Terrible acting, screenplay and direction.

It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.

Mostly, the movie is committed to the value of a good time.

Bizarre is too general a term to describe this movie and surreal horror seems a bit ordinary by today's standards but, bizarre, surreal horror it certainly is. Talk of similarities with The Collector are unhelpful as this goes way beyond anything in the John Fowles novel or the subsequent film. Here the kidnap is carried out by a blind sculptor with the help of his mother so that he might have a model to work with (the suggestion here is that nobody would willingly work with a person with any disability). His studio is decorated with extremely strange and disconcerting sculpted body parts, legs, noses, mouths and of course breasts and almost all the action takes place among these artefacts. At first odd and then disquieting before becoming rather violent and eventually much more so, this is not a film for the casual viewer. There is much discussion of the sense of touch and the 'advantages' of blindness before this topples headlong into much darker territory. A cast of just three and Mako Midori plays the young girl to perfection. Never simply a captive she becomes the central character as this goes to where you really don't wish it to. Only in Japan, as they say and it certainly applies to this unique and very dark gem.

Director Yasuzo Masumura's colorful career saw a bunch of genres, and from time to time he also dipped his toe into the pinku genre. Blind Beast, many years later gifted with a crossover with Dwarf Killer by Teruo Ishii, belongs to the ero-guro (erotic grotesque) subgenre of films which were inspired by the literary current of famed Japanese mystery writer Rampo Edogawa, who saw his influence in Poe. In fact, Blind Beast is an adaptation of Edogawa's homonymous book.The film has only three characters; a psychotic blind sculptor obsessed with physical touch, his semi-approving mother and a model they kidnap to make her his muse. It's a slow descent into utter sadomasochistic depravity, crossed with Oedipal Complex and Stockholm Syndrome. But it's not really a serious character study. In true ero-guro fashion, the story is absurd and the characters' actions are at turns totally bonkers. The film culminates in an absolutely insane bondage routine which has to be seen to be believed. There is little to no blood shown, but it's still highly disturbing. It ends somewhat on a cautionary note, as if the movie is trying to explore the darkest possible side of obsession and addiction to sexuality.One thing you may find odd is that there is almost no nudity. This seems really out of place in the final 20 minutes, but still, you have to understand the limitations of light pinku films. Another thing I found to be really strange is the beginning which shows the sculptor fondling a statue of the model and thus giving her phantom caresses, voodoo- style. This strange ability of his is never mentioned again, aside maybe from the very final scene, but it's still unclear how it fits into the initial scene, or if it does fit at all.The music is mostly composed of creepy ambiental sounds and a cool short jingle which plays 2-3 times, but the sets are another thing. This movie has one of the craziest sets I've ever seen. A claustrophobic warehouse with free-form artificial lighting. This hideout of the titular character has two huge sculptures of naked female bodies in the middle of the main room, and giant body parts made out of clay hanging on walls (eyes, noses, arms, boobs, legs...). It's pretty crazy. I wonder what went through the heads of those who were in charge of producing these setpieces.

I was in the same boat as I'm guessing most of the people reading this are; how shocking can a movie from the 60's be? Very shocking, is what I'd say in regards to Blind Beast.The plot for the majority of the film involves a blind sculptor kidnapping a young model, and locking her in his weird studio. The model then spends most of the remainder of the film trying to get out, in different ways. Then, for some reason, the last twenty minutes are almost completely different to the rest of the film, turning way more art-house and also more exploitative, disturbing, and even bordering on pinku.What stands about Blind Beast is how proficient the whole thing looks. Other then one or two things (such as small televisions), Blind Beast could be released now and it would still look modern. The studio room where most of the film takes place is amazing, with the walls obscured with life-size stone limbs and other giant body parts, and the two behemothic sculptures in the centre of the room. The acting is also very good, especially the blind guy.I went into Blind Beast not knowing what to expect, and came out pleasantly surprised. It succeeds as a stylish but creepy and ultimately freaky Japenese film, and did it all without a lot of nudity or blood.7/10

A tortured blind sculptor kidnaps a beautiful female model and forces her to pose for the perfect sculpture. Even though this film only has a few characters in a couple settings, it has some very fascinating and unsettling set designs. The room where the sculptor works on his art is impressive, to say the least. As for the subject matter, I was surprised at how much ahead of its time it was. My only problem with the film is that the few characters in it aren't fleshed out enough. This makes some of the character transitions seem unbelievable or even goofy at times. So perhaps it could have been a bit longer with better characterization. Otherwise, this is a good, original, and shocking dramatic horror.