movie review

Repugnant Review: Zombie/Zombi 2 (1979) – Lucio Fulci

If I had to choose my favorite zombie film of all time, it would be Lucio Fulci\’s Zombie (Zombi 2, Zombie Flesh Eaters). Lucio Fulci has always been a good go-to when it came to super gory horror films, but for me, it all really started with this movie. Having seen all the Romero movies, I thought I was in for the same zombie flick I\’ve seen a thousand times, but Fulci\’s Zombie is almost a throwback to classic zombie films such as White Zombie (1932), King of the Zombies (1941), and The Plague of the Zombies (1966)… with more gore. Zombie stars Tisa Farrow (Anthrophophagus), Ian McCulloch (Doctor Butcher M.D.), Richard Johnson (The Haunting 1963), Al Cliver (The Black Cat, The Beyond), and Olga Karlatos (Once Upon a Time in America, Purple Rain), and of course, a killer soundtrack by the great Fabio Frizzi.

Zombie has all the elements for a great zombie film. It has a great cast, creepy atmosphere, disgusting special effects, and an all around solid story. The movie is about a woman by the name of Anne Bowles (Farrow) who teams up with a journalist (McCulloch) to help find her missing father after his boat is found off the coast of a New York harbor. They gather some info from her fathers boat, and track down his last whereabouts to the Caribbean island of Matul. In order to get there, they find the help of a couple who are sailing around the world, and agree to take them to the island. The island of Matul has a history of being cursed by voodoo, and most people tend to stay away out of fear of being cursed themselves. In between the scenes of the group making their way to the island, we are introduced to Dr. David Menard (Johnson) and his wife Paola (Karlatos). He resides on the island studying voodoo curses, trying to figure out why the locals are dying, then immediately coming back to life as flesh eating monsters. Back on the boat, one of the woman take a quick dive underwater, but then she finds herself caught between a shark, and a zombie, giving us one the craziest sequences ever seen in a horror movie. The zombie tries to fight the shark, getting it\’s arm ripped off, and then the shark rams the boat, damaging it. They eventually arrive to the island, meeting Dr. Menard there. Anne finds out her father has died due to the mysterious illness on the island, and this is ultimately when shit really goes down. I honestly don\’t want to spoil much about the plot, but I\’m sure most of you are aware of the gory bits. Let\’s get in to why I enjoy this movie so goddamn much.

This movie oozes with gothic atmosphere reminiscent of classic Hammer films. It\’s utterly creepy the entire time on that island, and the zombies are scary as all hell. The makeup on them were incredible, most notably the main zombie with the worms falling out of its eye. The kills are as gruesome as you\’d expect from the Italian Godfather of Gore, and I\’m sure you\’re all aware with the legendary eye gouge scene. Even to this day, that scene makes me squirm. I really love the fact that, for the most part, the origin of the curse, or how the zombies have even come to be, is all a complete mystery and never gets explained. People are coming back from the dead to eat other people, and everyone is left helpless trying to find a way off the island. Other than the cast, and gore, it\’s the overall creepiness of the location that keeps me watching this movie. By this time, slashers were on the rise, and horror movies started to get more obnoxious, losing the atmosphere of their predecessors. Sure, I love mindless gore-fests as much as the next guy, but I also love a movie with great atmosphere that gets you going before any killing happens.

Yeah, this is my favorite zombie film over all time. It has everything that I want out of a good horror film, and Fulci knows how to not only creep the shit out of you, but to deliver you a solid horror film with buckets of gore. If you\’ve never seen this, go out and it get it. I know you won\’t be disappointed.

My Other Fulci Reviews!

