Chopping Mall (1986)

directed by Jim Wynorski

77 minutes

USA

3 stars out of 5

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"Chopping Mall" is a bit of a misnomer for a movie where the killers are robots who neutralize their victims with lasers and don't actually touch them at any point. But it's in keeping with the incredibly goofy spirit of the film that it should have a terrible pun for a name.

This is one of those movies that are impossible to take seriously and it feels like everybody involved knew that- and what a great way that is to make a movie, just have everybody having a good time. It really reflects onscreen that all the actors were in on the joke, especially Barbara Crampton, who dies fairly early but certainly lives it up beforehand. The film is about a shopping mall that introduces three bulky, awkward-looking robots who are supposed to be state-of-the-art anti-theft machines, who will scan the I.D. card of anybody allowed to be in the mall and summarily deal with anybody who isn't. Naturally, a sinister lightning storm causes these robots to go haywire and hunt down people who otherwise wouldn't be targeted, and naturally, those somebodies happen to be a group of sex-crazed young adults. This is definitely a "have sex and you die" type of slasher, only electrocution is substituted for slashing.

As silly as this all is, it actually works really well as a dystopian movie. It opens with a crowd looking on as the crime-stopping abilities of the robots are demonstrated, and none of them question their potential for immense harm. The open faces unflinchingly taking in the latest display of capital's ability to determine who it will allow to live and who is an "outsider" are subtly cruel, as is the fact that everyone in the mall would necessarily have to be in on this, like animals lured into their cages with food. The idea of these robots really doesn't feel far off or futuristic at all these days- I've personally been in Walmarts where they're using those robots that roll around and do whatever it is they do, look at pricetags or whatever, and although I'm not afraid of getting cut in half with a laser beam any time soon, the insidious horrors of facial recognition are already all around us. We think that we're free to shop where we want, but it's an illusion. We're afforded the appearance of freedom in exchange for being monitored in every aspect of life. We fork over privacy to be allowed to consume.

But hey, Angus Scrimm is in this! It really isn't as blatantly anarchic as I've interpreted it as being- the tongue-in-cheek satire of surveillance is definitely an intended message here, but it doesn't go too deep; mostly we're just here to watch teens fight robots and take their shirts off. The action of Chopping Mall feels satisfying, it's peppered throughout in just the right places so that you're neither constantly waiting for something to happen nor being bombarded with gore so much that you wish it would stop. There's actually not a whole lot of gore to be seen, it's sort of a diversion of the 80s trend of rubbery guts and goopy blood in that sense, and maybe that's why it isn't better known- it's different when it's robots doing the chopping. It's more sterile. There is a pretty great head-explosion scene, but when the main method of death is shooting people with lasers until they catch on fire, there's less of a personal aspect.

And the guy in the restaurant who says "Waitress, more butter!" cracks me up. Who just asks for more butter? What restaurant will just bring butter to your table and slather it on your food? Was he just eating raw butter? What restaurant will bring you sticks of raw butter????

Return of the Living Dead (1985)

directed by Dan O'Bannon

USA

91 minutes

4.5 stars out of 5

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Zombie movies have never been my thing in the way that they're some peoples' thing, but if you're only going to see one zombie movie... well, I was going to say "make it Return of the Living Dead", but considering that Return of the Living Dead lampoons other zombie movies in a way that would be difficult to understand if you weren't familiar with the sub-genre, that's probably not quite right. So I'll say that this is the zombie movie for people who are tired of zombie movies, as cliche as saying that sort of thing might be, because it's such a love letter to the zombie film that even if you're totally burnt out it'll (hopefully) make you feel a rekindling of appreciation for the sub-genre.

