The ending of a horror film is paramount. The feeling you take away all rides on the finale of the film. A good ending can leave you disturbed forever. It can etch itself into your soul. The ending can make or break the film. The final image is the last attempt to truly impact you, one last attempt to leave you with an image or idea you can’t forget, and when it works, it can haunt you far beyond the 90-minute runtime.

Nailing the finale is not so easy though, countless horror films have attempted the final scare, the last thrill, but most of the time it’s just as soulless as the many cliché scares that came before it. It takes a special magic to create a truly disturbing ending, and here is a list of the films that did it best.

For obvious reasons this list is ripe with spoilers.

10. Martyrs (Pascal Laugier, 2008)

One of the more prominent films to come out of France’s extreme horror trend, Martyrs is a brutal exercise in tolerance and religion. Set around a cult that wishes to torture people in the belief that a martyr can experience the outer realm of existence, and thus prove if there is indeed anything beyond the physical realm, the film showcases some of the most extreme and gruelling imagery to date, and the ending is the most shocking part.

Both thematically and visually, Martyrs is a heavy film, and the ending is the heaviest moment. When the captive girl, played by Mylene Jampanoi, has been tortured to her physical limit by being skinned with all but her face remaining, she finally reveals what she sees, but we the audience never find out. Although one message is clear, whatever the martyr saw, it was not the heaven they hoped for and the film ends with a depressingly dark climax that leaves you feeling very unoptimistic.

9. The Human Centipede 2 (Tom Six, 2011)

The human Centipede trilogy is an experiment in shock. Six pushes his audience but always leaves a sense of humour present, something the second film truly capitalises on. Easily the most disturbing out of the trilogy for its British realism aesthetic and its sombre tone, Centipede 2 is a hard pill to swallow.

When the film finally reaches its climax, it ramps up the grotesque to absurd levels, babies being crushed under acceleration pedals, blood, guts, and everything else! And when it is all over, we see Martin, played by Laurence R. Harvey, still alive and ready to try the dreaded experiment all over again. An open end you’d much prefer closed.

8. Begotten (E. Elias Merhige, 1989)

How can you explain Begotten? Unlike any film before it, unlike any after it, Begotten is a truly unique piece of art. The film very loosely depicts the creation of earth. The film became an underground cult sensation with theorist Susan Sontag even championing it from the start. It struggled to find an audience but over time it has become a staple of avantgarde art.

Still to this day it is a hard to watch meditation on the very cinematic form it exists in, and its ending is just as twisted as the entirety of its narrative. The ending to the film is so powerful because it reveals nothing, it feels sombre and dark like the images that proceeded it and it leaves you with no sense of equilibrium.

Begotten feels like you have been ripped from the womb too early. You feel like you are seeing images that you will never understand, you can never comprehend, and when it is over you feel vulnerable and dirty.

7. Videodrome (David Cronenberg, 1983)

Cronenberg’s defining surrealist achievement enclosed in the iconography of a sci-fi horror. This film is a masterpiece of cinema. The film is the crescendo to many of the ideas Cronenberg had been exploring in his early career. His biological horror seemed right at home in the story of TV president Max Renn, played by James Woods, and his discovery of a pirate channel named Videodrome. He slowly becomes infatuated with the channel as it warps his mind and distorts his perception of reality.

The film slowly builds as does Renn’s insanity, until the climactic ending leaves a sense of dread and insecurity as Renn ends his own life. Well, that is what the film depicts visually but thematically it feels very open-ended. What was real, and what was not? Like the very channel that plagues Max’s mind, Videodrome feels like an insane fever dream where reality and dreams collide, and the ending further justifies that sense of disturbing surrealism.

6. The Fly (Kurt Neuman, 1958)

When you think of The Fly you would not be hated for thinking of Cronenberg’s 1986 body-horror first, because without hesitation it is a far superior film. Neuman’s Fly may be a cheesy B-movie, but its iconic imagery is still pop-culture relevant today, and its ending is still a unique finish to a pretty standard monster movie.

The thing that sets Neuman’s film apart from Cronenberg’s is the ending, and while it may be the less superior film, its ending is arguably the better of the two. In the 1958 film, when scientist Delambre, played by Ali Hedison, enters the chamber and fuses with the fly he simply emerges with a fly head and arm, unlike Cronenberg’s slow transformation.

