American Guinea Pig: The Song of Solomon (2017) User Reviews

This song is far from pitch-perfect.

[BA_Harrison · 4/10 · 17 October 2018]

The Song of Solomon is a bit of a departure for the American Guinea Pig series: instead of virtually plot-free systematic torture, the film depicts the exorcism of a young woman, Mary (Jessica Cameron), by a series of Catholic priests, which, in true Unearthed Films style, results in lots of gory mayhem. In fact, director Stephen Biro piles on so much splatter that his film becomes comedic in its excess, which I don't believe was the intention.

For me, the gore that broke the camel's back was a scene clearly inspired by Fulci's Gates of Hell (AKA City of the Living Dead), wherein Mary yarfs up her insides. After a lot of reaching, up come her small intestines-but wait, there's more: a couple of organs are thrown up onto her bed in a bloody heap, followed by a large intestine. But Biro doesn't stop there... he has Mary pick up each glistening organ and stuff them back into her mouth one-by-one. This goes on for so long that it's hard to take seriously. Also giving me the giggles is the moment when the final priest gives up reading stuff from his Little Book of Exorcism and climbs on top of Mary to hump the demon out of her - it's supposed to be shocking (I think), but I couldn't keep a straight face.

The best moment comes towards the end of the film (just before the humping), when Mary's contorted limbs snap and split open (sterling work by make-up effects guys Jerami Cruise and Marcus Koch) - that part was as close to revolting as it gets - but the rest of the film is just a poor man's The Exorcist with much more blood and a silly 'twist' ending.

Some good gore, nothing else going for it.

[sNate87 · 3/10 · 30 April 2019]

I think my biggest issue with this movie is that it tries way too hard to be serious, but none of the acting is good enough to be taken even remotely seriously. If it had even taken a couple brief moments to make a light joke here and there, so we know not to take it so serious, it could've helped it a tad. The bad actors overacting resulted in a lot of unintentional comedy.

The fact we did not see the possessed girl before the possession, in an innocent state, also lessened the effect in my opinion. Not like I wanted this film to be any longer than it already was, but I felt like I kept getting introduced to more and more new characters that I just didn't care about or know enough about to care, when I didn't even know anything about the lead girl in the first place. That makes for a pretty big chore to sit through this one.

But I don't believe they were concerned much with character development anyway, they were much more concerned with the splatter. Which is totally fine! I love gore flicks. There are a few fine displays of effect work in this film. The finale was rather impressive in that aspect. But when there's nothing else going for it, and the film just isn't good enough to believable, I feel the impact of the gore is also lessened.

With some better actors, maybe this movie would have succeeded for me. But as is, it should've known to keep it's tongue firmly in cheek so the viewer could've had a more enjoyable time with it.

Real crap

[hangmen-09301 · 1/10 · 7 June 2019]

Could a film be much worse?... Ummm NO. I won't reiterate what's already been rightfully said about, the acting, stealing of scenes from other films ect. It's all true. And almost impossible to sit through. I'd give it a negative number except for the trooper performance by the actress trying to make something out of leftovers. I'm sure you'll have to see it now, but do yourself a favor. Find the boots or, as many have had their fill quickly, used copes for a couple bucks. Move along nothing to see here

The worst exorcism film ever, And quite possibly the worst film of 2017

[tkaine3 · 2/10 · 31 December 2018]

Where do I begin with this pathetic third installment of the American guinea pig films. The horrendous acting or the lamest dialogue ever written. I felt insulted for being tricked into watching this C-movie. I wish I could remember the reviewers name who actually said this was a pretty good film because I would put his ass on blast, He needs to quit giving advice immediately because he has no clue when a film is a crock of Sh$%. One of these user reviews stated this film was far fetched but that was too kind for this abomination. How can a movie even be made about priests performing exorcisms without the writers or directors who are obviously not religious do no research on the topic at hand. I mean the lords prayer was the only prayer said through the whole movie and they did it 10 times as if a priest only knows 1 prayer (Our father who art in heaven) That's a dead giveaway to anybody who worships that you are not well versed in God's word, And for a priest to appear in that fashion crushes any belief that he possesses faith. The special effects were the worst I've seen from the guinea pig collection long drawn out moans and character reactions were abhorrent and comical at best and it really does a disservice to the first "American Guinea Pig" which by all accounts was the best one because atleast it attempted to look some what real with an OK dialogue but if this is the first Guinea pig film someone gets to see they will never attempt to watch another. I forced myself to sit and watch these 82 mins. Of my life being wasted because I wanted to be totally sure this atrocity was from start to finish and I was right. At one point I broke out into laughter because the possessed girl started singing which I guess was the song of soloman and all of a sudden it turned into a musical. Please do yourself a favor and do not waste almost an hour and a half watching this way below average pile of garbage because that's why I wrote this review to save you from wasted time. And yes you are welcome in advance.

