As Jôji Iida’s (Spiral) Cyclops begins, we get a bit of the ‘ol world building as we learn that various forms of pollution have resulted in the birth of mutants.
Among those studying said mutations is Takamori (Kazuhiro Sano, Entrails of a Beautiful Woman), who is also involved in a cell-based method of creating a skin that conceals the bizarre-ness of the more shocking of the mutants.
Part of the reason Takamori is so hellbent for mutants is that his sister, Miyuki (Mayumi Hasegawa), is herself a concealed mutation… though that “concealed” part is rather shaky after her friend is killed as she is believed to be a mutant.
As all that is going down, a chuckling Terminator lookin’ mother fucker by the name of Sonezaki (Kai Atô, Lady Snowblood, Female Prisoner #701: Scorpion) begins his mission to make Takamori stop shootin’ his mouth off about how great the human race is… oh, and to put a murder on Takamori’s unborn mutant offspring!
Running a scant fifty-two minutes, Cyclops takes it’s sweet-ass time setting things up… it isn’t boring, but this being an extreme blast of Japanese splatter-punk, you know what you expect when parking thine ass in front of this crazy shit… and once that begins in earnest, your jaw will doubtless smash against the floor by how absolutely awesome it all is!
In a wicked whirlwind of body horror cranked-the-fuck-up to maximum monstrous-ness, practical special effects wizards Shûichi Kokumai (Godzilla: Final Wars) and Yûichi Matsui (Battle Royale) give us a tumor-pulsin’, tendril-flappin’, extra-heads-a-poppin’ bit of unbelievable gross-out lunacy that will sure to have fans of Carpenter’s The Thing, and Cronenberg’s The Fly droolin’ like delighted demon dogs!
To go along with Cyclops, Visual Vengeance have packed a throbbing vein’s worth of special features which wriggle-forth with an audio commentary provided by Justin Decloux of The Important Cinema Club podcast and author Patrick Macias, that provides info not only on Cyclops, but the chuck full o’ splatter genre of short, direct-to-video gore pics that were prevalent in Japan at the time.
Next up comes a nearly hour long interview with Director Jôji Iida, followed by a video essay from Decloux covering Iida’s filmography (followed by another essay covering the mid-’80s Japanese DTV horror boom mentioned previously provided by Decloux as well).
Finally comes an image gallery, a production design sketch gallery by artist Koji Yamamura, and the Visual Vengeance trailer for Cyclops.
Also, feast your eye on the ghoulish goodies the package contains… goodies which include: a folded mini-poster featuring original press-book art, and a reversible sleeve featuring original Japanese VHS art… and if you get your appendages on a first pressing of Cyclops you will receive a VHS sticker sheet, a slipcase featuring art by The Dude, and a duo of liner notes booklets.
A bat-shit injection of body horror barf-ery, Cyclops is absolutely the weird-o wonder you need in your misspent life!