Repugnant Review: Terror Firmer (1999) – Lloyd Kaufman

Terror Firmer, in my honest opinion, is the greatest Troma film ever made. It\’s everything that is Troma, but on fucking crack. The copious amounts of gore, sex, and comedy are taken to a higher, fucked up level, and even to this day, I think it\’s Lloyd Kaufman\’s most extreme film. Terror Firmer centers around a Troma film crew working on their latest feature as each of them are picked off by a mysterious and sexy psychopath. The film itself is based on a book that Lloyd and James Gunn wrote called \”All I Need To Know About Filmmaking I Learned From The Toxic Avenger: The Shocking True Story of Troma Studios\”, and other than the gruesome murders (unless Lloyd actually killed a few PA\’s on set), it\’s basically the same \”story\”. Terror Firmer also stars Alyce LaTourelle, Will Keenan, Trent Haaga, Debbie Rochon, and Ron Jeremy, with kick-ass cameo\’s from Eli Roth, Lemmy Kilmister, Joe Lynch, Matt Stone, and Trey Parker.

So, during the making of the latest Toxic Avenger movie, members of the film crew start getting murdered in incredibly bizarre ways. Impaled by bongs, eaten by escalators, dismembered by moving trucks, shocked by stage lights… this movie depicts some of the coolest and cartoonish ways you can kill a person. During all of this, there is a love triangle between Jennifer (LaTourelle), Jerry (Haaga), and Casey (Keenan). There is so much wacky shit going on, that you can\’t look away from whatever the hell is happening. It can be a bit jarring, but in my opinion, a Troma movie is just an extremely graphic version of a Tom and Jerry cartoon. I\’m not knocking it though, because I love the craziness of the entire film. Terror Firmer is just as nutty as it was in the beginning, up until the explosive finale, and you won\’t stop laughing for a single second. Did I also mention that, yes, this one also has the car flip scene… only involving a naked fat guy who just ran through Times Square with his insanely small donger hanging out. Holy shit… even thinking of all the other shit that happens in this movie is making my head spin. Scene after scene after scene… blood, gore, tits, and poop… what more could you ask for?

Terror Firmer is just one of those movies I watch constantly. I\’ve seen it enough to recite more than half the movie word for word, and even when I\’m writing my own scripts, I\’ll put it on for inspiration. It\’s honestly one of my favorite movies ever made, and I consider it the best Troma film ever made. I highly suggest picking this up, especially now considering Troma is re-releasing this on blu-ray for it\’s 20th anniversary this year. I also highly recommend the \”Making Of\” documentary \”Farts of Darkness\”. It\’s just as funny as the actual film and I honestly can\’t get enough of Lloyd freaking out on everyone. I\’ll post a link down below to where you can find this film, along with the trailer as always. Watch this fucking movie, and let me know what you think!

Repugnant Review: I Spit On Your Grave (1978) – Meir Zarchi

 October is here, and what time is year is better than this! I figured for the entire month of October, I would review my favorite horror films of all time (yeah, I know, I missed the !st, but you know what, double the reviews!). For my first feature, I had to chose something I find completely gut-wrenching, but exciting at the same time. I Spit On Your Grave might not be the ideal Halloween movie, but it\’s absolutely one of the most devastating films out there. I personally love this movie, and every time someone asks me what they should watch when they want to dig deeper into more extreme stuff, I always mention this movie. Even to this day, my ass is hanging off the edge of my chair, and my teeth are embedded into my bottom lip when I watch this. It\’s so brutal, but they pay-off has you cheering at the end. If you want some crazy-excitement this Halloween, throw this classic on.

I Spit On Your Grave is a horror/exploitation film written and directed by Meir Zarchi. What\’s interesting about the making of this film, is that it\’s based off of a real life situation where filmmaker Meir Zarchi found a bloodied woman in a New York park after she had been raped by a couple men. This horrible situation fueled the story for what would be I Spit On Your Grave, or originally titled, Day of the Woman, and there film world would be shocked for years to come. The film is about writer Jennifer Hills (played wonderfully by Camille Keaton) who rents a cottage out in the woods so she can quietly write her first novel. When she arrives, she\’s met by a few men who take a liking to her. They begin to cruise by her cottage and stalk her, until one day they eventually attack Jennifer, and brutally gang-rape her. After the prolonged assault, the group tasks their mentally challenged accomplice to finish her off. He couldn\’t bring himself to do it, so he dips a blade in her blood, and shows them he did it. After Jennifer realizes she\’s alone, she tries to collect herself, and that\’s when she plots her brutal revenge. A little while passes, then Jennifer starts to make herself known to the ones who raped her, and one by one, she kills them all in the nastiest ways possible.