A New Direction for the Series, Still Delivering the Goods!

[Matthew-traugh · 7/10 · 18 August 2018]

The Guinea Pig films were a series of pictures that spanned across the mid 80s into the early 90s that gained infamous attention and notoriety for being some of the most graphic and extreme films to come out of the Japanese underground at the time. The series quickly gained a cult following, and with it came controversy, criminal investigation, and ultimately legal banishment. It is now illegal to produce films in Japan under the Guinea Pig title. This is where the American Guinea Pig series comes in.

Stephan Biro, the man responsible for giving the Guinea Pig films there first and only official home video release in the United States also gained the rights to the Guinea Pig name, and in 2014 started the American Guinea Pig series with his release of Bouquet of Guts and Gore. A pseudo snuff film that connects the original Guinea Pig series with its now American counterpart. The most infamous film from the original Guinea Pig series, Flower of Flesh and Blood, was said to be inspired by a genuine snuff film that director Hideshi Hino had received in the mail years before. Biro's Bouquet is supposed to be that very film that Hino received in the mail, making the American series a kind of prequel to the original Japanese films.

This connection and homage to the original series has been a running theme with nearly every American Guinea Pig release. As just mentioned, American Guinea Pig: Bouquet of Guts and Gore shares connections with Flower of Flesh and Blood. American Guinea Pig: Bloodshock nods its head to the original Guinea Pig classic, The Devil's Experiment. American Guinea Pig: Sacrifice shares uncanny similarities to the original Guinea Pig film, He Never Dies. The Song of Solomon on the other is the first film in the series to deviate from this attachment to the films of yesteryear. This is the first time in the American Guinea Pig series that a release came out that did not hold some kind of correlation with the original series. Nonetheless, this is one of the best films to come out of the series thus far.

As with much of the original Guinea Pig films, narrative comes secondary to the exhibition of graphic violence and gore. The first two films to come out of the original Japanese series held virtually no plot at all. The American series followed this model with the releases of Bouquet and Sacrifice. All of these pictures centered their focus on graphic presentations of violence, only holding enough plot to bring us to scenes of grotesque displays of the macabre. That does not mean that every film out of the Guinea Pig series were all void of plot. The original Guinea Pig film, Mermaid in a Manhole, is a prime example of superb story telling. The American Guinea Pig series' first attempt at a traditional narrative structure, with its release of Bloodshock, was a good endeavor, but ultimately a weak execution. Poor acting and debatable directorial choices resulted in a film that was often funny when it was trying to be serious, and ultimately did not pack the punch it was so desperately winding up for.

Fortunately, the same cannot be said for The Song of Solomon. Whatever was in the way during their first attempt is behind them now, and The Song of Solomon packs a strong enough punch to leave you eating the rest of your meals through a straw. The acting in this picture is significantly better. An though at times the dialog feels a little forced, the lead actors are clearly professionals and know how to make it work. There are some weaker performances in this film, most notably by the actress who plays the mother, along with whoever plays the doctor, but that is to be expected with any low budget indie project. Additionally, Solomon sets a tone and atmosphere that Bloodshock was so desperately trying to pull off, but couldn't. With these to factors, Solomon is able to dilute the few occasions bad acting or weak points in the film, making these flaws easily dismissible, and allowing the film's narrative to roll forward with little distraction. Resulting in an over all powerful and interesting picture.

In regards to the violence, and lets face it, that is why you are watching an American Guinea Pig film, Solomon delivers. This is likely to be the most gruesome and graphic exorcist film that you will ever see. That is to be expected considering Oddtopsy FX (Bouquet of Guts and Gore) and Toe Tag Pictures (August Underground trilogy) were behind the special effects for this picture.

All in all, you may feel like the exorcist genre is a tired and played out theme, and that very well may be true, but if you are ready to put that genre to rest I recommend going out with a bang with this one. If you are a fan of underground horror and extreme gore, this is one to set your eyes on.

