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I'm into horror mainly, but I do watch a lot of other stuff too. I have quite a selection of slashers and gore movies, and even some extreme horror movies. My favorite directors would be Lucio Fulci, Nick Palumbo, Dario Argento, Ruggero Deadato.. to name a few. I guess you'll see more about me on the Boards and my film interests. I should be doing a lot of reviews on the more notorious and low budget horror films, and some other films of interest. I might take a comment on the boards if I see something that I want to reply to, but for now it's reviews for me ;)
If you have a question about some of the movies I've reviewed or a particular horror film, give me a PM and I'll try my best to answer.
Good day, folks.
Reviews
The Human Centipede II (Full Sequence) (2011)
Not to be taken serious.. really
The Human Centipede 2: Full Sequence follows the story of a London car park security attendant, who, lives a very bleak and dull life in his flat with his mother, coupled with bearing the noise and abuse from his neighbour above. Not only that but Martin is also obsessed over the DVD of "The Human Centipede", which he watches repeatedly and endlessly on his laptop at work; and at home he keeps a collection of cuttings and screen shots of the movie in his scrapbook. Even taking to the extremes of.. using sandpaper and getting off while watching it. Using sandpaper while getting off is just.. something else. He must have been sore.. anyway. It also becomes clear during the movie, that Martin has suffered some form of serious sexual abuse from his father which indeed has played a large part in his psychological state of torment. Martin's obsession soon turns into reality, when he drastically decides to re-create the events from the original movie. Only this time, he is no doctor, there's no surgical procedure with Martin, he mutilates and butchers his victims to attach them anus to mouth with simple tools: hammers, stapler, pliers, cutting tools and the rest! Oh, did I mention he does use a screen shot of the original movie's procedure to help him on a bit? Yeah. The guy who plays the role as Martin? Just perfect. His acting in this role was simply amazing.
The Human Centipede 2: Full Sequence is definitely a very grim and dark movie. It is in black and white, which seems to fit in perfectly with the grim and dark tone. When I first heard it was black and white, I wasn't going to actually watch it, but Tom Six definitely made the right choice, although apparently having been shot in colour. It works very well. With the first movie, very little of the detail was actually shown. The actual procedure wasn't graphic at all, with just a few bits shown here and there, and then kaboom! A human centipede is before your eyes. In this sequel, there's nothing really left to your imagination. It's like part 1 all over again (Well with a mad man wanting to create a human centipede!), except a lot more extreme and sadistic. No punches are pulled in its depiction of showing barbaric, cruel violence. Not only that, but Martin takes a lot of pleasure in seeing his work of... art maybe? Well let's just say Martin sees it as art anyway.
In saying all that, the movie's not to be taken serious. If you're going to watch this movie, knowingly what it's about, who are you to complain about it? You watched it - deal with it. I mean, sure it's graphic and there's literally sh*t in your face all the time... but hey, that's what you get when you try creating a human centipede like Marty boy! If you decide to watch it, my advice? Watch part 1 first, and if you think it's obscene, nasty, and vulgar, then you definitely avoid this part at all costs. If you loved part 1, and didn't take the movie serious, but just a good horror movie, then you'll be happy to view Martin's idea of his Human Centipede! Watch with caution, though, and not with a plate of food with you.
I must say, The Human Centipede 2 is a refreshing piece of film-making! I give it 8/10. Truly grim, and kept me watching to the end.
Eaten Alive (1976)
"Old Judd ain't gonna hurt you, no siree he won't!"
My review of this movie is based on the VIPCO DVD release which is uncut, full-screen and is titled Death Trap. Though, I think not many people have heard of this film, it seems to have gone relatively unheard of, and is hard enough to find on DVD inside stores unless you order online.
Death Trap tells the story of this deranged mad man who owns this run down, old hotel in the middle of basically no where - it looks like somewhere in the 3rd world it's that much run down. Under the hotel is an old swamp which holds a 'gator that feeds on most of the guests. The hotel looks like it hasn't been cleaned in years, and everything about it just looks horrible, yes, including its owner, "Old Judd". Judd seems to have some(!?) psychological problems, or probably to be more accurate, suffers from insanity. He randomly talks to himself about some unfair justice he has got done to him, or references that relate to people thinking he's insane, which they'd be right to think. Presumably the people he talks about is past guests and other random folk he has killed either by plunging them into his pet alligator or people he has used his pitch fork on. Judd is as far over the moon as you can imagine. But, I don't know if anyone else has realised that it's not only Judd who has major issues, most of the guests that comes to his hotel also seems to have huge issues, like Judd himself. The whole film's characters always seem one short of a six pack, with the exception of a very few.
