Tetsuo: The Iron Man(1989)
1989 · Shinya Tsukamoto · 67 min
A "metal fetishist", driven mad by the maggots wriggling in the wound he's made to embed metal into his flesh, runs out into the night and is accidentally run down by a Japanese businessman and his girlfriend. The pair dispose of the corpse in hopes of quietly moving on with their lives. However, the businessman soon finds that he is now plagued by a vicious curse that transforms his flesh into iron.
Horror · Science Fiction
7.0741 votes
TMDB score
5/5
Intensity
4/5
Gore
4/5
Stays with you
How scary is Tetsuo: The Iron Man?
Tetsuo: The Iron Man throws you into a fast, jittery nightmare instead of building slow tension. The camera jerks and cuts like a machine short-circuiting, and the black-and-white images feel grimy and overloaded rather than calm. Its fear isn't jump scares or hauntings, it's watching a body lose control of itself piece by piece, which feels gross and helpless in a very physical way. This is for people who want something strange and intense and don't mind feeling unsettled rather than simply entertained.
On The Horror Database's 0–5 scare profile, Tetsuo: The Iron Man rates psychological 4/5, visceral 5/5, gore 4/5, lingering effect 4/5, and overall intensity 5/5.
- Psychological: 4 of 5
- Visceral: 5 of 5
- Gore: 4 of 5
- Lingering: 4 of 5
- Intensity: 5 of 5
Slow burn vs Jump scares: 15 of 100 — leans Slow burn
Supernatural vs Real-world: 35 of 100 — leans Supernatural
Fun-scary vs Disturbing: 85 of 100 — leans Disturbing
Intensity over runtime
Shape only — no eventsReveal pacing shapeHide pacing shapeHidden by default — shows where the tension peaks and lets up.
A jarring, high-energy assault from early on that keeps ratcheting up with barely any calm stretches, ending in an all-out frenzy.
Intensity across the runtime, 0 to 100: 2, 3, 3, 4, 3, 4, 4, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5.
Watched it? Sign in to confirm whether this profile fits.