Say hello to Mr. Dickless, everyone!

Like I said before, it\’s a tough watch, but they pay-off is just fucking incredible. I always tell people to tough out the rape scene, because after that you\’re just rooting for Jennifer to completely eradicate these pieces of shit. They get hanged to death, their junk cut off, sliced to pieces by a bot propeller, and more. The more I think about it, these have got to be the same thoughts that Meir Zarchi had when he found that woman in the park, like as if he imagined this woman\’s own revenge and what he would personally do to these rapists. I totally get that, as I react violently whenever I read about someone being raped at a local park or party. It\’s an absolute shame, but this movie tells assholes like them that there are strong women out there who are more terrifying than you think. I just enjoy everything about this movie, and if you\’re one of those folks who can stomach the prolonged rape scene, you have to watch this. It\’s just an incredible film and I\’m not even sure what more I can say about it. Fucking watch it.

Repugnant Review: Basket Case (1982) – Frank Henenlotter

If I ever made a list of my top favorite filmmakers, Frank Henenlotter would definitely be in my top 5. His films are a perfect blend of gruesome gore and zany humor. Whether it\’s Frankenhooker, Bad Biology, or the Basket Case trilogy, I can keep coming back to them and still be incredibly entertained. Today, though, I wanted to review his first feature film, and one of my favorite movies ever, BASKET CASE. This movie has been in my rotation since I\’ve been in my young-teens. My mom would go on movie binges every so often, and we\’d scour all over Worcester County looking for all sorts of horror movies. One day, she picked up this and ever since we watched it, I was an instant fan. It was weird, bloody, and pretty much the perfect film for any teenager getting into crazier horror films. Recently, I rewatched this classic on bluray, and seeing it in HD was just mind-blowing. I knew I had to review it, even though I\’ve seen this movie a ton, but there are some people I\’ve come into contact with who haven\’t seen this yet, and it\’s one of those movies that needs to be seen. If you\’re not convinced by my initial love for this movie, then read on.

Basket Case is about a couple of siamese twin brothers on the hunt for the for doctors that separated them when they were children. The only thing is that one of the brothers, Belial, was more like a massive tumor with a humanoid face and two little arms. Belial was thought to have died during the surgery, but comes back to kill the ones who wrong him with his brother, Duane. Being as small as he is, Belial is always hidden away in a basket that is kept locked whenever the two are out an about, and I always liked the reactions of everyone who see Duane walking around with this huge basket. The two move into a skanky hotel/apartment building in NYC, as they\’re closer to the last couple doctors they need to take out, but throw in a couple curious neighbors, a love interest for Duane, and you\’ve got a cluster-fuck of epic proportions on your hands. Once Belial is released, there\’s no stopping the little creep.

I really enjoy the revenge plot, because you do feel bad for Duane and Belial in the long run. Their father thought of Belial as a monster, and absolutely wanted him to be removed from Duane against his will. The scene is pretty unsettling and gruesome, mostly due to the fact that the Belial puppet was so human-like, and just for the utter fact that Belial did absolutely nothing wrong than exist. The doctors were particularly despicable, which made their horrendous demises all that much sweeter. The effects were pretty damn incredible, and I\’ll always be impressed with how unsettling the Belial puppet looks. Sure, it\’s a low-budget splatter feature, but what I really enjoy about Henenlotter\’s movies is that, even though these are over the top horror fests, he gives us characters that we like from the get go. I genuinely felt bad for Duane, cause not only has he been traumatized by the separation from his brother, but also the fact that he has to deal with his demented brother fucking up his social life. Every time Duane tries to go out and have fun, Belial goes absolutely insane and makes his brother\’s life a living hell.

