A businessman transforms into a metal monster with a drill for a penis in this Japanese horror movie they should have called The Tokyo Groin Saw Massacre.

In true Japanese style, 1989’s Tetsuo: The Iron Man takes its Western influences (including David Lynch, David Cronenberg and Sam Raimi) and drives them off the rails, creating body horror so extreme it makes Crash (1996) look like Crash (2004). At just 67 minutes, the movie maintains a level of insanity, intensity and absurdity seldom seen on screen, breaking about 100 boundaries in every frame.

Beneath layers of mangled metal, flesh and oil, there is a revenge story (or possibly a guilt-ridden nightmare) but the almost dialogue-free narrative takes a back seat to striking imagery and guttural sound, sending the H. R. Giger counter off the scale with its fusion of the organic and industrial. Shinya Tsukamoto’s demented direction is pure nightmare fuel, full of fast-motion stop-motion and unnerving cinematography, featuring the blackest blacks ever committed to celluloid.

The effect is like watching a damaged VHS found in some wreckage, its provenance unknown but its impact clear, wielding ongoing influence on anime, hip-hop and cyberpunk (let’s call it Ichi the Driller Killer). That grimy analogue feel and mind-melting practical effects lend a physicality to this assault on the senses, a fetishistic feast of visceral sci-fi that once seen is never fork-gotten.