When the ending reveals that the fly that has been pestering the characters is actually Delambre’s head attached to a fly body (the reverse of what we believed to be Delambre), we are shocked due to his presence being known for so long. When this is revealed though it is too late as we watch him caught in a spider’s web as Vincent Price puts him out of his misery.

A chilling ending for 1958. A disturbing classic. A true example of how an ending can truly propel a film into a different league.

Cult and horror go hand in hand, a match made in heaven… Or would hell be more accurate?

Horror is a genre that is defined by its ability to strike fear into its very viewer, and it is that very reason that many viewers often steer away from the gore centric flicks that aim to terrorize anyone who so chooses it as their piece of late night viewing. The images cast by horror films can imbed themselves deep into the minds of those who deem themselves brave enough. It is an oh-so-common occurrence to have deep underlining trauma from a film you was too young to see, the monsters, the characters, the kills, all leave scarring memories, but for some, that thrill of the scare is fuel to the addiction.

For some audiences, that primal response of fear is a comforting feeling. Fans seem obsessed with trying to find the next film that can capture that child-like response of fear and adrenaline, that feeling of being unable to sleep, to turn the lights off at night, or to stick your legs from under your duvet. The problem is the more you watch, the further and further away from that feeling you get. Desensitised to the horror of horror, it slowly becomes an unobtainable high, and it does not take long before you find yourselves in the depths of genres deepest and darkest secrets, and when you get there you find a bunch of other maniac horror fans clambering for that hidden gem that might just make them feel that fear once again.

The beauty of the genre though, of these cult films, is that sometimes you find something more than just a scary flick. Sometimes you find comedy in the so-bad-it’s-good, sometimes you find films that transcend simple scares, sometimes you find films that move you, and make you feel more than fear, and then sometimes you find just a bloody (pardon the pun) good horror film.

10. Star Time (Alexander Cassini, 1992)

Star Time is a weird film that never really amounted to the things it could have. An ambitious debut by director Alexander Cassini who only went on to direct one other film, The Incredible Genie: a throw-away cheap family film that is most definitely not ‘incredible’. Star Time on the other hand, is a fascinating film that shows great promise, which is all the more upsetting when you realise Cassini never truly followed it up. It now stands as an enigma of the horror genre, a lost attempt. The film is by no means perfect, it falls victim to obvious budget constraints and the expected formal mishaps of a first-time director, but its artistic vision holds it from falling apart.

Star Time is a statement on the consumeristic nature of media, the obsessive passive audience that so often dominates the prime time. The ideal candidates for the ideological consumption of manufactured consent. The film manifests this idea into the character of Henry Pinkle, a young male that is obsessed with a sitcom named, The Robertson Family. When his favourite show is cancelled, Pinkle becomes suicidal, until the mysterious Sam Bones offers him the chance of stardom.

The film takes a downward spiral into the chaotic mind of Pinkle, showing the exaggerated reality of our culture’s celebrity fetishism. We idolise the rich and famous dreaming to one day be them, all while we conform to our mundane full-time job. Pinkle is the idealised media consumer, which is ultimately his downfall.

Star Time still has a lot, one could argue it has even more to say in the wake of the reality television boom, and the celebrities that exist solely to be celebrities.

9. Blood Massacre (Don Dohler, 1987)

The horror genre is an open door to cheap amateur films. For some reason the genre has always been the go-to for budding directors. This means that there is an awful amount of mediocre and straight up rubbish riff-raff to sort through when finding horror films, but every once in a while, the garbage bin of trash reveals films that ooze so much passion and love for the genre that their inabilities are the mark of beauty.

The pioneer of this was of course Ed Wood, his passion for making horror films and Science-Fiction outweighed his obvious downfalls as an incompetent director. His films became cherished cult classics. True the audiences viewed his work in a way he probably never intended, but nevertheless, he found an audience, an audience that worshipped the art he created. A similar director, but yet to find as large of an audience, is the magnificent, Don Dohler. The ‘80s equivalent of Ed Wood.

Don Dohler created a slew of backyard horror films that never hide their amateur downfalls. His films share the same recurring actors, all of which are simply just neighbourhood friends and family of Dohler, recurring locations, and themes. The films have a spontaneity to them, a childlike creativity, they feel like the make-believe games you would play with your friends, they feel fun.