After Basket Case, Frank Henenlotter started to add more humor to his films, and you can see that more and more with the sequels. I think this one is the best, because it is has such a solid revenge plot with characters you did feel bad for, and the sequels just get a bit too silly compared to this one. It\’s a pretty dark and gritty film, with a couple humorous parts, but it just keeps you interested in the lives of these brothers, and all the nasty stuff they have to go through to complete their objective. Belial is truly a great and underrated movie monster, and I still get the creeps every time I see that little shit. Basket Case is truly a fun horror movie, and it\’s been in my Halloween rotation for over a decade now. If you\’ve never watched it, go out and find a copy. I think I payed about $10 for the Something Weird Video bluray, which was totally worth it in my opinion. Once you buy it and watch it, let me know what you think. I\’m pretty sure you\’re going to enjoy it as much as I have!

Repugnant Review: Sledgehammer (1983) – David A. Prior

Ahhh yes… another SOV gore-fest. It\’s been awhile since I\’ve watched these kind of movies, considering one of my last SOV reviews was on Video Violence 1 and 2, and that was 2 or 3 years ago, so I chose this to make up for lost time. Sledgehammer is a low-budget slasher movie about a group of teens who stay the night at a house that was the scene of a gruesome murder some years back, and one by one they\’re brutally murdered by a ghostly sledgehammer wielding maniac. Pretty basic set up for a slasher, but just like every other SOV horror film I\’ve ever watched, it\’s all about the corny acting, and the over the top gore effects. Sledgehammer doesn\’t skimp on either of those things.

The film opens up with a woman locking up her son in the basement so she can cheat on her husband. Before she bangs this guy, he\’s smashed in the head with a sledgehammer, and then she is killed off screen. The movie then cuts to a group of \”teens\”, as in, 30 year olds trying to play teens, getting ready to spend the night in this house where those two people were murdered. One of my favorite schlocky movie fuck ups is hiring older folks to play teens. It\’s hilariously awful, especially when there\’s a massive bearded guy with a receding hairline that would put Jack Nicholson to shame. The acting is brutally corny too, but it totally falls into the \”so bad, it\’s funny\” category. For me personally, I\’d rather see silly over-acting than boring under-acting. Shit starts to hit the fan when a couple of the guys try to tell the story of the sledgehammer murders, tricking their friends into thinking the house was haunted and using a recorder to play spooky sounds and scare them. Little did they know that the ghoulish maniac (who switches back between his child form and adult form) is on the prowl, fading through walls, and leaving his sledgehammer in random locations of the house. I\’d say that the highlight of any SOV horror video is the gore, because that always seems like thats where 80% of the budget goes too. It\’s always know gnarly and gross looking, even if it looks cheap, it looks pretty damn nasty.

Sledgehammer didn\’t fuck around when it came to the gore. The kills were pretty gruesome, and extremely bloody. I always felt that blunt objects like hammers were the most brutal when it came to killing people, and this movie really shows how shitty it would be to get bashed to death with a huge fucking hammer. The sledgehammer bash in the beginning of the movie looked so gross, with brain matter and blood spewing from the head wound, and it looked fairly convincing. The violence was absolutely the highlight of the movie, which for this kind of stuff… no duh. There\’s a 9/10 chance I\’m buying SOV for the gore, not the story.

It\’s cheap, goofy, and corny as shit, but it\’s also super entertaining. These are the kind of movies you want to put on when you have a group of friends over, laughing at the acting but also roaring every time someone gets their head caved in. It\’s a fun, splattery mess, and I highly suggest this to any gore-hound looking for a fun, schlocky blood bath.

I couldn\’t find a trailer for the film, but here\’s a short clip. Silliness galore.

Repugnant Review: Portraits of Andrea Palmer (2017) directed by C. Huston and J. Lyons

So, the whole point of this blog was to review films that really challenged what I could handle when it came to extreme cinema, and after watching hundreds of these kinds of movies, you\’d think I\’d be used to crazy brutal shit by now, but that\’s where Tomorrow Productions Portraits of Andrea Palmer comes in… and holy shit is it devastating.