Horror has a long tradition of being very meta, and in this case Return of the Living Dead directly calls out by name the conventions and tropes that had been the rules of the road for zombies thus far. This is what gives this film what is, I feel, a genuinely unsettling core despite its appearance as a comedy. It takes place in a world where zombies do not exist, as evidenced by people talking about Night of the Living Dead as a fictional work, but then this world very suddenly becomes one where zombies do exist, and they're nothing like in the movies. The characters don't have any guidebook, they don't have any genre-savviness that would protect them against threats- they essentially act like how real people would in the middle of a zombie apocalypse, and that's terrifying to me. Now, decades removed, it's hard to see it as frightening, between the outdated fashion and the delightfully hammy hard rock soundtrack, but the idea of it is nightmarish. It's like when you're having dream about being chased by monsters but you don't recognize that it's a dream and your only thought is "oh god, they really are real".

I mean, this goes deeper into the idea that zombies are people than I think any other film had, certainly for the time it was released. The scant picture we get of the mental state of the undead is just upsetting as hell. That they can feel themselves dying and that it's painful, that they use brains to make the pain stop but it never lasts, they always need more, they can't die or be destroyed and all that's left is to consume to fill the gnawing void. And this in a movie where there's no shortage of sight gags and piercingly funny dialogue.

All that can be said about Return of the Living Dead has been said already, for the most part, and in particular the praises of its practical effects have been sung to the moon and back, but I need to reiterate. All of the zombies in this look so good that I forget they aren't real beings. I mean, some of them are- the two-man team playing Tar Man and Tar Man with his head knocked off are some of the most iconic full-body-suit creatures of the 80s, and everybody contributing to the murderous hordes create a mob scene of all-consuming zombie terror that's pitch-perfect. But the armatures such as the half-woman who wails about the pain of being dead, or the very brief but genius bit where we see pinned butterflies coming back to life- that's the stuff that makes this film endure 

Horror has gotten a bit more elaborate in recent years and it seems like less people are making things as maximalist as Return of the Living Dead, which is not a bad thing- the depth that people like Ari Aster and Robert Eggers are bringing to the genre is fascinating and is bringing more critical acclaim to a much-neglected area of cinema. But I do think we could use more stuff like this again. Not throwbacks to the 80s, but modern films that are made with the same abandon and wit that 80s horror had.

Scanners (1981)

directed by David Cronenberg

Canada

103 minutes

4.5 stars out of 5

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This was probably the most well-known David Cronenberg film that I had yet to see, because I tried to watch it during my "I'm too cool to admit I got bored during good movies so I lie and say I hated them" phase, and that went about as well as you can imagine. But I'm not here to talk about me, I'm here to talk about this utterly bananas movie where people blow other people up with their minds, and how it's good and worth watching and re-watching as many times as you can stand it.

Even for our man Cronenberg, this movie is incredibly bizarre and dreamlike. Most of his films are explorations into the convergence of flesh and technology in some way, and/or meditations on alienation, and I'm not saying Scanners is not, but there's something about it that feels more surreal than his others. We start off with no introduction whatsoever to the concepts the film works with, and eventually we do pick up what exactly a "scanner" is and what they do, but starting out, it's just this weird world of detachment and malevolence, with shadowy faction warring against shadowy faction and people with immensely powerful psychic abilities lurking in "polite society". It is less... fleshy than other Cronenberg films, using only a relative handful of prosthetics and special effects- overseen by the talented Dick Smith- which are nonetheless extremely effective. When I think about this compared to Videodrome or eXistenZ it feels so much less outwardly weird, yet it somehow manages to also be more surreal and discomforting in a subtle way. Nobody feels right. It almost seems like it's dubbed poorly, like a giallo film. It echoes somehow the cold consumerism of Romero's Dawn of the Dead shopping mall, placed in an environment of pre-apocalyptic post-hippie esotericism. Brutalism as interpreted by your brain inside of a bad dream. A synth soundtrack from the afterlife. It all works so well together.

I kept myself purposefully in the dark about this movie as much as I could because I knew it would hit different if I did, even though certain things about it are impossible to avoid, especially containing as it does one of the most famous head-explosion scenes in all of cinematic history. But without proper knowledge, I'd been under the impression that Michael Ironside's character had a much larger part in this than he actually did, and I was disappointed that he didn't. Everybody in this seemed to have gotten really good direction in terms of being told how to look like their head was about to explode, so all the performances are generally on the same level, but Ironside's character is so magnetic in his sheer evilness that I wished he would have been the main character.