Blood Massacre is a prime example of Dohler’s work. A masterpiece of schlock cinema. When people mention all the ‘so-bad-it’s-good films’, Dohler often fails to be mentioned, but the following is there, he is without a doubt a cult icon that deserves more recognition.

8. Hellevator (Hiroki Yamaguchi, 2004)

Japan is the place of cult cinema, so many of their directors lend themselves to becoming icons of cult-horror, directors like, Takashi Miike, Yoshihiro Nishimura, Takashi Shimizu, all worthy of the title among many others. Japan is the origin of many horror trends as well, so it comes as no surprise that many of the films and directors become fan favourites. One of the sub-genres of horror that Japan pioneered is the splatter-punk genre, a film defined by its over-the-top gory antics and punk sensibility, both formally and stylistically.

One of these films is Hellevator, sometimes called The Bottled Fools, which is a dystopian spin on the splatter-punk genre. The film is pretty simple, a dingy future where society has moved underground, and the many levels of the brutalist structure are traversed by elevators. Well, that all goes wrong when criminals must be transported on the same elevator as civilians. The film is a tight contained thriller that lends itself to the manic outbursts of a splatter-punk aesthetic.

7. Battle Heater (George Lida, 1989)

Speaking of splatter-punk, George Lida was a pioneer of the genre with his short film, Cyclops in 1987. A film that offered the same body-horror gloop as many of the other pioneering films that would influence many of the splatter-punk directors. Lida transcends Cyclops though standing as a true cult icon with his filmography, not only because of Cyclops, but because of films like, Spiral (or Rasen), the forgotten original sequel to Ringu, and of course the film in question, Battle Heater.

Battle Heater is the definition of a cult horror film. It embodies the weird, the funny, the strange. A film like no other, Battle Heater injects a splash of comedy into the genre and presents it in a weird narrative that feels inspired by Cronenberg, Tsukamoto, and Ishii. A body-horror, splatter/cyberpunk comedy, something that could only be born out of ‘80s Japan.

The film is about a Kotatsu, an electric heater, that comes to life and begins terrorizing the apartment block in which it resigns. The film has crazy affects, manic editing, musical numbers, mech-like suits, surreal comedy, and crazy hairstyles. A must watch, and a true cult classic.

6. The Keep (Michael Mann, 1983)

When we think of Michael Mann we think of action, we think of films like, Heat, Thief, Collateral, and more. We think of masculine cinema that questions the very role of the male heroes that inhabit it, but before all that, Mann tried his hand at horror, and what a creation it was.

The Keep is a synth gothic masterpiece, ripe with fantasy narratives about monsters and Nazis. The film is sadly a forgotten gem due to a very turbulent production and release. The film struggled to get finished, and when it was finished it was cut to shreds in a butchered attempt to make it a more streamlined 90-minute feature.

The film has become a cult favourite though, with many still pining for a physical release of the film; however, the film has found a home on many streaming websites, but many are still left wondering what the original 3-hour cut would have envisioned. We may never know. For now, the cut version exists as an interesting example of what could have been, and even the heavily cut version is a great gothic nightmare that is well worth the viewing experience.

Since Parasite hit a huge homerun at the Oscars, world cinema seems to be getting the praise it has longingly deserved. Cinema is a worldwide artform, and Hollywood only scratches the surface of what this great medium has to offer. While Parasite basks in its victory, and South-Korean cinema has its moment to shine, there is still a plethora of world-cinema waiting to be discovered.

While many masterpieces of world cinema have outlasted the pain of time and stayed discussed in the filmic discourse of great cinema, many have slowly been forgotten. Sadly, foreign films are victimised by the harshness of time far more than their American counterparts, and it seems the one-inch barrier Bong Joon-Ho spoke of helps nail the coffin on many classics.

Let’s help smash that one-inch barrier and let’s rediscover some lost classics.

10. Hana-Bi/Fireworks (Takeshi Kitano, 1997)

Takeshi Kitano, or Beat Takeshi (his stage name), is a master of so many crafts. Comedian, presenter, actor, director, writer, painter, and probably more. While it is his comedy work and television work that most represents him in Japan, it is his film work that gained him worldwide appeal, and for obvious reasons, Kitano is without question one of Japan’s most unique auteurs. His dry almost stagnant camera operates around his often dry-pan deliveries that are used to characterise some of the most violent and ruthless characters, yet what always shines through in the end, after all the violence, is a narrative filled with warmth and soul. Kitano shows that even on the bleakest of days we can always feel love and happiness, and that sometimes, sadness doesn’t have to be so sad.