I\’ve reviewed some movies with intense sexual content before. Lars Von Trier\’s Antichrist, Ryan Nicholson\’s Gutterballs (uncut version), and even Hanna D: The Girl from Vondel Park had scenes that showed straight up penetration and even more bizarre sexual acts (Hanna D\’s prison heroin scene is nuckin\’ futs) but I\’ve never reviewed an Adult Film before. Portraits of Andrea Palmer is a hardcore XXX exploitation film directed by C. Huston and J. Lyons, and released by C. Huston\’s Tomorrow Productions. The movie is about a strung out webcam who gets duped into going to L.A. to work as a porn star. After she gets fucked over, she begins to work as an escort, but with every man she meets, she slowly descends into madness. This movie is not for the faint of heart. We\’re talking about a series of sexual acts that just get more and more fucked up as the movie goes on, and probably one of the most bleakest and disturbing downward spirals I\’ve ever seen in any film. As nasty as it was, I really liked it, and I was truly fascinated by the whole experience.

Now admit it, we\’ve all watched porn, but the porn of today is nothing like it was back in the 70\’s and 80\’s. Back when porn was on the big screen, playing in theaters on Times Square, and had more of an artistic approach to them. PoAP kind of gave me that experience, where I saw the film as something more than a typical porno, and more of a brutal psychological thriller. It definitely was hard to watch at times, but I was so interested in the whole story and the character of Andrea Palmer, that I kept watching. The sexual acts just get nastier and more bizarre as the film goes on, and to be honest, I was really enjoying the shock factor I was getting from a few of these scenes. I was grossed out by one scene in particular (I know if I explain it, I\’ll give it away… just watch it), that I was actually laughing and grinning at how disgusted I was. There was one scene in particular that did break up the brutality for a moment, and that\’s when Andrea Palmer meets an old man (played by the late porno legend William Margold) and he basically pays her for the day to hangout with him. It\’s a rather calm scene where the two just get to know each other and learn about their personal lives. Sadly, that\’s the only pleasant scene in the movie, and after that it instantly gets fucked up again. It\’s a severely brutal film to watch, but I honestly enjoyed the fuck out of it.

I also just want to give Katrina Zova (Andrea Palmer) some major kudos, cause holy fuck did she take a savage beating during this whole film. What a champ. I guess I\’d suggest this to anyone who\’s comfortable with extreme porn and sexual situations, because other than that, it\’s a pretty nasty exploitative shocker. Absolutely brutal, and devastating, but a very solid film. I\’ll post the link below to the Portraits of Andrea Palmer website where you can buy the film on bluray, and I\’ll post a link to the uncensored NSFW trailer below. Enjoy, you twisted motherfuckers!

Repugnant Review: 2001 Maniacs (2005) – Tim Sullivan

There really isn\’t any horror remakes that are better than the original, but if I could name one, it would be Tim Sullivan\’s 2001 Maniacs. Way back in 1964, the late and great Herschell Gordon Lewis gave us the cult-splatter-classic, Two Thousand Maniacs! A silly and gory horror film about a town full of confederate hicks who lure in northern tourists, and brutally kill, then eat them. It\’s truly a cannibal classic, and I love the work of H.G. Lewis, but compared to Tim Sullivan\’s version… there\’s no contest. I mean, finances definitely come into play, since H.G. Lewis was notorious for churning out cheap gore flicks, but 2001 Maniacs did a near-exact remake, and didn\’t skimp on anything when it came to special effects and cast. I\’m absolutely not sorry when I say 2001 is so much more superior to the original, and don\’t worry, I\’ll explain. I might be biased because I truly love this movie, but lets just go into the reasons why I find this movie to be as awesome as it is.