The movie comes from the director of the classic Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Tobe Hopper. It also stars, yes, a very young Freddy Kruger, that is Robert Englund. By watching both "Chainsaw" and this you can certainly see some similarities in the movies eg, camera work, music, overall tone and context etc. Death Trap in particular, has a disturbing sense of threat and violence throughout much like "Chainsaw" but I'd say even more so. When there's no violence on screen it's almost like you can feel something is going to happen at any minute. Though, in Death Trap the violence is more on-screen than shown off-screen like "Chainsaw". Compared to most gory films, I'd say Death Trap is more violent because the violence shown is more realistic and is sometimes hard to stomach. It's more physical, if you can get what I mean. It's not softened down in any way and doesn't go over the top that much to make it look fake like most gory films do. There's also a sense of threatening violence to a child, which I'm surprised didn't get the movie more censor attention than "Chainsaw", but there you go. As with "Chainsaw" Death Trap features some old country music, which is well suited to the movie, and I have to say I actually liked the music in it, and the film's own soundtrack. The film's own soundtrack is very similar to The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and lends it its eerie menacing threatening atmosphere.
If you liked The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and want to see more work from the man behind it, then you should certainly check out Death Trap. The film has many other titles, which you can find elsewhere on this IMDb page. Overall, it's not a bad film, but will require some viewer attention and patience and it does run at its own slow pace. More than often the film just focus' on Judd's random nonsense he sprouts out, and it's at these parts you need the patience to put up with it. It gets a good 6 out of 10 from me.
Srpski film (2010)
Pointless, and tries its best to be shocking under a guise
I first watched A Serbian Film uncut once, online, and then after that, it was removed from the site it was on (which was a good job, considering the site is very popular and has an under 18/21 audience). Was I shocked by it? No. Did I find it interesting or thought-provoking? Not at all. Am I a lover of a horror films? You bet. So now you must be wondering, well why did I watch A Serbian Film knowing what it was about then come on here and give it a bum rap. Well. I heard of it through friends and websites, and being a lover of horror movies, and a fan that likes to "have seen it all" I obviously was going to watch A Serbian Film sooner or later. First of, don't get me wrong, it's not the violence in this movie that makes me dislike it, it's how they tried to be so over the top about it, and in doing so, it makes it look like a futile piece of crap. Not including the film's so called "political statement" that is really only a guise for it to show its cheap scenes.
Apparently, the movie is meant to show, or well, be an allegory as to how Serbian people are forced into doing things, am I getting this right or what? How their Government is meant to be controlling & how violent Serbia is? But all I seen was rape after rape in this so called movie that is trying to make this important "political statement", but we know underneath that's just a guise for its cheap exploitative purpose. For those who don't know, A Serbian Film is about this guy called Milos, a retired porn star, who is lured out into a black market porn industry with an offer for money. He has no idea what he will be doing, until he agrees to it, and thus the film begins there. Milos is dragged into various acts of sexual torture and violence. But as with most of the violence in the movie, it's over the top, and obviously, makes it look cheap and flawed.
Sure, I ain't gonna lie, it's reasonably realistic (except the fake penis), but it's just one of those films were it has been so overly done, it's poor and the real purpose behind it is made clear in that. Of course the film seems to have gained a backing now of everyone that thinks it's the most violent movie in history. Well, it sure has a good attempt at this, but no, it's not.
August Underground's Mordum does a far better job, and at least, it's not trying to hide its exploitative purpose like this movie tries its hardest at. A Serbian Film, in my opinion, is not a statement about anything. It's just another over the top exploitation film, which, might have gotten a higher rating from me, if the people who made it didn't make a guise for the over the top scenes in it, which is exploitative.
There's one DVD release of it to date, and it's a UK release. It's not uncut, and I don't suspect it will be uncut for a long, long time. If you like violence, sure give it a go, but please, don't be fooled into this whole allegory about Serbia - it's just another exploitation film.
The Burning (1981)
A slasher fan's treat!
This review is intended for the uncut version of The Burning, 1981, UK VIPCO DVD version.