Exreme Horror or a joke

[hangmen-09301 · 1/10 · 21 October 2018]

Don't even know how to begin this review of American Guinea Pig Song of Solomon. The lead actress did an admirable job, but ultimately can't carry a horrible movie. Cobbled together from 5 or 6 other films and would have been better served claiming to be a spoof rather than extreme horror. The 13 Hangman were all laughing hysterically by less than 2 min. in. The suicide of the father was directly from the Jim Carrey school of overacting. And so ridiculous, you have to laugh. Then march in the wooden, stiff priests, one after another, seeming to read lines from cue cards. Nothing original. Scenes stole from The Exorcist, City of the Dead, Street Trash, The Manitou and even a complete line stolen from The Omen 2. Touted as 100% real exorcism while ignoring the fact that a real priests first rule is not to engage the demon, even as far as the very stiff War Priest, upon entering asked the possessed, if you don't mind, where did they leave off, referring to the exorcism. Oh my god, Really? This is Riff Trax fodder. The special FX are spotty. Some ok, and some again laughable. The vomit scene was hilarious and no where near the quality of Fulci City of the Dead. The Birthing scene was again laughable, as the the broken skin flops around rubbery and the baby, which was clawing to get out, (ala the Manitou) is so obviously a rubber doll, is worse than anything ever seen. Camera work is shakey, even in a stopped car, lighting is horrible. You have to feel bad for the lead actress to carry on in this travesty. Ultimately the only thing missing would have been Leslie Nielsen as a priest. Final vote from the 13 Hangman 9 votes worst movie ever. 3 votes just plain bad 1 vote meh it was ok We did it all for you (SOH)

If You Like Trash Directed By Terrible People Look No Further

[DontLookBehindYou · 26 May 2020]

There aren't enough words in the English language to describe just how awful this film is. Completely devoid of substance and lacking of any redeeming quality. Not to mention what an awful person the director is. Absolutely nothing worth anything here.

Fans of the series, exorcism/possession films, low budget independent horror films, and of course blood and gore films will not be disappointed

[KarlFranksMrGeeky · 7/10 · 19 April 2019]

My spoiler free review for The Bloody Asylum that can be found at WordPress, Mr Geeky blog:

The American Guinea Pig series of films, produced by Unearthed Films, are an homage to the hugely controversial Japanese Guinea Pig films of the 1980s and 1990s, a series of extreme horror films that pushed boundaries with their graphic depictions of brutality, violence, blood, and gore, leading them to being banned in many countries to this day. Unearthed Films distributed the films in the US in the early 2000s, then when the use of the Guinea Pig name was made illegal in Japan they purchased the rights to the name. The first film produced in the American Guinea Pig series was "Bouquet of Blood and Gore" this was followed up by "Bloodshock". The third film in the series "The Song of Solomon" is produced, written, and directed by Stephen Biro, co-founder and CEO of Unearthed Films. The first of the series to have far more of a story and narrative structure. An exorcism/possession film as only Unearthed films could produce.

Stephen Biro's solid writing and directing is complimented by film-makers who so obviously have a passion for extreme horror as he does, all wanting to do something different with the exorcism/possession genre. They certainly have with The Song of Solomon, a low budget film that is far more accomplished than many mainstream studio horror films of recent years. Even more impressive is that it was produced on a very small fraction of the budgets of those films. The film-makers understand how to combine sound, music, visuals, and editing to good effect to create an effective atmosphere, not falling back on cheap jump scares as many horror films tend to do nowadays. For the most part there is an unnerving feeling of mounting dread and tension throughout the entire film, interspersed with shocking scenes of extreme blood and gore. These effects are all achieved through hugely impressive practical effects by Marcus Koch of Oddtopsy FX (We Are Still Here) and Jerami Cruise of TOETAG EFX (Tales of Halloween, Murder Set Pieces) that never overwhelm the other aspects of the film, although for those who are familiar with Unearthed Films, and are watching for those blood and gore scenes they will definitely not be disappointed.