There is just something so potent about the concept of this film, and no lesser director could have pulled it off as well. It's difficult to make telepathy, psychic powers, psychokinesis, etc. convincing, because you don't see it happening; if it's not pulled off well, it's just kind of awkward to watch a person pretend to strain really hard to move things with their mind. But with actors like Michael Ironside and Stephen Lack giving 110%, Scanners becomes something genuinely formidable- something disquieting to imagine and even more disquieting to watch, something where you feel the gravity of the intense force manifested by the scanners themselves.

It's really just hard to describe why this is so good. I feel the same way about a lot of other Cronenberg movies. It just has a smoothness to it, some kind of charisma over the whole film where every small part works to enhance the bigger picture. The climax at the end is (I apologise) mind-blowing. This deserves more credit than it gets, I feel.

Jesus Shows You the Way to the Highway (2019)

directed by Miguel Llansó

Estonia, Ethiopia, Latvia, Romania, Spain

83 minutes

3.5 stars out of 5

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This is a hard one to review because it's so thoroughly bizarre and makes so little sense, but somehow it feels like it makes sense. This isn't the type of movie that's weird for weirdness' sake. It doesn't just throw random events at the screen in bright colors and become egotistically preoccupied with its own absurdity. It's more mature than that. This is more along the lines of Quentin Dupieux's films in how it operates according to a logic uniquely its own but still has that sense of "anything can happen", but it goes far deeper into unreality than Dupieux ever does.

I can describe it to you, but I can't watch it for you. I can't convey the extremely distinct tone of this film just by recounting the plot. Regardless, though, here is the plot: Two agents working for the CIA go deep into some other plane of reality accessible via janky VR headsets to combat a computer virus known as "Soviet Union". In this simulated reality, the agents are represented by stop-motion versions of themselves wearing paper masks of world leaders over black balaclavas. Something goes wrong and one of the agents experiences brain death but remains alive within the simulation, with only a tenuous link back to the "real world". Threads hang off of this plot that I couldn't quite figure out how to tie back to the bigger picture, like a guy running around in a Batman costume calling himself "The Government's President" and an old man dressed like he's on safari who employs three kung-fu warriors who are all named after types of pasta. Stuff happens, continuously, and never stops happening, and it's fine and you have to accept it.

This is all obviously nuts, but like I said, there's such a cohesive aesthetic to it that it really doesn't feel humorous at all. I think that's the important part of this movie: it's not slapstick absurdity, it's just absurdity. It's a new framework, a different set of rules; not one meant to be laughed at (or maybe it is, I don't know Miguel Llansó's brain) but one meant to break open your notion of understanding. There's so much more to the movie that I wanted to be expanded upon, because it introduces concepts that are so genuinely interesting that I could have watched an entire movie based off of any one of them, but I feel like if every last thing was explained it would have ruined it. The characters move through the film with a total ease that invites you, the viewer, to not question it.

I really love the cinematography of this because it does so much to complement the complexity of the plot. I'm not sure if it was meant to be set in the past, but I got that vibe, due to all the fake wood paneling, chunky plastic technology reminiscent of the early era of computing, and generally very beige coloring overlayed on the whole thing. There's an intricacy to all of the sets and every frame of the film as a whole just looks right. I knew about this director's work through the also enjoyable Crumbs, but he's really leveled up since then, in almost every aspect but mostly in the legibility of the storyline and the combining of a weird, multi-faceted plot with a borderline cozy aesthetic to create something that feels like Saturday morning television beamed in from an alternate dimension. The closing credits sequence uses flashing lights so just shut this off at the end after Jesus shows you the way to the highway. And don't be afraid to go out and start your own pizzeria with your wife out of an Airstream trailer.

