Cyclops (1987) Blu-ray Review

Visual Vengeance

Blu-ray Release: September 11, 2026

Video: 1.33:1/1080p/Color

Audio: Japanese Dolby Digital 2.0 mono

Subtitles: English

Run Time: 52:207

Director: Joji Iida

A secret team of scientists has crossed the line between medicine and madness, implanting embryos into human hosts in a series of hideous experiments designed to create a new form of life. But, when their latest subject takes her own life before giving birth, the entire operation spirals into desperation. Accompanied by a malformed cyclops mutant as muscle, the researchers descend into the city in search of a new victim, dragging an unsuspecting young woman into a nightmare of medical horror. (From Visual Vengeance’s official synopsis)

Before VCD and DVD took over the home video market and Ringu-inspired kaidan became the export of choice, a home-grown, straight-to-video underground splatter movement reintroduced Japan to cult horror audiences. Characterized by short runtimes, sloppy gore, and mega-ambitious, do-it-yourself special effects, the movement is largely tied the legendary Guinea Pig series, but also produced more likeable films, like Akihiro Kashima’s Biotherapy (1986), Takuro Fukuda’s Conton (aka: Legend of the Beast God, 1987), Masayoshi Sukita’s Gakidama (1985), and Kazuo Komizu’s Guzoo (1986).

At the center of this first phase was a cyberpunk-flavored, transformation geek show called Cyclops (Japanese: Kikuropusu, 1987) from Joji ‘George’ Iida. Cyclops (not to be confused with the 1957 uranium-hunting monster movie) exemplifies the movement’s greatest strengths and weaknesses. It’s short, under one hour, and built around an extended climax that doubles as an FX reel. It is slower paced than some of the subgenre’s prototypes, but it mostly earns this leisurely escalation via better-than-average performances, more plot than expected, and an amiable sense of humor. Besides, the final 15 minutes are worth the wait and Cyclops is still pretty relentless when compared to the garden variety American indie slasher or similar, shot-on-video horror rental shelf fodder.

The V-cinema underground hit rental stores on the heels of the Hollywood golden age of transformation effects and it’s no coincidence that there are visual/stylistic connections to John Carpenter’s The Thing (1982), David Cronenberg’s Videodrome (1983), and John Landis’ An American Werewolf in London (1981). Goopy mutations and over-the-top body-horror tended to take precedence over cruel, realistic violence, in opposition to the shocks of similar underground movements from other countries. There were still plenty of shocking and cruel movies coming out of the region, namely the aforementioned early Guinea Pig movies and Komizu’s Entrails of a Virgin & Entrails of a Beautiful Woman (both 1986), but, generally speaking, there’s a sense of whimsy in these films that make them nominally more palatable for mainstream audiences.

Cyclops’ effects are credited to Shûichi Kokumai and Yûichi Matsui. Kokumai had already worked on Guzoo and ended up doing effects on Kamen Rider shows/movies and a couple of Godzilla movies, as well as directed his own underground quickie in 2000, Doreijyu. Matsui was even more successful, moving up the ranks from V-cinema (including Komizu’s Entrail movies) to regular make-up gigs with Takashi Miike, Kiyoshi Kurosawa, and Takashi Shimizu.

Their work is mostly relegated to the last third of the film, but it’s absolutely worth the wait. The results are jaw-dropping in their detail, execution, and ingenuity, especially given the small budget and short turnaround time at their disposal. For his part, Iida draws upon another key underground splatter influence, Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead (1982), utilizing extreme angles and slapstick comedy to keep up the energy (though he largely forgoes the energetic camera movement). This is all balanced, at least during the first 30-40 minutes, by surprisingly still, even poetic images of urban decay and eerie domestic bliss.

Iida is a somewhat underrated figure in the larger history of modern Japanese horror. After Cyclops, he found his niche on television, where, after working on Tales of the Unusual (1992) and Night Head (1992–1993), he wrote the screenplay for Chisui Takigawa’s Ring – the original, made-for-TV adaptation of Koji Suzuki’s novel, released two years before Hideo Nakata’s 1998 theatrical version. He was later rewarded writing & directing duties on the first official sequel, Spiral (aka: Rasan), which was released the same day as Nakata’s film. This is often overlooked, because Spiral was retroactively replaced by Nakata’s own Ring 2 the following year.

Video

Cyclops never made it to North American VHS or Beta. There seem to have been bootlegs made from the Nikkatsu tape, which didn’t have any English subtitles. The first DVD and Blu-ray came from Austrian company Cinestrange in 2021, though that collection was not English-friendly, either. Cyclops was shot on 16mm film and, fortunately, it was also apparently edited on film, so someone was able to scan original elements (probably a print source) in 2K for a proper 1080p release.

I found some screencaps from the Cinestrange BD and it is similar to this 1.33:1 transfer, but the color timing differs with VV’s appearing a bit less washed out with a slightly greener overall tint. Note that there are several sudden change-ups in palette temperature throughout, seemingly the result of the material’s condition. The footage is in decent shape, exhibiting only minor, though relatively consistent white dots and scratches. The most obvious artifacts are rough splice marks. Texture and detail is limited by the 16mm source, but the scan is sharp and there aren’t major signs of compression.

Audio

Cyclops is presented in its original Japanese mono sound and lossy Dolby Digital sound, like most (every?) Visual Vengeance Blu-ray release. There are inconsistencies between sync’d and post-dubbed dialogue, as well as sound floor discrepancies between, but this fits the typical V-cinema aesthetic, as does the muffled audio quality. The fantastic synth-pop-rock soundtrack, which includes a major theme directly lifted from Thomas Dolby’s “She Blinded Me with Science,” is credited to Unio Mystica, a group or artist with only two other credits to their name, Hitoshi Nimura’s The Performance: Perverted Model Audition (1986) and Za shussan (also 1986).

Extras

• Commentary with Justin Decloux and Patrick Macias – The Important Cinema Club podcast’s Decloux and Macias, the author of Tokyoscope: the Japanese Cult Film Companion (VIZ Media, 2001), explore the genesis of underground splatter/V-cinema, the Hollywood films, pollution-based Japanese horror movies, and comics that influenced them, additional political influences from the period, and the broader careers of the cast & crew.

• No Compliance (55:58, HD) – A life and career-spanning interview with Iida that rivals the length of the actual movie. The director discusses his various influences, collaborators and contemporaries, the arc of his career, and the making of Cyclops, Battle Heater (1989), Ring, Spiral, Another Heaven (2000), and Dragon Head (2003).

• Not In The Way You Expect: The Films of Joji “George” Iida (10:42, HD) – Decloux returns to offer up his perspective on Iida’s films and filmmaking style.

• All the Monsters Are Here: The Japanese DTV Market of the Mid-80s (10:58, HD) – One more interview with Decloux on the subject of V-cinema.

• Image gallery

• Koji Yamamura sketch gallery 

• Trailer

• Visual Vengeance trailer reel – The Screaming (aka: The Paranormal, 2000), The Abomination (1986), and Colony Mutation (1995)

The images on this page are taken from the Blu-ray and sized for the page. Larger versions can be viewed by clicking the images. Note that there will be some JPG compression.