By making The Song of Solomon a part of the American Guinea Pig series it somewhat hinders expectations because the resulting film is far more than just a blood and gore film. However, the series is exactly as the Japanese originals were, becoming far more story and character based with the latter films. Regardless of how accurate the actual exorcism ritual scenes are, a great amount of research was undertaken to ensure those scenes were in fact as realistic as they could be. In the context of the film they are extremely effective, with a lot of the credit going to JESSICA CAMERON as Mary the victim of possession, the standout performance of the entire film. Her portrayal is committed, fearless, and most of all disturbing. Moving effortlessly from innocent to being genuinely unnerving, and very convincing. Almost at times making it feel as if there is a demon inside her. Taking into account that she has gone on record as saying she feels she is not the best of actors. Here she without a doubt proved herself wrong. However, more of an introduction in the initial set up of the film to Mary and her family rather than the film picking up the story after she has been possessed would have added more of an emotional impact to her performance and so accentuated the horrors that unfold as the film progressed, especially the opening scenes, but Jessica Cameron did enough in the few early scenes to invest enough depth into her character to give the film an emotional edge.

There are some unexpected twists and turns with the story and characters, especially in the depictions of the priests, particularly Gene Palubicki in his first major film role, who also composed some of the superb music for the film. David E. McMahon is very impressive, having maybe one of the most controversial scenes in the film. Jim Van Bebber is also very effective when the extreme scenes of the exorcism kick in.

The film has some faults, a far grittier look and feel with stronger acting at times would have heightened the impact of the film. Although it is extremely impressive what was achieved on a very low budget, with the skill of the film-makers and particularly Jessica Cameron's performance balancing out the weaker elements of the film.

The Song of Solomon for the most part is an assured film and pretty much did what a horror film should do. Creepy, unsettling, and disturbing, added to that is of course the gut wrenching blood and gore that is to be expected from an American Guinea Pig film.

Fans of the series, exorcism/possession films, low budget independent horror films, and of course blood and gore films will not be disappointed.

Not Today Satan

[Ryan_Malkavian · 2/10 · 25 September 2023]

I made it 50 minutes and turned it of. Everything ab out this was so, so bad. They would have done much better if they had just taken the easy path and tried to make this a comedy. I think the person who played Mary was the best actor, and she was not that great. Everything about this was equally awful. The items the priests were wearing as well as their cleric jewelry and other items they adorned or used look like halloween costumes. I guess they weren't the worst costumes I'd seen, but, still awful. And the scenes that required anyone to speak anything other than English.. again, awful. It looked like they probably did their best to nail those lines during filming, but sound was quite obviously dubbed for the non-English lines, and you could tell by the way it sounded that it was dubbed and voiced over.

This is probably a 1 or 1.5 but honestly out of the kindness of my heart I gave it 2 stars for the simple fact that at least there was consistency! Consistently awful.

One Amazing film , best possession film in years

[darkoneskip · 7/10 · 8 March 2019]

Stephen Biro did an amazing job on this he did a study on exorcism from what im told. He really dove into this with the intention to really do it right, i can truely say its an amazing job ! I was very surprised to see what he did on his budget , makes you wonder what he can do for a Hollywood budget haha. Imagine if you draw a line in the sand as to what you can do in a possession film ..well Steven crossed all those lines with this one. Also Jim Van bebber did a hell of a job as always,love that guy. I felt going in what with all the possession movies he cant do a fresh film. Well he proved that thought wrong. 7 stars ! This and the other AGP series are pretty solid exteme Horror films. Cheers & kudos to one and all involved .

Had potential but fell short

[thepearlpoint · 3/10 · 3 June 2021]

I'm a huge fan of Guinea Pig so i've decided to start watching American Guinea Pig as well. And... this one is... something... it has a nice idea to show creative gore scenes and possession but the acting and story kinda makes it fall flat for me. The actors and actresses just kinda feel stale and lifeless.

It did have some pretty horrific gore scenes though. But a few scenes were dragged out, for instance, the intestine vomiting scene lasts a good ~5 or so minutes. Really could've been cut shorter but they dragged it out so it didn't shock as well for me.

It's a nice love letter to Guinea Pig but don't expect anything amazing.

To far fetched

[arlenemorris-33294 · 3/10 · 16 October 2018]

Very disappointed it's to far fetched &so far away from a proper exorcism it's unreal!! To much holly wood & not enough realism. very dissapointed with this movie

This was amazing. A must see idie film

[darkoneskip · 7/10 · 21 February 2019]

I loved this the fact you can say they crosswd the line in some parts is an understatement, now acting is an 8 maybe 9 out of 10. Spfx are practical spfx but are gone very well. Ill say steve Biro did an outstanding possession film better then some multi million dollar ones too. Could only imagine if steve had a million dollar budget it qould be amazing . But thos lives up to any and all possession films. Unearthed is really moving up the latter. Sacrafice qas great too.