Happy Death Day 2U (2019)

directed by Christopher Landon

USA

100 minutes

4 stars out of 5

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Do you like fun? You'd better, because otherwise you're gonna find Happy Death Day 2U unbearable. 

This movie really made me think a lot about how far you can stretch the definition of the horror genre without breaking it. There is essentially nothing about the film that resembles any other Blumhouse horror or really any horror movie at all: it's one of the most bright, sunshiney films I've ever seen that also involves getting murdered over and over in a time loop. The characters are all bouncy and energetic and although there is the obvious issue of having to bend space and time to figure out how to stop being murdered every day, the movie is overflowing with optimism. It's almost refreshing- I enjoy watching dark, gloomy sad bastard films, but seeing something like this take the horror genre and turn it into something where everybody is powered up, full of life, and having fun 100% of the time is a very interesting way to go about things.

The film starts off with somewhat of a cold open as we spend some time involved in the time loop problems of an entirely new character, who is not Tree Gelbman from the first Happy Death Day, which is disappointing, because we stan. Jessica Rothe is genuinely an extremely entertaining person to watch and when she isn't involved in the movie it's just that bit less fun. But this is still her movie, and eventually the time loop problem becomes her problem, and for us viewers, it's a rollicking good time to watch her do her thing now that we have a vague idea of how it all works. Not having a totally clear explanation is part of why these two films can remain such fun- there's always a little hand-waving being done, always just a wink and a shrug and a playful invitation to us viewers to come and get pulled along for the ride and not question too hard why a bunch of college students can build a big globe out of scrap metal that zaps people into alternate universes.

It's just... I want more things like this! I want more movies made that make you feel joy and excitement instead of tension! Tension is a huge element of horror movies and a lot of them seem to rely very heavily on it, and I'm not saying Happy Death Day 2U isn't something with a lot of unpredictable twists where you're eager to see what's next, but it doesn't really have any tension and it still remains great fun to watch.

Actually I'm kind of lying about those twists. You know who the killer is. Like you reeeeally know who the killer is, they emphasize his presence with scare chords and make him look as sinister as possible, and you think "oh they're just doing that to make me think it's him", but nope, it is in fact him. But in a movie this full of parallel universes, branching possibilities, time loops, paradoxes, and girls pretending to be blind French exchange students in order to steal someone's keys- even if you know who the killer is, that's barely even a drop in the bucket when it comes to why this is watchable. Like the first one, you watch it mostly for Tree. You watch it to see her figure out Important Life Lessons, like how to not get murdered dozens of times. Yeah, some of the jokes are corny, but the film just feels like so much genuine effort and passion that its upbeat nature becomes infectious.

Shirley (2020)

directed by Josephine Decker

USA

107 minutes

4 stars out of 5

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Before I start, a disclaimer: This is apparently based off of a book that I have no knowledge of, so I'm going to be reviewing this film based on its own merits. I might be putting my foot in my mouth a little since I don't know how it compares to the book or which ideas are original and which are taken from the source. I watched this because I could not pass up a movie about one of my favorite authors, directed by one of my favorite directors, starring one of my (Scientology notwithstanding) favorite actresses.

Virtually all of Josephine Decker's work has a similar tone of hazy dread; dreamlike anxiety. This works especially well for a movie whose main themes are madness and the slow descent into it- but also the perception of "madness" as a concept, how men often dismiss women's desires for freedom as hysteria. For reasons I'll get into later, I feel like this isn't meant to be a movie about Shirley Jackson, but it certainly echoes the motifs found in her stories in a way that almost makes it a better adaptation of her work than half of the actual adaptations of her work. I say this because it deals explicitly, rather than implicitly, with the repression of women and the things it drives them to, moreso than films that aim to focus more on the horror aspect of her work to turn it into a more digestible product. 