Hana-Bi is Kitano’s most accomplished work, the film is an emotional rollercoaster portrayed in the same dry authorship you expect from Kitano. It is important to note that the use of dry is not a negative when thinking about Kitano, instead think of it as a positive. Kitano lets emotion be the driving force for his films, the camera does very little, the dialogue does very little, and the editing cuts sparingly. You often have shots linger for longer than expected, with nothing but dead silence, no reaction from the characters, instead their eyes tell the story. You and the scene can breathe and exist together uninterrupted, and this is exactly what Hana-Bi does.

Hana-Bi is about a violent cop (played by Kitano himself) that retires after an incident at work, with no income he turns to the yakuza for money, debt ridden and left caring for his dying wife, the Cop decides to take his lover on one last trip.

The film is still one of Kitano’s most acclaimed worldwide, but it feels it has slowly been forgotten over the last few years, and we see Kitano still cropping up as the token Asian in Hollywood films, when really, he is a master of cinema. Hana-Bi proves that. Hana-Bi shouldn’t be forgotten.

9. Alice (Jan Svankmajer, 1988)

Where do you begin with Alice?

Alice has one of the most unique visual styles known to film thanks to director Jan Svankmajer. The film is a surreal journey into the tactile world of stop-motion portrayed through the known story of Lewis Carol’s novel, Alice in Wonderland. Jan Svankmajer elevated the world of animation proving that it was more than just a fancy trick to capture the imagination of children, showing that it was a technique that could offer surrealist experimentation and imagery, and while that would be the result of many of his filmic outings, none capture it more than Alice.

The film is just as powerful as many of the surreal classics, and still showcases a unique voice that never feels stagnant or cliché. Svankmajer proves that cinema is a playground of techniques and imagination, and Alice shows that sometimes even the most known stories can yield the most innovative results.

8. Vampyr (Carl Theodor Dreyer, 1932)

The gothic has always been an exciting realm for cinema. Some of the earliest iconic moments of the medium revel in the beauty of chiaroscuro photography, it seems one could say cinematography shines brightest in the darkness. Early filmmakers understood this, and gothic literature seemed to inspire the perfect visuals to explore it.

When thinking of these gothic masterpieces we often think of German expressionism, or the Universal monster movies. While these films are masterpieces, none of them feel as truly gothic as the Danish masterpiece, Vampyr.

Like its gothic counterparts, Vampyr basks in the darkness, existing in a constant dream-like quality. The film is a chilling arthouse exploration of the vampire myth that was popular at the time, but instead of being a descendant of Stocker, Vampry took inspiration from the work of J. Sheridan Le Fanu, giving it a different edge to its peers.

The film was edgier and darker than many of the other contemporary examples of the genre, even by today’s standards Vampry seems unique. With its early adoption of sound Vampyr feels even more silent, even more vacant and haunting. It looms over you like a shadowed creature of the night, it stalks your mind with its potent imagery and striking atmosphere. Vampyr is an exemplary piece of gothic cinema that must be seen.

7. Land of Silence and Darkness (Werner Herzog, 1971)

Werner Herzog is one of cinema’s most unique voices. A filmmaker that seamlessly moves between fiction and documentary. Herzog believes in the philosophy of the visual, the power of the picture, the truth of the image, and no matter his subject, his ideology remains intact. With Herzog, ships will climb mountains, the Amazon will conquer conquistadores, and gothic legends will rise again, but when the spectacle of his legend is overlooked, what remains is a man and his camera, and no film shows this more than Land of Silence and Darkness.

Land of Silence and Darkness is an early documentary by Herzog which focuses on the exploration of different people who are all both blind and death. A harrowing thought for most (and all reading this), but a truth for the subjects of the film. Herzog has often stated that he lusts to find new visuals, images that have never been shown before. Therefore, so much of his work spans the furthest reaches of our globe, he is Fitzcarraldo, he is Aguirre, he is the Grizzly Man, for him the camera is his key to the world.

Land of Silence and Darkness is different. It strips away all spectacle. Its not a pursuit of something new, instead Herzog takes a step back, he slows down, and instead of showing vast new visuals he explores a world without visuals: he questions his own philosophy.

