Cult director Teruo Ishii (BLIND WOMAN’S CURSE) presents a nightmarish tale drawn from the fevered imagination of Japan’s celebrated pioneer of ero-guro (“erotic grotesque”) literature, Edogawa Rampo. A dark labyrinth of the monstrous and perverse that fuses mystery and horror while incorporating motifs from a myriad of Rampo’s tales, HORRORS OF MALFORMED MEN boasts astonishing carnivalesque art design and haunting performances. Withdrawn from cinemas by its own studio after its original scandalous release nearly fifty years ago, the film is among the very best screen interpretations of the author’s macabre brand of horror-fantasy fiction, and a unique oddity of Japanese cult cinema. Medical student Hirosuke slips out of the asylum in which he has been wrongfully confined, and assumes the identity of a deceased nobleman with whom he bears an uncanny resemblance. But as long-repressed memories bubble to his surface, he’s drawn to a remote isle where he’s confronted by a mad scientist and his malformed men.