Alright, I just have to say that I love this film. Some people hate it, some people claim it's too slow (which I talk about later) to start and whatever, but The Burning is absolutely one of my favourite movies of all time, and not just slasher wise. The DVD version I have is a gritty UK version, this isn't to say I don't own the US remastered version as I do. For some reason, I prefer the dark, gritty UK version, don't ask me why, I just do. Anyway, on with the review. What is The Burning all about? It's a simple enough story really, but very well made. A caretaker at a summer camp gets a prank played on him that at first seems relatively just for kicks, but it goes horribly wrong, and this poor guy, called Cropsy, is left disfigured after being burned, for the rest of his life. Does he take it laying down? You bet he doesn't! 5 years later Cropsy returns to the summer camp... and well, if you haven't watched it yet, what are you waiting for? The premise of the film is simple, but the excellent score and slasher killings, is not! The Burning just has everything that a typical 80's slasher film should have, or come to that, EVERY slasher film. The music is excellent, and it adds a frightening & tense dimension to the film. The gore and graphic bloody scenes are relatively really realistic for a movie of its age, thanks to Mr. Tom Savini. And at times, there can be some jump moments if you haven't seen it before. The only minor thing that lets The Burning down a little, as I mentioned earlier, is the fact that there is so many repeated 'false kills' before the film actually gets back to Cropsy's revenge. After the first 20 minutes of the film, it does come quite slowed down, and unfortunately for some it may be too long to hold the film together for some slasher fans & gore addicts. I have to admit during the 20-25 minutes of repeated false scares and kills can get quite tiresome and you end up thinking, "well what the hell is going on here? is he just going to keep watching and looking at them?" but in saying that, you get to know the characters and the kids at the camp well before they're brutally slayed. So I guess there is some merits in having the flat out 'no kill for the next 30 minutes' segment.
The Burning won't be to everyone's tastes in movies, and maybe not all slasher fans will love it, but I am guessing that the majority who have seen the film and are slasher fans and horror fans, will have loved it. I certainly did, and if you haven't yet seen this, it's time you get yourself a copy! I think I might even watch it tonight! Ciao! 7/10 from me. The only things that makes it lose points is the slow down in the middle and the overly repeated false scares and kills.
I Spit on Your Grave (2010)
Stands on its own feet.
This review MAY contain spoilers or important plot details that may spoil the movie for you. If you haven't watched it, you may want to stop reading now. This review is intended for the US Unrated version of the film which my review/comments are based on.
Now that's over with, here we have the remake of the 1978 film, I Spit on Your Grave. Man, who would ever have thought this film would have been remade? I certainly never did. For those who have seen the original, you'd understand what I mean, for those who haven't well, you're about to find out. I Spit on Your Grave tells the story of Jennifer Hills. A woman who goes for a break in a cabin to finish writing her novel, but soon finds herself in the hands of the 4 local men at the start, until she runs into the Sheriff. In this remake, it appears these guys have a strong hate for any women from the city, and, this leads to them beating, and raping Jennifer several times. She is humiliated, forced to dance around, and treated like an animal. Although only 2 of the rape scenes appear on-screen, they're unflinching and very harrowing. The abuse of Jennifer lasts for at least a good 30 minutes of on-screen time. What appears to be even more disturbing than the original is the fact that Matthew appears to be even more mentally challenged, and is heavily bullied and pushed around by the other men to take part in their sadistic violence. Every male character in this movie is BAD. There is no exceptions to it really. Would you even believe the sheriff also turns out to be a rapist too? Now that was a real twist. I can't imagine police departments in the US being too happy about this character but hey, there it is. I have to say, the Sheriff was probably the most sadistic character I have ever seen, and without doubt, a man without any morals (All males are in this movie). Here we have a man who participated in raping and beating a woman, but can go home to his wife, and kids, without any guilt or anything. Hell, he can talk to his little girl over the phone while doing this. Now that's what I call messed up. Not to fear though, Jennifer is alive and let me tell you, the revenge she gets is something else. I'll let you be the judge of that.
One thing the film might have forgotten about was the aftermath of the rape, I mean there was barely any of the aftermath shown. It was just, okay this is over, now it's revenge mode. I think there should have been more of the aftermath shown, to justify her revenge - not to say it isn't, it is, but it was an important factor in the original movie.
