intended to be funny or deep? Crazy stuff.I was so confused I listened to part of the commentary track, hoping it would shed some light on the picture. Let me warn you, don't do it. The guy sounded like he was on downers and the track sounded like it was recorded in a bus station. To make it even worse, he said nothing about this movie. I mean it. Nothing. He talked a lot about the director, mostly just listing hundreds of other movies he made, but nothing about this one. It was a major waste.The commentary might get a zero, but I've been thinking about this movie ever since. It definitely earns its score.

Coventry Well, my fellow reviewers are all quite right about this one. "Horrors of Malformed Men" is – to put it all in one sentence – bizarre, disturbing, unclassifiable and literally something you have to see with your own eyes in order to believe it. The story may perhaps be a little too convoluted, grotesque and overlong (especially during the first hour) for its own good, but the all the footage filmed on the island, during the last half hour or so, is simply stupendous and genuinely grueling cinema of the macabre. The screenplay is adapted from the writings of Rampo Edogawa, who clearly had a few mental issues, but probably he at his turn found some inspiration in H.G. Wells' novel "The Island of Dr. Moreau" and maybe even in Todd Browning's legendary horror classic "Freaks". Briefly summarizing the plot is quite a challenging ordeal, but I'll give it a shot anyway. A man awakens in a mental asylum with a mysterious lullaby tune stuck in his head and some vague recollections of a remote island. Via a girl working in a traveling circus, he infiltrates in a wealthy family living by the coast. That isn't too difficult since he looks exactly like the former man of the house who – incidentally, of course – just passed away a couple of days earlier. Very well, but now he still doesn't know why the mysterious island lures him so much. Eventually, it turns out his own father inhabits the island and practices his extremely peculiar hobby there. He deliberately operated on people, like kidnapped girls and former servants, and turned them into hideously deformed prisoners because – and here comes the kicker – his wife cheated on him. There are more controversial and perverted themes aplenty, like incestuous relationships, the mentally insane and multiple WWII references, but there's honestly so much going on during the finale you tend to overlook some details. Luckily, one of the more insignificant supportive characters clarifies a lot of events through marvelously kinky flashbacks near the end. "Horrors of Malformed Men" isn't good, but I can't help praising most of aspects about it! The first half is often dull and completely incomprehensible, but the island-plot is just too hypnotizing for fans of obscure late 60's/early 70's horror. And this puppy was banned during a couple of decades, so the "forbidden fruit" element makes it even more appealing. The island sequences, most of them flashbacks, are truly unforgettable, with nightmarish imagery and a constant grisly atmosphere. The faces and bodies of the titular malformed men will surely haunt my dreams for the next couple of nights, as they look really uncanny and menacing.Finishing with a little a slightly off-topic and unimportant note: "Horrors of Malformed Men" also feature a killing technique that I'm sure to have seen already in a James Bond movie. Only, I can't remember which Bond movie and thus don't know for sure in which film it was shown first. The scene goes like this: the hero and his love-interest lie asleep face to face whilst an assailant slowly positions himself in the attic and exactly above the couple. Then, via a piece of cord, he lowers down poison onto the lips of his target. In both films, the hero turns his head right on time and the poison kills the poor girl. If anyone knows in which James Bond movie this assassination method occurs, please PM me!

Elvoid It's funny that Ishii says he was not familiar with the Moreau storyline because this flick looks so much like a crazy adaptation for it. Not an intense feature but one that will serve you very memorable freaky and somewhat psychedelic moments that, out of the wild context, will remind you of all the Japanese contemporary horror everyone yells for (think Ring, Dark Water as much as video games like Siren and Project Zero...). Very poorly written plot, but who cares when they're served such crazy visions and a final I would place in my top 10 of mindblowing movie endings - but that's just me... That's a very hard to see movie, and well worth seeing if you get the chance.