First of all, the cast is fucking awesome. Robert Englund as Mayor Buckman has got to be one of the greatest villains in recent years. What I love about Robert Englund, is that you can give him any role, big or small, and he\’ll just completely fall into it and give you a memorable performance. Not only is Mr. Englund in this film, you have the legendary Lin Shaye (Insidious series, Kingpin, There\’s Something About Mary), the insanely underrated Giuseppe Andrews (Cabin Fever 1 and 2, Detroit Rock City), and a bunch of great cameos from Peter Stormare, Eli Roth, Kane Hodder, Scott Spiegel, and hell, if you\’re a hardcore death-match wrestling fan, you might of noticed Kevin \”MAD MAN PONDO\” Canady play the blacksmith. Everyone gives a hell of a performance, and even though the coeds in this film were plain cheesy as shit, they were still fun too. The black biker guy and his hot asian dominatrix girlfriend were my favorite out of all the victims. They were so offbeat, and they weren\’t afraid of fucking with locals of Pleasant Valley. Honestly, one of the best casts in any slasher movie, ever, in my opinion.

The gore, was top-notch. There were even a few digital effects in 2001 Maniacs, but since they were blended in with lots of practical effects, it worked pretty well. I mean, the movie is 90% practical effects, but a great example of the digital effects in this movie is when the milk-maid forces the character Nelson to drink her \”special\” moonshine. It begins to melt through his throat and chest cavity, and when they show his chest caving in, the digital effects they used to pull it off looked pretty damn good. I\’m not the biggest fan of digital gore, but for this particular effect, it looked incredible. Other than that and other small digital effects, the practical stuff is what I fucking love about this movie. The kills are brutal, and the manner of how all of these people die are incredibly creative and downright hilarious. One of my favorites is when the gay character, Ricky, get\’s a spear shoved up his ass and through his mouth. The amount of shock and laughter that oozed out of me after watching that was insane. There were about a dozen scenes in this movie that I just kept rewinding because the kills were just so damn good.

Lastly, I would just like to talk about the humor behind 2001 Maniacs. All that I can say, it\’s hilarious. These backwood ghouls are stuck in the period they died in, keeping with them the stereotypical southern ignorance of hating non-whites, gays, and \”yankees\”. So hey, let\’s add a bunch on northern folks, throw in an interracial couple, and a guy dude, and then you got the bulk of the humor in this movie. It\’s offensive, but it\’s not at all that bad. I don\’t even think they use any brutal slurs or anything like that, but they do make silly assumptions towards certain races and sexual orientations. It\’s honestly super tame, and most of the silliness comes from the redneck confederate stereotypes. A lot of the locals of Pleasant Valley are depicted as illiterate sheep/cousin fuckers, so it\’s balanced when it comes to ripping on everyone. There are so many memorable lines in this one too, and I find my self saying them here in there. \”Son, one time I had full confidence in a fart. Shit all over myself\” and \”Frankly, Miss Pussy, I don\’t give a damn\” come to mind, and 2001 Maniacs is just one of those movies I can quote from front to back. \”PUSHIN UP DAISY\’S BY MIDNIGHT, BOYS!\”

So yeah… I recommend the fuck out of this movie. I honestly don\’t see too many flaws in this movie, and the movie is so goddamn entertaining that even if there were any, I don\’t think you\’d notice. It\’s fun, funny, gory, and and just one of the gnarliest slasher/splatter films to come out in the last 15 years. Find it on amazon, or fucking anywhere you can find it, because I know for a fact you won\’t be disappointed. I shouldn\’t leave out Two Thousand Maniacs either, so if you\’re interested in checking out the original first, I suggest that too. I think I got 2000, Color Me Blood Red, and Blood Feast all on one blu-ray from Something Weird, and it was about $12-$15 dollars, so it\’s totally worth it. Let me know what you think, because I know you won\’t be disappointed.

Repugnant Review: Automaton Transfusion (2006) – Steven C. Miller

You might think I talk about High School too much, but you know what… I\’m getting old and some of that nostalgia is working its way back into my memories. One of the best memories I\’ll ever have is skipping school on Halloween with my buddies, and watching horror films all day. The best part was that our parents were in on it, and let us continue this ritual throughout our last couple school years. We kept a good list of movies we would watch every single year, and one of those movies was the 2006 gore-soaked zombie film, Automaton Transfusion. I haven\’t watched it in years, so when my girlfriend recently wanted to watch a zombie movie I figured I\’d take the opportunity to re-watch a school days horror classic. Did it hold up? Well, kinda.