The thing they did make good use of in this film, was the soundtrack - something the original lacked, big time. The soundtrack to the movie lends it a feeling of threat and suspense from the very beginning. If you didn't see the original, from the opening credits, it's like she's already almost in danger especially when she meets the local men at the gas station.
Seeing how brutal the original was, I would have thought this would be a tame version compared to it but no, this updated remake certainly didn't leave out any of the brutality of the original, and delivers the goods in flying colours. I personally believe this remake is more suited to be a stand-alone title, but it's obviously a remake. It seems remakes these days are getting better, with this and the remake of Last House on the Left, my faith in remakes is almost restored.
If you seen the original, check this out. If you haven't seen the original, CHECK THIS OUT EVEN MORE SO! 3 versions of the film are available. US unrated version is uncut, and the Australian version is also uncut. There's a UK version too, but it's been censored by 43 seconds. I'd go for the US unrated version since this is what I got.
Anyway, excellent remake, good film, definitely for adults only, if you're into horror, watch it.
The Last House on the Left (2009)
A welcome remade version
My review for this film WILL contain spoilers and possible spoilers for the original version of the film. I'd highly suggest if you plan to see the movies for the first time, please discontinue reading until after you have watched them. Now onto my review, enjoy! I've previously said in my other reviews on various titles, I don't normally like remakes because they're normally never nearly as good as the original. Seems to be that this situation is improving as yet another classic horror film gets the remake treatment, and this time is actually quite well made and acted. I've seen both the original and remake versions, but for the purposes of the review I'm just going to review this remake and leave it there. This remake closely follows the original with the storyline and content. For those who have not seen it, or heard of the original Last House on the Left, I shall fill you in before I tell you my thoughts on the movie. In my opinion, watching either version will suffice to see the story as it's told.
The Last House on the Left tells the story of Mari and Paige and their uneventful downfall into the hands of a criminal gang who have escaped from a prison transfer. The criminal gang is wanted for rape, murder, and pedophilia. Mari and Paige are just two normal young adult women, they seem friendly, jokey, and well just two nice girls which makes the events to follow even more disturbing. I'm not implying that if they were "bad" it should have happened to them, but simply expressing that they seemed two easy-going girls who just wanted to have fun. Anyway, Mari meets up with Paige after driving with her family's car to go spend the night at her friend's house. Things soon turn bad though when they meet up with this young kid called Justin (at the store Paige works at) who invites them back to his apartment not expecting to see his criminal father, Krug, turn up again when he has the two young women at his apartment. This is where things go downhill for these two girls, as they meet up with a gang of murderers and rapists - one of whom is actually a young sadistic woman called Sadie who takes pleasure in seeing sadistic torture.
Much like the original Last House on the Left, the scenes of torture and sexual violence are hard to stomach. I couldn't help but feel great sadness & pity for these two young girls as they were assaulted and beat up and just humiliated. The rape scene in particular is pretty disturbing, and left me with a feeling of disgust and sorrow for the mayhem on-screen. The emotional feeling of the rape scene for the victim was intense, it just makes you feel helpless as you can only sit there and watch it. It's like they treat these young women as if they were not living human beings, and just dispose of them as soon as they became "useless" to them. Combined with the fact they were two easy-going young girls, it makes even more the horrifying. Thankfully though, one of the girls supposedly survives her ordeal and revenge is served to the thugs that humiliated and killed one of them. I was happy to see the revenge scenes in this movie, because they most certainly deserved it. The movie easily succeeds in making you want to see the bad guys get their own back on them. It was also nice to see one of the young girls getting help by her family and being taken to care. The young kid Justin did not partake in any of the violence or humiliation of these girls, and was more or less just a puppet for Krug and his gang who abused Justin with violence and the use of drugs.
The original Last House on the Left had pretty much the same emotional impact on me when I first watched it. The villains in this remake do just as good at portraying their characters as the original did. I was surprised they found someone who could portray Krug nearly as well as Hess's performance in the original version. But they did, and he did the portrayal as a bad guy very well indeed. This remake most certainly draws about evens with the original, if not better. It's well acted, realistic, and makes you feel disgust at the bad guys like it should do.
I think the main reasons for me saying the remake is better is the fact that there is actually a somewhat satisfactory ending to this film with the bad guys all getting what they deserve and one of the young victims surviving the ordeal. It made me feel that little bit of happiness to see this poor girl finally get help and reunited with her family. The original had a more darker ending with really no happy ending for the victims as none of them survived.
