Adult Swim's Uzumaki is a grotesque and beautifully rendered adaptation

Adult Swim's highly anticipated adaptation of Junji Ito's brilliant and extraordinarily disturbing body horror story Uzumaki has finally premiered, and we have good news. The anime is incredible, lovingly, and painstakingly animated by people who quite clearly have a genuine love and appreciation for the medium and Ito's work.

It has been years in the making, but Uzumaki was well worth the wait. Only one episode has been released thus far, and the show perfectly captures the ominous, creeping dread apparent in the original manga, along with the skin-crawling body horror. The first episode features several iconic frames drawn straight from Ito's mind and then animated into something horrific. Imagery so visceral it'll be hard to forget, like the death of Shuichi's father and Azami's growing forehead scar.

Set in a quiet Japanese town, Uzumaki follows the residents as they become increasingly drawn into an onslaught of spirals turning up literally everywhere. People become drawn to them, desperate to become spirals themselves. Some people are obsessive in the other direction, too, terrified of letting spirals get close to them to the point they start self-mutilating themselves to remove anything bearing a similar resemblance from their bodies.

If you're going into this show looking for a different take on the story, then you won't find that here. This beautifully rendered anime plays out in all of its grotesque glory, directly adapting the source material without aimlessly trying to add something different or new. Uzumaki is a horror classic for a good reason, so I'm glad that the anime reflects the story exactly as Ito illustrated. There are images in this show that you'll never unsee, and now they're fully fleshed out and animated, elevating the horror to an entrancing new level.

Whether you're new to the world of Uzumaki or you've been eagerly waiting for this version to hit screens, there is plenty to enjoy here for horror fans, especially those looking to get disturbed by more literal twists and turns than you could ever imagine.

New episodes of Uzumaki air Saturday nights at 12:30 a.m. ET. To stay up to date on thrillers, sci-fi, and horror, bookmark 1428 Elm and follow our Facebook page and Twitter account!