Automaton Transfusion is a pretty basic zombie film. The Army started to develop a way to revive dead bodies for their own benefit, only to accidentally release the virus onto a small town. When the town is completely overrun, it\’s up to a group of teenagers to fight back and find whoever is behind this. Even though it may come off as a generic zombie film, the gore and action absolutely make up for it. It\’s a complete blood bath and the special effects are pretty gnarly for a low budget film. One of the best scenes in the film is when a zombie walks in during a party, and just rips a fetus out of a pregnant woman. I remember my friends and I rewinding that several times, just out of pure hilarity. I also feel like I should talk about the soundtrack, because it\’s honestly the kind of stuff you\’d hear walking into a Hot Topic in the mid-2000\’s. The golden days of emo/screamo/post-punk all crammed into one gory zombie movie, and even though it felt dated, it did bring me back to those high school days. Absolutely cheesy, but I love it.

My only gripe for this film is the acting. It\’s pretty terrible, but I can\’t really shit on it too much. It\’s a low-budget feature with no name actors who\’ve probably never acted before, but the gore and overall story did make it worth it. It holds up for the most part. I still enjoyed watching this, and it did bring back some pretty awesome memories. I highly recommend Automaton Transfusion to anyone who enjoys balls-out zombie flicks, and insane special effects. There\’s a few more films I want to look into again, because our old Halloween lineup was full of goodies from that era. More to come for sure, especially now that fall is here!

Repugnant Review: Boy Meets Girl (1994) – Ray Brady

For the past couple years I\’ve been slowly building a little collection of movies released by the notoriously extreme Unearthed Films. Recently I picked up the 1994 Ray Brady film, Boy Meets Girl, and I was immediately interested just by cover alone. A women in leather with a bound dude wearing a tank over his head, and the tank had a bunch of cigarettes sticking out the sides. I assuming it was going to be a gross torture flick, considering the gruesome material Unearthed Films is know to released (American Guinea Pig series, Thanatomorphose, Torment), but I was honestly surprised by the entire thing. It wasn\’t your typical torture porn… cause it really wasn\’t one at all. If I had to describe it, it would be more like a severely dark psychological drama.

Here\’s where the initial confusion came from. The synopsis says \”A man meets a woman in a bar, the two go back to her flat and begin watching porno films. The man passes out and wakes to find himself strapped to a dentist chair. The woman, along with her accomplice begin to torture the man…\”. The movie has its brutal moments, but I feel like most of the film was dedicated to psychological torment rather than physical. Don\’t get me wrong, I love my gore, but this was a pretty refreshing watch. It\’s also very dialogue heavy, but due to great acting and great atmosphere, I wasn\’t bored, and I was pretty captivated by the entire situation. In the film, it\’s pretty apparent that these female torturers want to break this guy, not only physically, but mentally, and it\’s pretty brutal through out. Prodding him for info on his life, taking pictures of his family, and confessing to awful acts he\’s committed over the years. It puts you in one of those situations where you kind of feel bad for the guy, but he\’s a piece of shit, and you might relate to the torturer a bit, but she\’s also a piece of shit. It gives you somewhat of a moral dilemma, and I like shit like that.

For a low budget shocker, I thought the film as a whole was pretty great. The minimalist tone to all the sets, considering there were only 3 main characters through out, and top notch acting, really made this film so much more than a typical \”torture porn\”. It gets bloody and there\’s one particularly gory scene in the film, but other than that, it\’s pretty tame as far as violence goes. It\’s mostly about breaking someones spirit until they\’re mentally gone, and you know what… that can be just as brutal as any other kind of torture. Less messy, but hey, not everyone is into that. I totally recommend this, and I highly suggest you pick it up from the Unearth Films website. If you get it, let me know what you think!

