--- title: "Tetsuo: The Iron Man: the reviews" canonical: "https://film.one/film/tetsuo-the-iron-man/reviews" title_page: "https://film.one/film/tetsuo-the-iron-man" critics_score: 73 critics_reviews: 11 licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Tetsuo: The Iron Man (1989): what the critics said Critics' score 73 from 11 reviews: 9 positive, 0 mixed, 2 negative. Most critics respond strongly to Tetsuo: The Iron Man, with praise concentrated on Tsukamoto’s handmade effects, harsh black-and-white imagery and aggressive sound. The reviews find its fusion of flesh and machinery disturbing, inventive and often darkly funny, with stop-motion and prosthetics giving the bodily transformations their force. Several also see more than provocation in the violence and sexual imagery, reading the film through technological change, metal fetishism and the unstable boundary between people and their industrial surroundings. The spread is wide, however, and enthusiasm for the images does not always extend to the storytelling. The New York Times finds little narrative sense but values the perverse humour, while Radio Times treats the plot largely as an excuse for nightmarish sex and violence. Empire also finds pretension alongside forceful imagery and humour; the disagreement centres on whether the film’s relentless assault sustains its fascination or becomes an ordeal. ## Evening Standard — Steve Morrissey Fi1m's normalised score 90/100 (inferred from the text). 11 April 2012. The 1988 film is called a cheap but very nasty groundbreaker full of great stop-frame effects, following a man turning into a mechanoid with industrial machinery sprouting from his body. It is praised as gigglingly gruesome and a landmark of inventiveness and camerawork. [Read the review](https://www.standard.co.uk/showbiz/glory-of-the-gory-6316667.html) ## Film Comment — Grady Hendrix Fi1m's normalised score 90/100 (inferred from the text). The critic calls Tetsuo a body-horror nightmare and a tortured scream about a salaryman whose body sprouts metal tumors and a penis drill. It highlights Tsukamoto's intense, handmade style using 8mm, stop-motion and aggressive sound design as part of his most riveting work. [Read the review](https://www.filmcomment.com/article/solid-metal-nightmares-the-films-of-shinya-tsukamoto/) ## Little White Lies — Sam Moore Fi1m's normalised score 80/100 (inferred from the text). 1 July 2019. The film turns body horror on its head by focusing on technology rather than biology, presenting a dystopian vision of transhumanism as a monstrous, inevitable fusion of flesh and metal. [Read the review](https://lwlies.com/in-praise-of/tetsuo-the-iron-man-and-the-dark-side-of-transhumanism) ## Los Angeles Times — Kevin Thomas Fi1m's normalised score 80/100 (inferred from the text). 9 July 1992. Tsukamoto’s film is grisly yet fascinating and even darkly humorous, a bravura horror picture in which the relentless mutation of man into metal casts a compelling spell. With harsh black-and-white images and terrific control, it creates a world as grotty and weird as Lynch’s Eraserhead and projects a disturbing yet often shockingly hilarious vision. [Read the review](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1992-07-09-ca-2544-story.html) ## Slant Magazine — Ed Gonzalez Fi1m's normalised score 80/100 (inferred from the text). 27 August 2001. The critic finds Tsukamoto’s fetishistic film worthy of comparison to Cronenberg. It evokes an industrial flux between humanity and its surroundings through the homoerotic transformation of its characters. [Read the review](https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/tetsuo-the-iron-man/) ## The New York Times — Stephen Holden Fi1m's normalised score 70/100 (inferred from the text). 22 April 1992. The 67-minute black-and-white film is a David Cronenberg-style fantasy reimagined as grungy industrial rock music, with hyperkinetic pacing and wildly contorted acting that also evokes Japanese sci-fi cartoons. It makes little sense as a story but is driven by a perverse sense of humor. [Read the review](https://www.nytimes.com/1992/04/22/movies/review-film-forgoing-the-flesh-for-metallic-pleasures.html) ## Radio Times — Robert Sellers Rating 2/5. The plot of a businessman turning into a metallic mutant is merely an excuse for surreal nightmarish images of violence and sex; the short black-and-white feature with minimal dialogue and techno soundtrack will be seen as either pretentious rubbish or a classy art movie. [Read the review](https://www.radiotimes.com/movie-guide/b-ckqspw/tetsuo-the-iron-man/) ## Empire — empire Fi1m's normalised score 30/100 (inferred from the text). 1 January 2000. The black-and-white film follows hit-and-run victims who mutate into half-human, half-machine monsters engaging in violent and sexual acts. It is described as painful, funny, pretentious and pointed, with strong screen imagery including a notable drill penis scene. [Read the review](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/tetsuo-review/) ## Collider — Orestes Adam Fi1m's normalised score 90/100 (inferred from the text). 5 February 2023. The critic calls the film one of body horror's masterworks for its effective use of low-budget black-and-white imagery and handmade prosthetics to depict a man's gruesome metallic transformation. It singles out the film's disturbing, multifaceted blend of depraved character study, sexual nightmare, and cyborg elements that leaves viewers stunned. [Read the review](https://collider.com/body-horror-tetsuo-the-iron-man/) ## /Film — Witney Seibold Fi1m's normalised score 85/100 (inferred from the text). 8 June 2022. The piece calls the film an essential, viscerally powerful lo-fi cult classic with a punk rock attitude that shocks through its themes of mechanized modernity and metal fetishism. It singles out the gritty, aggressive visuals and breakneck pacing as elevating it to greatness. [Read the review](https://www.slashfilm.com/886424/the-daily-stream-tetsuo-the-iron-man-and-the-horrors-of-mechanized-modernity/) ## Eye for Film — Anton Bitel Fi1m's normalised score 80/100 (inferred from the text). 16 June 2012. Festival review. The critic describes the film as a singular monstrosity blending punk, cyberpunk, body horror and surrealism, with an arresting vision of creation and destruction as coexisting drives. It singles out the film's introduction of Tsukamoto to international audiences through its unforgettable imagery. [Read the review](https://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/review/tetsuo-the-iron-man-1989-film-review-by-anton-bitel) --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Our review: https://film.one/film/tetsuo-the-iron-man.md