Needless to say, Last House on the Left is grim, and I've given it a 7 because of the more upbeat ending and how well it has been remade in comparison to other remakes out there. Probably not a movie you want to sit with your family to watch but more of a movie you'll want to watch alone. The violence in it is not pretty folks but none the less I felt compelled to watch it to the very end to see what I'd hope to see.
If you haven't seen the original and just watched this version, I'd pretty much say you don't have to check out the original as this remake is more than enough for the story to be told. Horror buffs will have probably checked out both versions. Think whatever you want here, but my opinion is, this remake is slightly better than the original.
Good day!
The Stepfather (2009)
Very Impressive.
Having not seen the original version of The Stepfather I have to say that normally I'm not a fan of remakes, and usually, yes, I do loathe them because they always tend to be a load of crap (Texas Chainsaw Massacre remakes for example..). However, since I haven't seen the original Stepfather film I can't compare them both, but what I have seen in this remake is something else. I was really, really impressed with this, and I am going to have to seek out the original now to see what it was like.
The Stepfather basically tells the story of "David" - a disturbed man who is apparently normal and caring on the outside but very unstable on the inside, both psychologically and emotionally and one of who lives a lot double lives, looking for recently divorced women to emotionally manipulate them and ultimately, breaks them down and kills them and any immediate family. I always compare him to the girl out of the Orphan because they both have nearly the same tactics at luring people into trusting them - in fact this movie reminded me of Orphan a lot. Anyway, when he senses he may be in danger of having his history found out, "David" takes even more extreme action to cover his steps up a lot quicker than he would normally do. "David" has been doing this many for years, and also has evaded capture from the police by changing his appearance and never using any ID when purchasing, for example a car. He always pays in cash, and always changes his appearance in somewhat way before moving onto his next victim. You may think it's a relatively simple plot, but the movie itself is a lot of fun and suspense. There's also a lot of psychological tension and build up as "David"'s new family become suspicious of his activities and his apparent lack of background information. As the movie progresses, things turn for the worse for the family he has deceived as they become wary of his background.
The acting is first class, and the guy who acts as "David", Dylan Walsh? I think that's his name. He is very convincing in his role. I honestly can't find one bad thing to say about this movie, as I definitely enjoyed it, and the build up of psychological suspense kept me watching until the very end of the credits. All in all it's quite excellent, and I've given it a 9 out of 10, simply losing one point because it is still a remake, but one that is excellent.
If you're a fan of Orphan or indeed, The Strangers, The Stepfather's psychological factors may just peek your interests here. Definitely a must watch at some point. Very enjoyable!
The Toolbox Murders (1978)
Decent slow paced slasher..
Having stated in other reviews I've done that I'm a big fan of slashers and a collector of horror movies, it was pretty obvious, The Toolbox Murders was on my to-review list. I finally got around to watching this movie earlier this year. It had been on my list to watch for a while, but I just didn't get around to it due to whatever reasons, and one of them was, most movies with over blown hype don't live up to expectations. The others were I was just too busy with watching other horror movies I hadn't got watching, but here I am finally after watching it. Whilst The Toolbox Murders certainly didn't live up to its UK "video nasty" status, it was none the less an enjoyable slasher for those who can give it the patience and time it requires. The story unfolds with a series of grisly but relatively not so graphic murders around an apartment block committed by a rather large man in a ski mask. This takes up the first portion of the movie which is around 25 minutes to 30 minutes. The music in the film, is pretty awesome, and that alone has earned it a few extra stars it might not have got had it not of been for the music featured in the movie. I absolutely love the first song played to the first murder scene in the film - it is awesome. Anyway, pretty much after the series of grisly murders which takes place, the movie is slowed down to a crawl in a detective based story to find out what, why and who is doing all these murders. The storyline is not, at best, that great and the movie certainly takes its toll on pace and editing - the latter I believe they didn't do too much of. The acting isn't too bad, but neither is it too good, it's just more or less standard here. As the movie progresses it becomes apparent who the serial killer is, and we get to find out some interesting dialog in the 'bedroom scene' about why he has killed all the people he did, and he tries to justify what he did. The scene itself is interesting to watch, and is probably the best bit of dialog in the whole movie. There's somewhat of a happy ending too.
