Shinya Tsukamoto’s cult classic Tetsuo: The Iron Man (1989) is a cult classic masterpiece that blends body horror with surrealist imagery and frenetic camerawork that bombards you consistently through its runtime. His follow-up film, and first foray into making films within the studio system, manages to maintain his style developed in Tetsuo while being much more accessible and a complete blast. That film is Hiruko the Goblin (1991). What stuck out to me immediately in this film was the use of colours. While Tetsuo was shot in black and white, Tsukamoto brings it with the colours here. Using greens and reds to add pops of colour, as well as using soft blues to create more of an eerie atmosphere when needed, the use of colour and lighting throughout helps to create a visual mosaic that is consistently excellent. As this is a monster movie it also helps that the designs of the goblins are wonderful and evoke images from The Thing (1982) in both design and use of stop motion to bring the creatures to life. The design that is spider-like is creepy, but what adds to this is the frenetic camera movements that Tsukamoto uses to put us in the pov of these creatures which gives a sense of their movements and brings the creatures further to life. While I have mentioned the eerie nature the film does have at times, to me it is predominantly a comedy and a very successful one. I love a bit of slapstick and the film delivers on that, and praise needs to be given to actors Kenji Sawada and Masaki Kudou. They both are so expressive, and this elevates the comedy to the level required, while also managing to deliver in the more emotionally hitting sections of the film. The film has been described by others as being similar to Evil Dead and I think this is a very apt comparison, in both tone and visual style so if you are a fan of that franchise this one should definitely be on your list.
Hiruko the Goblin can be streamed on Arrow Player.
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