The thread of being a woman held back by a man runs deep through this film. Sometimes it doesn't seem apparent, but it's insidious. Shirley's husband is brilliant, personable, says all the right things- but he holds her back, he says (and probably believes!) he knows what's best for her and that she just "can't handle" another novel. Rose's husband is charming and sweet and a soon-to-be-father- but he's mostly absent in the ways that matter, and he takes his wife for granted. When the two women realize that they can mutually introduce each other to freedom they each never knew, the film feels thrilling and hypnotic- not because we're afraid for the characters, but because we're seeing women granting each other forbidden power without the use of a man.

This forbiddenness is something Shirley Jackson, both the real and the one depicted in Shirley, always seems to know intimately. The element of being a woman that requires you to strangle parts of yourself. The alienation- the deep, deep alienation, the voices that talk about you when you aren't in the room, the judgement. I said that this isn't a film about Shirley Jackson, but it kind of is, even while it isn't. Like I said, it's such a thorough echo of the deeper parts of her work that it does feel like a direct adaptation at times, but it's also not a biopic or a story about her life in any meaningful way; it uses her as just another character, but one we know enough about to be able to place her in the context that the film creates.

Elisabeth Moss is doing something with her performance in this film that's... I really don't know, but it's something. I haven't seen anybody act like she does here. It is almost, almost to the level of parody, how she wholly loses herself in this character, but it also strangely felt like a wink-and-nod type of thing in a way I'm struggling to describe. She's playing Shirley with such obvious affectations, acting so hard and so well that it becomes egregiously noticeable. It feels like she's inviting the audience to recognize that through this near-parody she is somehow producing a more faithful image of the idea of Shirley Jackson. Because that's what this movie is about- it's not about her life from birth to death, like a normal biography, it's about what she represents and the themes that fill her work.

Tetsuo: The Bullet Man (2009)

directed by Shinya Tsukamoto

Japan

71 minutes

4 stars out of 5

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And so we come to the final Tetsuo, the one that's probably the least popular of them all. I realized something on what is now my third watch of the film that helped me put it into perspective, and might help other people appreciate it more as well: this is a kaiju movie. Tetsuo I and parts of II had more DNA from experimental films, almost bordering on video art at times, but III is fully a kaiju movie. It doesn't lack the same fire as the first two, and it's essentially the same idea repackaged with updated effects and aesthetics for the times, but divorcing it from the idea of the first two made me feel less like I was looking like an inferior Tetsuo and more like Bullet Man is its own unique thing. I don't know why it's in English, but it is. Ready to ride, cowboy?

Tetsuo: The Bullet Man probably makes the most sense out of the three, relatively speaking. It has a plot that's laid out nicely and is easy to follow: An American living in Japan with his Japanese wife witnesses his son being run over by a car in front of him, and eventually destroys his life in pursuit of revenge. Along the way, he discovers things about himself and his father that link him to a shadowy science project dedicated to creating human hybrids out of artificial body parts- a project that unfortunately tends to have the consequence of making its creations turn into uncontrollable metal-beasts should they ever get angry. Also, it's revealed that apparently women are immune to the whole "turning into a giant metal monster" thing. This is a pretty unpredictable and unoriginal idea, of women being the "fairer sex" or whatever and not succumbing to rage as easily as men, but honestly, the women in this movie are all pretty cool- the main character's wife admits she was wrong in seeking revenge, something he's unable to do until he's basically killed himself in the process, and his mother willingly and consensually donates her body to the advancement of science. Please, please don't mistake this for me calling Bullet Man a feminist film- it's just that women at least have speaking roles for once.

The camerawork in this is bizarre, with uncomfortable sharp angles, sudden montages, and positively nausea-inducing shaky-cam all working in tandem. There's something about this signature of Tsukamoto's where the camera is shaken violently and pointed directly at some enormous chaotic wreck for a sustained period of time that I really like- it feels like you're being forced to look at the disaster so closely you're almost enveloped in it, like the camera is part of the car crash. Pound-for-pound there's less screaming metal chaos in this one, but it's used really well. The reason why I say this is a kaiju movie is because, where Iron Man felt more like a moving art piece, Bullet Man is just a literal story about a man turning into a monster done in a style that has been seen elsewhere. He doesn't just become a steaming pile of formless metal, accumulating scraps like a big magnet, he becomes A Monster™, an actual creature with a discernable face- two eyes, a nose and mouth, etc. He becomes something. The metal is an alternate identity that he transforms into, like the Hulk, as opposed to something that is happening to his body.