The Toolbox Murders is just one of these movies where if one little thing had of been left out, it wouldn't have been really worth the watch. In this case, it most certainly goes to the music during the first 40 minutes of the movie, which seems to make the film feel more smoothly. It'll definitely take dedicated fans of the slasher/"video nasty" genre to appreciate it, and to give time to allow the movie to slowly pace along after the first 20 minutes or so. If you can bare with it, and appreciate it, The Toolbox Murders will leave you somewhat entertained. Don't believe all the hype though about how violent or shocking it is, by today's standards the movie is not that explicitly violent. It seems rather tame.
I can't say I didn't enjoy it or I did enjoy it - it falls somewhere in between and I'll probably give The Toolbox Murders a few more viewings before leaving it in the DVD rack for a while. If it had not of featured the music it does have, it'd probably get a 5 from me, but because the music tremendously makes this movie, I've given it a low-end 7.
There's two DVD releases that I know of, and they're the Blue Underground release in the US, and a VIPCO DVD release in the UK. The Blue Underground release has a lot of extra features, is remastered, and is uncut. The VIPCO 2000 UK DVD release is a bare-bones-less-then-average DVD quality release, and is cut by over 1 minute which removes the scene of the girl getting shot in the back and head with the nail gun, and the entire scene where she's in the bedroom pleading with the killer. So I think it's obvious which DVD release to go for. Though, by today's standards, the movie should pass for an '18' in the UK uncut with ease.
As I said, it requires patience and understanding to enjoy the movie.
Ultimo mondo cannibale (1977)
Excellent & Enjoyable Cannibal Adventure film.
Well, I've seen a brave few cannibal movies, but unfortunately I only own about 3 cannibal movies in their full uncut versions. This includes, Cannibal Ferox, Cannibal Holocaust, and the title I'm reviewing right now, Last Cannibal World. The film has numerous titles from country to country, and probably the most other known title it goes by is Jungle Holocaust. For the purposes of my review, the uncut DVD version I have of it, is known as Last Cannibal World from 'Shock DVD' in Europe. Nope not Shriek Collection DVD in the US, or the UK version, it's from a label called Shock DVD.
Last Cannibal World starts of with an oil prospector (Robert Harper), and his two other friends (Ralf and the pilot Charlie) on board a light airplane who are flying deep into some unknown jungle to find their oil prospector crew who have set up a camp in the jungle. Upon a rough landing they soon discover there is no signs of their party anywhere, and as they adventure more into the jungle they realize that the crew they were looking for is probably dead. Robert and his friend Ralf soon find themselves lost and stranded - and evidence of a primitive stone-age cannibal tribe that have been living in the jungle for quite some time. As the two, after the pilot being caught in a trap and killed, try to make it back to the plane to get out again, become lost and eventually, get separated. This is where the adventure begins. They both find themselves lost, in a huge jungle, with no signs where to go to, or what to do. The main focus is put on Robert who goes about various parts of the jungle looking for a way out, and food, but soon ends up passing out & waking up after eating some poisoned mushrooms to a bunch of cannibals around him with sticks with large stones at the end of them looking very mystified at him. He is taken prisoner, and striped down and taunted by the cannibals. This is where Robert runs into Pulan (Me Me Lai) - a native girl that appears to taunt Robert sexually in various scenes, and also who is taken by Robert when he escapes from the cannibal tribe after many days of being trapped. Robert eventually gives in from the previous sexual taunting by the native girl and ambiguously rapes her (native style...) when he escapes with her. So without spoiling the movie for you too much (If you haven't watch it yet), I'm going to give insight into what I think of it now.
