Rent Tetsuo II: Body Hammer (1992)

Bigger Budget, Blunter Blow - Tetsuo II: Body Hammer review by griggs

The first film felt like being trapped inside a microwave with a grudge. This time the chaos has been given a bigger budget, more locations, and a glossy sheen — which sounds like an upgrade, but it also sands down the DIY menace that made Tetsuo such a nasty little marvel.

You can see the money on screen: wider spaces, more “movie” lighting, a sense that Tsukamoto is building set-pieces instead of detonating in a cramped flat. The problem is that scale doesn’t automatically mean punch. The rage is still there, but it’s more organised, and somehow less surprising.

What does work is the core idea: a father so desperate to get his child back he’ll turn himself inside out to do it, the body-hammer metamorphosis reading like a literal version of a mental breakdown. Tetsuo II: Body Hammer has moments that crackle, but it’s also busy in a way that blunts the impact. Bigger, yes. Better? Not quite.

Colour me bad - Tetsuo II: Body Hammer review by CP Customer

I still remain disappointed by this sequel to the original Tetsuo. Whereas the first managed a dramatic impact marrying man and machine into a new form of Mecha. Tetsuo 2 only adds colour to the equation with a bigger budget, in search of more mainstream horror. Some may have found the original too gritty, constrained by a low budget and dreary vision. However the black and white images really worked well with Tsukamoto-san's bodily disfigurements. Seeing everything here in vivid colour with more emphasis on the modifications and changes, diminishes Tetsuo as a whole. It was no surprise that Tsukamoto-san moved onto other projects after completing this. Tetsuo III remains an impossibility, thanks to this release.