Our favorite metal fetishist is still present as well, thankfully, and still as mysterious as ever. Like in the preceding film, there is an organization dedicated to the Tetsuo project of turning men into metal, but also like as before, the Metal Fetishist is not part of this organization. He's the only part of this movie left ultimately unexplained- is he a failed project himself? Is he some kind of shady benefactor gone rogue, tired of the scientific aspect of the project and looking to accelerate its development outside of ethical codes, although one of the scientists building an android and getting it pregnant is as far from every ethics guideline ever as I am from the planet Jupiter? Who knows? All I know is: It's been eleven years since this movie came out, and the world is absolutely ready for a fourth Tetsuo.

Regarding the country.

I don't normally make posts like this because I truly believe no human eyes are looking at this blog. But on the off chance that anybody is, I want to make explicitly clear my stance on the protests of police violence and racism- two intertwined things- that are currently going on across the United States, and the world at large as well:

I am behind the protestors one hundred percent. I support doing whatever, and I mean whatever, needs to be done. Property can be replaced. Black lives can't. Fighting to uphold the idea of an institution like the police, a racist, broken, systematically corrupt institution, versus fighting to uphold justice and preserve Black lives- can you tell who is on the right side? Because this is a matter where there is a right and wrong side, and the right side is the one fighting tooth and nail against their oppressors.

If you are white, consider looking up your city's bail fund/s (and some have cashless bail systems, so beware of any fraudulent claims). I've donated to Black Visions Collective- since it is also Pride month and Pride has always largely been a movement of Black and non-white people, I'd recommend especially looking at funds and movements organized by LGBT+ people of color. If you are white and protesting, don't let your voice overwhelm the voices who need to be heard the most, and don't be rowdy. Don't go looking to start something that will only get other people punished or worse.

Wash your hands. Wear a mask. Wear it.

No peace until there is justice.

Tetsuo II: Body Hammer (1992)

directed by Shinya Tsukamoto

Japan

81 minutes

5 stars out of 5

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I thought I understood why people liked this less than the first Tetsuo film, but now I don't. They're very different movies and I guess they appeal to different tastes that way, but Tetsuo II is so good, guys. A lot of the time, a sequel with a higher budget can lose some of the soul of the original film's concept, but here the extra budget serves to help create an even more interesting and immersive atmosphere, albeit a less apocalyptic one.

Most of the themes from the preceding film are still present in Body Hammer but in a slightly different form and with different backstory behind them. The fear of inadequacy and the assimilation of the individual into an industrialized, impersonal landscape are still the driving forces here. The main character is the same businessman from the first movie, but this time he has a wife and a young son, and when two mystery men kidnap his son and taunt him, only to return his son after a lengthy chase scene and a near-death experience, he feels deeply ashamed at being unable to protect his family. This leads to the businessman eventually losing control over himself in his quest to become a stronger husband and father- aided, of course, by the Metal Fetishist from the first film.

There's a much more elaborate story about him too in this one, although again, there's a heavier emphasis on aesthetic than on story, so you still infer and interpret missing bits and pieces for yourself. The Metal Fetishist seems to be associated with a group of people this time instead of working alone, pushing the boundaries of the human body to prime themselves for transforming into metal. We're talking rusty, crumbling, supremely unsanitary underground gyms full of bald, sweaty, shirtless men pumping iron and yelling. But even though the Metal Fetishist is a part of this operation, he also seems to be outside of it somehow: I don't believe he's the one in command of the gym (or whatever it was), but he's clearly more powerful than the people who are in command because he holds the technology (or simply the physical superpower) to transform anybody into metal. His motives are still opaque, although his desire is as clear as ever: Total destruction, the wholesale transformation of the world and all life into metal. An acceleration into chaotic screeching death. Increasingly silly hairstyles. Revenge. And so on and so forth.

