‘Gloriously nauseating’ horror you've never seen is 'most bizarre film ever' and is free to watch
A ‘gloriously nauseating’ horror film has been featured on a list of underrated free-to-watch movies, and it has some wild production stories from its uber-cheap production.
This horror film is a wicked watch according to fans, with reviews ranging between calling it the ‘most bizarre’ and ‘most gross’ film ever. Unsettling key scenes were actually even filmed in public with real audience reactions.
The title of ‘most bizarre’ or ‘most unsettling’ is thrown around a lot when it comes to movies, but this Japanese horror is one of the few that can actually live up to that lofty title.
Directed by Shozin Fukui, the movie follows a Cyborg sex slave who is disposed with his memory wiped, only to be hunted down when he is able to regain his memories.
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Called 964 Pinocchio, the story has some incredibly bizarre and racy X-Rated twists to it (which are too graphic to even be included in this article) but suffice to say: you won’t be able to predict how weird they are.
The lobotomised sex slave is on the run from an evil corporation when he is befriended a ‘criminally insane homeless girl’ and is a stomach-churningly gruesome time.
964 Pinocchio was made on a shoestring budget, starting off with the equivalent of £45,000, running out of money halfway through filming.
One iconic scene in which Pinocchio 964 escapes and goes running through the streets of Tokyo was actually filmed in the busy city centre with no permission or permits.
This was the case for multiple scenes of filming with the crew perpetually in a rush to hurry up shots so they didn’t get arrested by police. Several scenes show passersby screaming in fear at Pinocchio running through the streets, moments that were fully undirected and simply everyday people in Japan being shocked at the site of a bloody man tied up with white face paint and a mohawk running through the city centre hollering.
Fukui spoke about the guerilla filming tactics they used for the film in a 2025 interview with Dazed, stating that they took inspiration from Sam Raimi’s The Evil Dead.
He revealed that for many of the movie’s tracking shots they put a camera on top of a borrow wheelchair and to promote the movie they had the film’s title painted on the side of the van used for filming.
Filming for the movie was intense, with the director revealing that they shot non-stop for six months. One particularly wild story from production involved Fukui and a producer crashing their car after nodding off at the wheel after pulling multiple all-nighters in a row.Both were taken to hospital where they continued filming scenes for the movie.
The movie was included in a recent viral Instagram post listing ‘10 screwed up films on Internet Archive’, a free online resource that contains multiple films.
964 Pinocchio stood out for some of the commenters, with one saying: “964 Pinocchio is insanity recorded live.”
All over the internet however horror fans hype up the film as an equal-parts disturbing and interesting movie despite its pitiful budget. One comment said: “I was severely disturbed and honestly sick to my stomach the while way through, the way the sex slave cyborg gets treated left me just more disgusted and distressed than anything I’ve ever seen has.
“When he would ask for help while all chained up i think my heart actually broke. And I am a lifelong enjoyer of disturbing movies, I literally seek them out 24/7.”
Another thread called it the ‘most disturbing movie ever’, whilst a Letterboxd five star review says: “I am disgusted, I am confused, I am awe-struck, I am appalled, I am in love. This movie is NASTY.
“A gloriously nauseating, unrelentlessly crazy, charmingly bizarre piece of underground Japanese Cyberpunk Insanity.”
964 Pinocchio is available to watch for free on Internet Archive and YouTube.
Topics: TV and Film, Film
Michael Slavin