P.S. I can\’t find a trailer anywhere but trust me, it\’s a great movie!

UNEARTHED FILMS WEBSITE

Repugnant Review: Anthropophagus (1980) – Joe D\’Amato

You know… Severin Films is one hell of a company. Over the past year, I\’ve purchased several of their movies, and I have yet to be disappointed. The quality of the transfers blow me away, considering a bunch of these films have been gathering dust in some storage box somewhere. Anthropophagus is an incredible example of the work that the guys at Severin put in making these films look incredible. I remember seeing this movie as a teen, in the shittiest quality on a cracked vhs tape. It was awful. I couldn\’t make anything out half the time, and everything was so dark. I guess I should note that this was most likely a bootleg, and I apologize on behalf of my high school buddy for having such a horrible fucking transfer. When I found out that Severin was releasing this on blu-ray, I had to get it… but I didn\’t. It was Christmas time, and I didn\’t have too much money to spend on myself, so I slept on the awesome sales that were going on at the Severin website. Here\’s where my awesome girlfriend comes into the picture. We generally ask each other what we want, cause it\’s much easier, so when she asked me, I immediately told her about Anthropophagus (and another Joe D\’Amato flick, Beyond the DArkness.) How fucking cool is she? Thanks to her, I got one of the most notorious Video Nasties to ever grace the world. I figured I\’d add a little personal touch to this blog, cause you know… it\’s a BLOG. Anyway, on with the review.

Anthropophagus is an Italian splatter film directed by Joe D\’Amato and written by Joe with George Eastman (who also plays the cannibal in this film.) Zombi 2 actress Tisa Farrow stars in this film, alongside The New York Ripper\’s Zora Kerova, and George, who\’s also written and starred in Sesso Nero, and Porno Holocaust, which were also directed by Joe D\’Amato. The film follows a group of tourists who take a trip to a remote off the coast of Greece, only to find that the town has been deserted, or so they thought at first. They happen to see a women in one of the buildings, but before they could reach her she disappears and leave\’s a note saying \”go away\”. They soon run back to the boat, only to find it out at sea, without anyway of reaching it. As they go back into town, Tisa Farrow\’s character recognizes a house where one of her friends live in. When they search the house, they find one of the daughters in hysterics and waving a knife around. After this girl, who we then find out is blind, calms down, she goes into a panic about a supposed mad-man running around the island. After some of the tourists go out to find supplies and more people, they start to get picked off one by one in the most gruesome ways imaginable.

When I say gruesome, I mean fucking g-r-u-e-s-o-m-e. There\’s one scene, where one of the tourists, who\’s pregnant, is strangled, and her fetus ripped out an eaten by the Cannibal stalking the island. The gore is gross and slimy, making any gorehound like myself go \”YUCK\” with a big grin on their face. The story is very interesting too, and I don\’t want to spoil too much, but when the tourists begin to discover the secrets behind the island and the cannibal, it\’s so satisfying. I\’ve seen a bunch of these Italian splatter films, and they\’re fun and all, but they lack a solid plot sometimes. Anthropophagus adds such a intense thriller aspect to the film, that makes it interesting, and the gore is just frosting on the cake to an already creepy and unsettling horror film. That\’s what I really loved about this movie. It has an unsettling vibe from the beginning, with a desolate village and a maniacal killer stalking the streets, looking for anyone to savagely dispatch and consume. George Eastman as the cannibal has got to be one of the most disturbing villains to ever be put in an Italian splatter film. That ending alone is still etched in my brain, and it\’s just so fucking iconic. You might know what I already mean, especially if you\’re into these kind of films, but I won\’t ruin it for those who want to see this.

If you\’d like to see Anthropophagus, purchase it at SEVERIN-FILMS.COM! You truly won\’t be disappointed. Check out the trailer below and let me know what you think! Also, if you have any suggestions to what I should check out next, shoot me an email at: jakethegoreguy@gmail.com