This film is relevant now more than ever because it reminds us that life is more than what you see or hear. We as film fans take our sight and sound for granted, but here Herzog explores what quality of life can exist without our two most prominent senses. It is one of Herzog’s lesser known films, often overshadowed by the almost mythical stature of his early fiction films, and that is why it is so powerful. It is an intimate film, a film where Herzog lets real life people tell the story, a film where Herzog shows that sometimes ships do not have to climb mountains to make a powerful story, sometimes the real world is just as unique and beautiful.

6. Tampopo (Juzo Itami, 1985)

Now into the world of comedy with a flavour of ramen. Tampopo is a love letter to cinema and Japanese food. A somewhat ramen western if you will, and while that may sound like a culinary disaster, the result is more like a Michelin star masterpiece.

The film is about two truck drivers who help restore a widow’s decrepit ramen bar. What unfolds is a tantalising examination of Japanese food culture and the heritage of the nations favourite dish, ramen. The filmic language borrows from all the greats while still being incredibly unique. The camera adores the food on show leaving your mouth-watering as you dial your nearest Japanese takeaway.

What is beautiful about Tampopo is that it never takes itself seriously, and its comedic charm makes it feel like soul-food for the heart. Tampopo is a warming bowl of soup on a cold winter’s day.

With Cyberpunk 2077 in development, the world seems to be once again enamoured with the virtual space of the Neo-Tokyo inspired worlds of cyberpunk. Films like, Blade Runner, Akira, Ghost in the Shell, and The Matrix seem once again in vogue, a testament to their timeless quality.

Cyberpunk goes far beyond the titular classics though; it was a sprawling genre that reflected an atmosphere unique to the ‘80s and ‘90s and offered countless texts to showcase it. After all, the world of the ‘80s was no longer obsessed with space, or distant worlds, instead storytellers wanted to explore cyberspace, virtual space, and the vast future that was promised by the new computer age.

The consumer technology of Japan was a domineering agent of socialisation, a catalyst for a new future, a future that was a cyber-influenced metropolis, a city built from the digital world, and it all seemed linked to the city of the rising sun, Tokyo. A glimmering example of what was next. films and literature often set the future in a pseudo-Asian world, a logical conclusion for the time, and a dazzling new landscape to explore, and rather importantly, a rather cheap vision to create.

Since it was easy to create the cyberpunk worlds of tomorrow, countless straight-to-video and independent features flooded the market, as they always do. films that were saturated with buzzwords like, hacking, virtual reality, data, cyberspace, and other computer inspired words ripe for a William Gibson novel. These films seemed to be everywhere as they no longer required sprawling sequences of space travel, instead all they needed was a neon glow, green tinted computer screens, and crazy body implants with a punk like spin to top it off.

It was the age of the hackers, the cyber-cowboys, the data-minors, but beyond the staple films, beyond the cash grabs, lies some forgotten films of the cyberpunk catalogue, a few hidden gems that are worth revisiting, films that still have things to say and show, and they are still a relevant example of what the genre has to offer.

10. Nemesis (Albert Pyun, 1992)

Albert Pyun is the king of the straight-to-video action film, he carved a career out of bad films that realistically hold no merit other than existing, that is true for all but one of his films, a film that is the culmination of everything ‘90s, that film is Nemesis.

Nemesis is not a good film, it mainly works as a cash grab rip-off, stealing from everything from Blade Runner to The Terminator, and yet, it somehow works. Nemesis has this style to it that exemplifies a ‘90s sense of ‘cool’ and ‘edginess’. The film feels like an advert for a Sega Genesis game, the kind of film that was made for a rental shop shelf, as its cover was enough to tell you it was going to be fun.

The story of Nemesis is rather poorly executed, it involves all the standard cyberpunk tropes, as Alex Raine (Olivier Gruner), traverses a future full of cyborgs, enhanced humans, and backstabbing governments. What Nemesis does do though is stand as an example of the trashy B-movies that flooded the market when cyberpunk was fashionable, and while it does fall into the bargain bucket of cheap genre videos, it’s the best of the bunch, a solid example of a cinema that has all but disappeared.

9. Split Second (Tony Maylam, 1992)

Split Second is often seen as a science fiction horror film, rightly so with its obvious Alien influence, but its cyberpunk markings are everywhere. The style of this film is cyberpunk through and through. The most interesting aspect of it though, the thing that sets it apart, is its setting, because unlike most cyberpunk films that operate in the seedy back streets of Neo-Tokyo, Split Second operates in the flooded back streets of England.

