MartinHafer The film begins in a mental institution where lots of half naked women are running about the place. One of the inmates insists he's not crazy and kills someone and escapes. Then, he learns that his exact double just died so he takes the man's place--only to be eventually lured to a freaky island run by a lunatic. There, he learns that his lover is his sister and lots of deformed folks have been created by the man man who created the place. In the end, the freaky man dies and the brother/sister lovers blow themselves up in a fireworks exhibition.As you can see, "Horrors of a Deformed Man" is a difficult film to describe. It's sort of like combining a surrealist film with soft-core pornography and "The Island of Lost Souls". If you think that such a combination makes little sense, then you now know how I felt watching this film. It was thoroughly confusing, often grotesque and titillating--but not in a good way. The worst part about it is that I really have no idea what was happening during most of the film, not did I really care. Some of the reviewers apparently liked this and though the film was creepy--I mostly just thought it was dumb and a waste of my time. For my time, the great old film "Freaks" is much scarier AND it actually has a story. "Horrors of a Deformed Man" is just disjoint, stupid and incredibly talky. Rarely have I enjoyed a movie less than this one.

Sabrina Ballerina Words cannot describe how wonderfully entertaining this movie was. I rented it, knowing it was just my kind of flick, even my boyfriend who has a very contrasting taste in movies from me immediately recognized it's potential and our decision was made. The part where he dances on the rocks on the island is the best, I took my camera out and recorded a ghetto taping of it to show to others in case I never come across it again. The eating crabs thing was definitely the grossest, the ending was kinda screwed up I never expected Toki to still love him, that part I donno if I like or not. Hahaha and when they said they were going to explode in the sky like fireworks, I didn't know they meant literally! HAHAHAHA.

Coventry Well, my fellow reviewers are all quite right about this one. "Horrors of Malformed Men" is – to put it all in one sentence – bizarre, disturbing, unclassifiable and literally something you have to see with your own eyes in order to believe it. The story may perhaps be a little too convoluted, grotesque and overlong (especially during the first hour) for its own good, but the all the footage filmed on the island, during the last half hour or so, is simply stupendous and genuinely grueling cinema of the macabre. The screenplay is adapted from the writings of Rampo Edogawa, who clearly had a few mental issues, but probably he at his turn found some inspiration in H.G. Wells' novel "The Island of Dr. Moreau" and maybe even in Todd Browning's legendary horror classic "Freaks". Briefly summarizing the plot is quite a challenging ordeal, but I'll give it a shot anyway. A man awakens in a mental asylum with a mysterious lullaby tune stuck in his head and some vague recollections of a remote island. Via a girl working in a traveling circus, he infiltrates in a wealthy family living by the coast. That isn't too difficult since he looks exactly like the former man of the house who – incidentally, of course – just passed away a couple of days earlier. Very well, but now he still doesn't know why the mysterious island lures him so much. Eventually, it turns out his own father inhabits the island and practices his extremely peculiar hobby there. He deliberately operated on people, like kidnapped girls and former servants, and turned them into hideously deformed prisoners because – and here comes the kicker – his wife cheated on him. There are more controversial and perverted themes aplenty, like incestuous relationships, the mentally insane and multiple WWII references, but there's honestly so much going on during the finale you tend to overlook some details. Luckily, one of the more insignificant supportive characters clarifies a lot of events through marvelously kinky flashbacks near the end. "Horrors of Malformed Men" isn't good, but I can't help praising most of aspects about it! The first half is often dull and completely incomprehensible, but the island-plot is just too hypnotizing for fans of obscure late 60's/early 70's horror. And this puppy was banned during a couple of decades, so the "forbidden fruit" element makes it even more appealing. The island sequences, most of them flashbacks, are truly unforgettable, with nightmarish imagery and a constant grisly atmosphere. The faces and bodies of the titular malformed men will surely haunt my dreams for the next couple of nights, as they look really uncanny and menacing.Finishing with a little a slightly off-topic and unimportant note: "Horrors of Malformed Men" also feature a killing technique that I'm sure to have seen already in a James Bond movie. Only, I can't remember which Bond movie and thus don't know for sure in which film it was shown first. The scene goes like this: the hero and his love-interest lie asleep face to face whilst an assailant slowly positions himself in the attic and exactly above the couple. Then, via a piece of cord, he lowers down poison onto the lips of his target. In both films, the hero turns his head right on time and the poison kills the poor girl. If anyone knows in which James Bond movie this assassination method occurs, please PM me!

zetes This infamous Japenese cult flick unfortunately doesn't live up to its lofty reputation. It has some worthy moments, but only a few in what is otherwise a painfully boring and poorly made affair. The confusing story involves a medical student searching for his origins based on the few memories he has from his childhood. He makes his way to the coast of the Japan Sea, where he discovers an obituary for a man who looks exactly like him. He then pretends to be the dead man resurrected, and eventually is brought to an island not far away where the dead man's father is purportedly conducting odd experiments on human beings. The entire story up to here is confusing, uninvolving, and honestly pretty stupid. Only when the protagonist arrives on the island with the titular malformed men does it contain a shred of interest. But only a shred. The mad scientist on the island, kind of the Japanese version of Dr. Moreau, is mutating human beings into freaks. These people, played by circus performers, are dressed in weird costumes and covered with icky makeup. Supposedly the film was meant to reflect the effects of an atomic bomb. I'm not really that sure that was meant, since I don't think any radiation poisoning resulted in a person turning silver. This seems to be where some of the film's fans find substance in the thing, but, really, that half-assed commentary isn't even close to as good as the half-assed commentary in the original Gojira, or, even more appropriate to this conversation, another Ishiro Honda film, Matango: Attack of the Mushroom People, which was made six years earlier than Horrors of Malformed Men. The malformed men are pretty cool, I must admit, but their appearance and participation in the film takes up around ten minutes of this 100 minute film, one tenth, by my estimation. I couldn't forgive the first half of the movie. And even moreso I can't forgive what comes after this, where the mad doctor tells his story in a prolonged, monochromatic flashback. I guess I should be thankful, because the stuff I couldn't understand about the plot earlier in the movie is explicated in such detail that I wanted to rip my hair out. But at least I finally got the plot. And worse, after the doctor has his ten minute flashback, another character has another ten minute flashback. The story is patently ridiculous, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. It could have been fun, but it isn't. It's a crushing bore! It does end on a hilarious bit, but nothing could have saved this movie.