The movie is full of adventure and fun, and has a nice mix of gore to keep gore hounds happy, and a good mix of cannibal/adventure and nature scenes. The gore effects aren't over the top realistic, but certainly look reasonable for a movie of its time. There are scenes of animal cruelty, but thankfully unlike the most other notorious cannibal films, there isn't that many, in fact only one where the natives are involved in killing of a crocodile. The other scenes are nature scenes involving a snake and a bat, and a few other animals killing each other in it. It's really kept to a minimal though, and Last Cannibal World focuses more on the adventure side of the duo Robert and Ralf with the aid of Pulan trying to find their way out alive. There isn't too many scenes from the middle to the end of the film where you won't see Me Me Lai's (Pulan) breasts & butt, but hey, that can't be a bad thing right? Joking.. or am I. Nevermind. Anyway, Last Cannibal World was certainly a lot more fun to watch than most other cannibal movies I've laid my eyes on. At some points, I admit the movie can feel a little over stretched and long, but it pulls up for this in other parts. For the most part, the acting is very solid from all three of the main protagonists in the movie. Combined with the whole adventurous tone of the movie, the reasonable amount of gory cannibal violence, and lots of female nudity, cannibal fans shouldn't be disappointed by Last Cannibal World. If you don't already know, this movie was directed by Ruggero Deodato long before his masterpiece. Yes, director of Cannibal Holocaust. I believe this movie actually started the whole fad of cannibal movies in 1977 right through until the early 80's when they died down again. It's definitely one to check out.
I believe there is a few uncut DVD versions out there, and some cut versions. The two uncut versions are from Shriek show Collection in the USA titled Jungle Holocaust, and a DVD in Europe from Shock DVD. I think that release is a dutch release, and although the back of the cover is in dutch, it's a pretty nice release which I have. The cut release is from Hardgore in the UK, and basically has the scene of the crocodile being killed edited out, and Robert raping the native girl cut out. So I'd go for either the US or Dutch release.
Whilst Last Cannibal World doesn't live up to the director's Cannibal Holocaust, it most certainly is a must have for any fan of the genre. I've given it an 8, it's fun and lots of adventure - I hope you enjoy it!
The Driller Killer (1979)
A dire film..
Obviously being a huge slasher horror movie fan, and my love for 70's and 80's horror movies (and so called "Video Nasties!") like The Last house on the Left, The New York Ripper, Cannibal Holocaust and so on, it was inevitable I'd run into The Driller Killer sooner or later. The latter movies I mentioned are superbly made horror movies. Unfortunately, I can't bring back the somewhat 96 minutes of my life that I wasted on watching The Driller Killer. Admittingly, I haven't watched The Driller Killer in quite some time, and for the purposes of this review, I am not going to waste another 96 minutes of my life being bored to absolute death, so I'll try my best to remember as much as I can.
The film revolves around struggling and penniless artist named Reno. He has no money and very little of anything else, and the bills (food, telephone, etc) is driving him more and more closer to the edge of breaking point. Not including the area that he lives in has various homeless people in it, and looks run down and depressing (depressing pretty much sums up this movie). The rock band practising their music in the bottom flat below his, drives Reno further over the edge because of his lack of sleep and concentration on whatever he's trying to do or focus on. Suddenly Reno snaps and, as the title of the work suggests, a specific tool is used to cause much mayhem & murder in shabbily done murder sequences. Don't panic, if you're looking for gore - forget it, there's a little but not much.
That's all there is to it. Stretched out in over 96 minutes, The Driller Killer is a movie you'd watch if you want to become a manic depressive or if you're lacking a little sleep, turn it low, and sit back.. don't worry you'll be asleep in no time. The 96 minutes I spent watching it felt like an eternity. The dialog, the whole quality of the film felt cheap and shabby, and the music is nothing more than gibber jabber throughout. Without a doubt, this is one of the most dreadful, dire, tasteless movies I have ever lead eyes on - and no it's not because of how violent or bloody it is, it's because of how badly edited, and how badly the movie is made, it really is bottom of the barrel stuff here. I've seen some pretty cheap "Video nasties" but The Driller Killer out does them all in terms of cheapness and just plain out boring.
Seriously if you want to see this movie, don't even waste more than 50cents on a DVD of it, you'll regret not buying a cheap soda instead. Try your hardest to borrow a copy of a friend. Even better, since the movie is in the public domain, you could probably watch it for free somewhere.
If only IMDb had a -10 rating, this would earn it no problem. Avoid this dire 96 minute tripe at all costs. Dreadful.
Nutbag (2000)
Low budget serial killer fun.
