I am ironman

February 21, 2008 11:56 AM

Implants and transplants can be used to create a particularly exquisite type of horror, being so intimately connected to our own bodies. They can overwhelm us, assimilate us, drive us mad, piss us off, or consume us.

The last one is really the money shot. I've got a fair amount of metal in my own body, and watching it just about made me crawl out of my own skin

posted by adamrice (22 comments total)

Hahaha The Thing With Two Heads is awesome.
posted by fusinski at 12:01 PM on February 21, 2008

Yeah, Metalosis Maligna is a pretty great short (and was mentioned previously in this criminally undertrafficed post about the filmmaker).
posted by cortex at 12:11 PM on February 21, 2008 [1 favorite]

Thankfully the surgeon used a cadaver tendon to repair my knee. I mean, what could wrong?
posted by photoslob at 12:20 PM on February 21, 2008

I mean, what could wrong?

oh my GOD IT ATE HIS VERB
posted by sidereal at 12:24 PM on February 21, 2008 [16 favorites]

Youtube link for Metalosis
posted by Pastabagel at 12:25 PM on February 21, 2008

In this vein, I simply cannot recommend Body Parts enough. It's got the full on Fifties "What Has Science Done???" vibe with chilly doctors and theremin music. Throw in some Brad Dourif, some twists I didn't expect, and it's my best transplant horror ever. Makes The Eye look tame. If you really dig it, check out the fairly elderly French novel upon which it was based, Choice Cuts.
posted by adipocere at 12:29 PM on February 21, 2008

I'll keep that Metalosis link handy for when my daughter asks to get her ears pierced.
posted by brain_drain at 12:31 PM on February 21, 2008 [1 favorite]

This is neat as hell. I remember watching tetsuo the iron man freshman year in college with the same folks that I used to watch Wax with. That is still the funniest unbelievably creepy movie I've seen in some time. The massive drill phallus gets me every time.

Also, that metalosis thing was spectacular. Sometimes you get these groups of uniformly talented folks get together to make something mind bogglingly cool.
posted by shmegegge at 12:41 PM on February 21, 2008

Throw in some Brad Dourif, some twists I didn't expect, and it's my best transplant horror ever.

How DARE you not mention Jeff Fahey?!
posted by shmegegge at 12:43 PM on February 21, 2008

cortex--I missed the previous link on Metalosis. No disrespect intended to whir.
posted by adamrice at 1:04 PM on February 21, 2008

I actually like Jeff Fahey, especially some of his earlier stuff, but as a selling point for movies he doesn't work. I think the average IMDB rating of most of his films is about a 3.4, with the occasional standout. (This is actually a feature IMDB should do, try to figure out how much a given actor will raise or lower the rating). I mean, he's not Michael Ironside, who, in my imagination, shows up on a set one day and the film's investors begin to look around for swords on which to throw themselves while the distributors begin to murmur about straight-to-video options, but I certainly wouldn't say, "You should check this film out, it's got JEFF FAHEY!" Swoons all around, ladies!
posted by adipocere at 1:08 PM on February 21, 2008 [1 favorite]

Right with you on "Body Parts". One of the best cheesy lines of dialogue ever:

"CAN'T YOU SEE THIS ARM IS KILLING ME!!!"
posted by lumpenprole at 1:09 PM on February 21, 2008

cortex--I missed the previous link on Metalosis. No disrespect intended to whir.

Oh, none inferred or implied! whir's post is chock full of great but I think it just scared folks away; and differing links for videos always complicates searching.
posted by cortex at 1:11 PM on February 21, 2008

And here I thought this post was gonna have a link to Awful Plastic Surgery.
posted by jtron at 1:29 PM on February 21, 2008

Everyone always goes on about the horrors of things like Metalosis, but I am so all about converting my body to an artificed contrivance of steel and wire.

Everything about it sounds good, from scaring little kids, to... well, scaring little kids. But that's enough as far as I'm concerned.

Though I hope that they come up with some heating technology. Because cold metal in Wisconsin winters can really suck. Even more so if it goes right through your core.
posted by quin at 1:39 PM on February 21, 2008

This has a lot of potential.
posted by adamrice at 1:45 PM on February 21, 2008

Anybody remember that short film (I think it was on ifilm back in the day) where the guy gets addicted to the internet, and then hacks off his hand so he can duct tape his mouse to his arm stump?
posted by nzero at 2:05 PM on February 21, 2008

Mighta been on Atom Films, now that I think about it.
posted by nzero at 2:08 PM on February 21, 2008

I thought for sure this was going to be about this news story. Close but no cigar.
posted by hypocritical ross at 2:12 PM on February 21, 2008

the surgeon used a cadaver tendon to repair my knee

apparently, one of the sources for permanently "plumped" lips is cadaver tissue of some sort. so, how sexy is that? the thick soft lips are stuffed with dead people.
posted by rmd1023 at 2:36 PM on February 21, 2008

I ran the clinical evaluation department for the tachyarrhythmia division of Medtronic for a while, so I was responsible for, like, thousands of these horrors. Bwahahahaha!
posted by Mental Wimp at 2:39 PM on February 21, 2008

the thick soft lips are stuffed with dead people.
I kiss dead people...
posted by Mental Wimp at 2:40 PM on February 21, 2008