The cinematography here is just immaculate. At times it's almost reminiscent of Shūji Terayama. Nearly monochrome color schemes are used to enforce mood, so that we explicitly get the point of citified alienation in the businessman's present-day, paranoia-filled reality and a bucolic, lost idyll in his memories of childhood in the countryside. Impossibly tall buildings serve as inescapable prison walls for our protagonist but they're not paired with the usual crush of people sometimes used to represent the existential terror of living in a city and becoming faceless- instead the city is empty, just the leaning office towers and cold concrete to entrap the businessman no matter how far he runs and for how long. This movie has a more coherent story than its predecessor, but it's no less chaotic for it, and the final scene will stick with you no matter what you thought of the film.

Tetsuo: The Iron Man (1989)

directed by Shinya Tsukamoto

Japan

67 minutes

5 stars out of 5

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I'm not sure why there's been a sudden influx of people watching the Tetsuo movies, but it made me want to re-watch them as well. These are some of my very favorite movies in the world, so it's difficult for me to talk about them because my opinion is so colored by how much I love them, but I'll try. And I do love all of them- a fairly unpopular opinion, judging by the recent reviews.

Tetsuo ostensibly has a plot, and that plot is laid out pretty neatly by any film database you visit: A businessman accidentally kills a "metal fetishist", obsessed with turning his body into metal, who comes back from the dead and takes revenge on the businessman by cursing him to also slowly be consumed by metal. You would have absolutely no idea about this plot if you just watched the movie blind. It relies so heavily on aesthetic that ten different people can have ten different interpretations of it and they all would appear to fit.

I was surprised, when I watched it this time around, that it seems so heavily and obviously to be about alienation: the Metal Fetishist represents an aberration in the businessman's conception of his ordered life, and as soon as he's introduced, the businessman's life begins to spiral out of control. I would venture to say that this is a film about a gay man's alienation; I am not well-versed enough in Japanese to know whether there's a distinction in the line in which the Metal Fetishist says "Our love can destroy this whole fucking world!" that clarifies whether it refers to platonic or romantic love, but even besides that there's a ton of symbolism that makes me feel like this is lowkey about a man hiding the fact of his being gay from himself. The businessman has either a dream or some kind of hallucination of role-reversed sex with his girlfriend and seems to have a deep anxiety about women that manifests when he and everything around him begins to turn into metal. Body horror is a genre involving themes of alienation from your own body and the people around you and therefore (speaking as an LGBT person) inherently a second language to gay and trans people.

And the aspect of turning into metal itself seems to speak to a deep fear of losing control of your body and its relation to society. As a businessman he would probably be used to trying to conform himself in some way to the people around him; wearing the same clothes, carrying the same briefcase, exhibiting only behavior that would allow him to fit in with his fellow businessmen. The gradual incorporation of metal into his body and, later, his body into the twisted landscape of metal that becomes his home and the area around it- this is a distortion of the desire to become one with your surroundings, to fit your body with the world around you until you meld into one horrible, inescapable mass of rust and iron. Tomorowo Taguchi overacts- that's a part of this film, I wouldn't have it any other way- but the terror of losing your body and becoming inhuman is still readable.

The film is as nihilistic as Japanese industrial horror films tend to be, but in an accelerationist sense. The Metal Fetishist recklessly and enthusiastically seeks to transform the entire world into his vision of a smoldering pile of scrap as fast and as violently as possible, and sees the businessman as an open door through which to enact this plan. There's such a unique feeling to this movie, nothing has ever come close to it because it encapsulates its own world and vision that's singular and lasting. Chu Ishikawa- who passed away recently, one of my favorite industrial musicians- creates the only soundtrack that could possibly fit with such a chaotic nightmare.