Nutbag is the story of a man who murders, stalks and tortures prostitutes, from the Director of Murder Set Pieces - Nick Palumbo. Inbetween that, he likes to have little chats with his spider, and express his hatred for much of the outside world which he would like to see dead. Yes, Nutbag has a very strong sense of 'hate' throughout, and you can get the feeling of 'anger' from the serial killer throughout the movie. It's a very angry, unsettled movie from the start. If you've seen Murder Set Pieces then you can expect much of the same stuff here, only in a very low budget form, with no actual rape on screen, though there's enough sadistic elements to keep gore fans happy here, lots of naked women throughout getting stabbed in some very sadistic ways... (excluding naked women covered in blood; I refuse to accept scenes like these as gore). The gore effects when there is any, is pretty realistic and not a bad job for a low budget direct-to-DVD digital camera movie. The guy who plays the serial killer, (Mack Hail) does a very good job at hand. His acting for the most part is pretty convincing, albeit one scene where he tortures a girl strapped & tied down to a bed. With exception to that scene, at some points in the movie, you'd wonder if he is really acting, or... had he really flipped a nut - just joking! His acting is really good though. The musical score to Nutbag is fantastic, and really brings this little low budget flick to life. I think without the score that it has, Nutbag would not be half as good as it is. Overall? If you're into low budget serial killer flicks, and fancy something a little more extreme than the norm, then you should give Nutbag a chance. Just remember the movie has a dreaded sense of anger throughout it. It cannot be described as in anyway a 'happy' movie or a movie you'd watch with your family, or girlfriend (Unless you want to be single again).
You also may want to borrow a copy before actually buying it, it won't be to everyone's taste. The director's cut DVD from FlightFlix is the only uncut version I am aware of at this time. I believe it is now OOP and very rare so I'm lucky to have it, but if you snoop around you might just find it. There's a UK DVD, but you might as well forget watching the feature if you're judging it from having watched the UK version. 7 minutes has been deleted which results in nearly all the violence removed, except the couple tied to the chair scene. The UK DVD is therefore rendered pretty pointless.
I've given it 7 - reasonable for low budget, the acting from the lead character was pretty solid for the most part, and the musical score gets top marks.
Antichrist (2009)
Excellence.
I heard about Lars Von Trier's Anti Christ a few months before it was released in the UK. The website that I heard about the movie on, was putting it out to be some exploitation jibber jabber that only had the intent to shock the viewer. A few months later, I decided to buy it to see it for myself since it was getting a bad rep for being nothing more than just an "excuse" to show "graphic violence" and "sexual violence". I bought it, watched it, and this is where I tell you my views and comments on this movie.
Anti Christ is by no means exploitation to me. It doesn't even feel like an exploitation film, no where near it. I've seen exploitation trashy movies, and although Anti Christ is graphic from start to finish, it's a serious work exploring grief, mental illness, and loss of a loved one. Anti Christ deals with a couple who loss their child due to an unfortunate accident one night while they're making love. After this, their lives get changed forever, and may I add for the worse. The movie shows in unflinching details the psychological and physical effects of depression, and having a mental breakdown because of grief and the loss of a child. The cinematography (especially the opening scene with the music) of the movie is just so incredibly well done, but in saying that, as you might have guessed with the subject matter of the film, the tone of it, is incredibly dark, and compelling. It's sad, but yet keeps you on your seat until the very end. Anti Christ will not be a movie for everyone, but for those who can appreciate it for what it is, you will find something worth while here. It contains many unpleasant scenes, violent, psychologically upsetting, self harm and sexually disturbing scenes that many people will find shocking and disgusting. But, what did you expect a film about grief, loss, fear, and depression to be like? Fun? Anti-Christ is realistic. The two actors that played their respective roles for this movie, deserve all the Oscars they get and rewards. They done a superb job, one which must have been physically demanding for them both to do.
Anti Christ isn't like any other movie I've watched before. If you think it's a movie you would be interested in seeing, certainly don't let the graphic scenes in it put you off, but also don't go into watching it expecting a joy-ride. Understand and appreciate the movie for what it is. There's no doubt in my mind, if the movie was to be rated in America instead of "Unrated" it would get an "X", or more known as "NC17", higher than a "R" rating.
I found the movie very dark, and disturbing, but one that I couldn't put down in anyway, because with the way it deals with the subject at hand. It's not a movie I enjoyed watching in any sense of the word "enjoyed", but I found it very a very unique piece of film making. Some of the scenes in it, made me feel very uneasy. But then again who would enjoy watching a movie which deals with such themes. For the overall cinematography, and acting/directing/music, I definitely give this movie a full 5 out of 5.
Anti Christ will not be for everyone, but if you can take the time to appreciate the movie, you will find something to watch.