Split second focuses on cop Harley Stone, played by the legendary Rutger Hauer, as he slowly looses sanity over a string of killings that resemble the murder of his old partner. On a diet of coffee and chocolate, Stone slowly unravels the mystery of the killings. The result is a fascinating example of ‘90s science-fiction with a cyberpunk twist. It’s a mashup of genre traits wrapped in a dripping neon London. The aesthetic is a pure cyberpunk haven, yet the tone is a nightmarish noir, it feels like the birth child of Blade Runner, Ghost in the Shell, and Alien. A bizarre film that could only have existed in 1992.

8. Crazy Thunder Road (Sogo Ishii, 1980)

Director Sogo Ishii, now known as Gakuryu Ishii, is one of Japan’s most innovative filmmakers who pioneered a punk film ideology for Japan. His approach towards filmmaking and his ‘do-it-yourself’ attitude meant that he had two features under his belt before he even finished university, the latter of the two being Crazy Thunder Road.

Made to be his senior thesis for university, and then picked up by Toei studios, Crazy Thunder Road acts as a precursor to many of the staple attributes that would define the underground cyberpunk films of Japan.

The film is a neon chrome fever dream centred around the Maboroshi biker gang (very similar to the biker gang that would inhabit Akira two years later) and their internal conflicts, as leader Ken chooses a life of normality over the Mad Max-esque life of a gang leader.

The film feels like an extension of the Japanese new wave filmmakers with its playful demeanour and experimentation yet showcases a raw mentality that seems the logical artistic expression of the punk movement. While it may not be the most cyberpunk film on this list, it’s without a doubt a monumental precursor to the genre, and a technical marvel in terms of sheer filmmaking ability. A hyper kinetic film that is frantic and aggressive, all covered in a layer of leather, chrome, and neon. A film that puts the punk in cyberpunk.

7. Burst City (Sogo Ishii, 1982)

Two years later, after Ishii finally gets thrown out of university when it becomes clear that he is just prolonging his time there to have access to filming equipment, he directs Burst City, a tour-de-force of punk filmmaking.

Burst City doubles down on everything achieved in Crazy Thunder Road to the point of exhaustion, but not in a bad way, in a cathartic way. The film is a testament to everything Ishii presented during this period and is his final gift to the coming cyberpunk genre. It acts as a rule book for directing, as the camera is pushed to its limits, and the editing is strained to its breaking point.

This film holds no easy summary, Ishii wanted to represent what the essence of punk was, and with it he envisions a futuristic world inhabited by punks, biker gangs, yakuza, and anyone who got in the way. The result of the film is an almost endless conflict of ideology and philosophy, a formally free film, a film that seems more in tune with the rhythmic harshness of an overdriven guitar than any other piece of film. It is a visionary staple for the genre, and arguably the biggest catalyst for the cyberpunk films of Japan.

6. Adventures of Electric Rod Boy (Shinya Tsukamoto, 1987)

Shinya Tsukamoto directed one of the pinacol films of the genre, Tetsuo: The Iron Man, a visual masterpiece and defining film for the period. Before he created Tetsuo though, Tsukamoto was part of an experimental theatre group called Kaiju Theatre, a reference to his love of monster movies, and together the group created a stage play that would later become Electric Rod Boy. Since they had all the props, and Tsukamoto had a camera, it seemed logical to turn the performance into a film.

Adventures of Electric Rod Boy is born of the same ilk as many of Ishii’s films, after all, Tsukamoto attended the same school as Ishii and was rather jealous of his early success with film. It is to no surprise then that Electric Rod Boy shares the same frantic energy as Burst City and Crazy Thunder Road. The film feels young and formally free, and importantly it uses almost all the camera tricks that would soon be finessed in Tetsuo.

Electric Rod Boy is a manga influenced superhero origin story set to a cyberpunk formula. The stop-motion and kinetic camera begs you to think of Tetsuo, but the realisation that this is in fact the forerunner to the defining masterpiece makes it an essential piece of cinema history. Beyond its formal cinematic achievements, the film is a true inspiration for any independent filmmaker as it was made for nothing and even went on to win the grand prize at the PIA film festival, arguable the exposure that set Tsukamoto on his path to stardom.