The world of exploitation film ripped open and laid raw for you to experience. From 70's grindhouse to current underground, it is all here. So ripe you can practically smell it.
FEMALE TEACHER: DIRTY AFTERNOON (1981) D. Ketchitaro Negishi IMPULSE PICTURES/SYNAPSE FILMS 2.35-1 Anamorphic Number eight in the Nikkatsu Erotic Films Collection from Impulse pictures treads on the potentially hazardous "horny teacher" sub genre with quite unexpected results. What appears to be a simple, and pretty normal, sexploiter ends up being something altogether more serious.
A High School Teacher named Sakiko (Yuki Kazamatsuri) gets a call during sex from the police station. One of her students is in big trouble. She heads down to find waifish Sueko (Ayako Ota) being held for prostitution. They have a frank conversation as to why Sueko likes sleeping with strangers and part ways. But Sakiko begins to care for the girl and does some research on her backgroud, when she isn't nailing her own boyfriend that is. But in digging up the past, some memories that she would prefer to be buried come to the surface. Sakiko remembers being raped at a construction site by a guy with paint thinner on him (from huffing it). She begins to obsess over the rape and how it has affected her current, somewhat loveless relationships.
SPOILERS AHEAD
But Sakiko discovers that the person she fingered for the rape and had put away is most likely NOT the person who did it. Seems someone else was raped after this man when to jail for a short while. She also discovers the person whom she did put away is Sueko's disabled father. Soon a bond forms between the woman and the Father as he slowly goes crazy.
RAPE OF THE VAMPIRE aka LA VIOL DU VAMPIRE (1968) D. JEAN ROLLIN KINO - BLU RAY 1.78 Jean Rollin is one of my favorite horror filmmakers of all time. But even with that said there are a handful of his films that I have not seen. But these new BLU RAY releases from KINO look to help me resolve that issue. RAPE OF THE VAMPIRE is Rollin's first feature length movie (His debut film THE NUDE VAMPIRE is not quite feature length). But all his themes are present in this early film. The nostalgic mood, the return to the same beach, Lady Vampires in very little clothing, even his trope of the Vampires are not hurt by the sun if they cannot see it, hence blind vampires can walk in the daylight, is here and accounted for. The film is actually two very loosely connected short films wrapped into one.
The first story deals with four vampire sisters (one of whom was raped decades before and therefor hates men) who live in a villa. Several psych major young people arrive and take it upon themselves to "cure" the sisters as it is believed their Vampirism is actually just a mental condition. It doesn't turn out well for anyone. The second story picks up on the beach where the first one ends and deals with the Queen of The Vampires and her attempts to create more living dead to do her bidding and the scientists she does in during the process.
Last night I unofficially launched my
Halloween Horror Challenge with the couple ofHAMMER HOUSE OF HORROR
episodes I watched. Tonight is the first feature film in the
challenge this year. And yes I am fully aware that I am a week ahead
of schedule, but I want to try to get as many in as possible this
year.
THIRST (2009) D. PARK CHAN WOOK
FIRST LOOK PICTURES
2.35
This very quirky vampire comedy is a
strange creature indeed. Coming from the director of OLDBOY one
expects it to be left of center. But this films throws the compass
out entirely to find its own unnatural bio-rhythms.
Kang Ho-Song stars as a priest named
Sang Hyeon, who chooses to go to a secluded hospital to be part of an
experiment to help cure a deadly disease called EV. In doing so he
understands he takes the risk of dying from the communicable virus.
But during the process he ends up with something worse. He becomes a
vampire, but yet is still carrying the disease as well. He becomes a
martyr figure to all those suffering from fatal afflictions, all of
whom ask him to pray over them in hopes of a cure. They even camp
out in tents like an I-Phone sale in hopes of him laying on of hands.
Working the hospital he meets a family he spent a lot of time with
when he was an orphan child. Because the eldest boy Kang Wu ( Ha-Kyun
Shin) has what appears to be cancer. Sang ends up living with the
family and falling into a torrid affair with Kang Wu's wife (and
former adopted sister) Tea-Ju (a blistering performance by Ok-Bin
Kim). Soon there is murder being plotted and more characters entering
the Living Dead fold.
While this is a vampire film, and
therefor already part of a VERY tired sub-genre, there is NOTHING
normal about THIRST. Tonally it is a bizarre and quite gory black
comedy. But under the surface it is thematically about poison
relationships, weather they be between couples or even one's
relationship with God. The vampirism is treated much more like a
medical virus that brings out the worst in each character. Making them MORE of what they already are. Sang-Hyeon is a gentle God
fearing man at the start and slowly, almost against his will becomes
a monster who will kill to satiate his lusts. Tea-Ju on the other
hand takes to being a monster quite easily, lying, cheating and
ultimately killing, a lot, to meet her new needs.
But even with all the heavy thematic
elements the film still succeeds at being funny and scary too. It
never tries to be a knock you out scare fest. Instead the movie is a
slowly creeping up kind of nasty scare that candy coats the bullet
with quirky humor.
A great change of pace horror film for
those looking for something quite a bit different.
This TV series from Britain is finally
making it's debut stateside with all of the footage intact. All
appearances in the U.S. were shortened and had the naughty bits cut
for broadcast. There are thirteen episodes all with different casts
and directors. I will review them as I actually watch them.
The first episode is called WITCHING
TIME and deals with madness and a modern day incarnation of a witch.
A man in his thirties who scores horror films for a living suspects
(rightly so) that his wife is having an affair. One evening while she
is away boning the local doctor a freak storm happens and our hero
finds a red-headed woman asleep in the stable. She claims to be a
witch from the sixteen hundreds. Soon she is turning his already
messed up life into a mockery. He calls his friend the Doctor for
help but it only convinces the both of them he is losing his shit.
Soon the witch has seduced him and claimed him as her own. Just in
time for his wife to come back around out of concern. Then things get
really weird for everyone.
The lead character is a whiny little
goofball, making it hard to be too concerned with him. But the fact
that both the wife and her lover are concerned about him and try to
do what they can to help is a nice touch. Instead of the wife and
lover teaming up to kill the husband, then spend a great deal of time
trying to help his disturbed frame of mind. It is a nice sideways
look at a typical situation for these kinds of films. The finale gets
a little silly as fire, water and voodoo dolls all come into the mix.
But over all it is a fun, if a bit silly, entrance into the show.
The next episode is called THE
THIRTEENTH REUNION and is directed by Hammer stalwart Peter Sasdy.
This entry deals with a reporter for the local women's magazine who
is assigned a story on the local weight loss guru. She meets and
almost falls for a heavy guy who takes a pill he was given from the
Guru and goes batshit crazy driving off the road and into a tree. She
teams up with an amateur sleuth and they investigate the killing.
They soon discover there is something much more sinister than just
weight loss going on. Think a modern, somewhat higher tech BURKE AND
HARE.With some implied cannibalism thrown in for good measure.
An early scene in this episode involves
the Guru leading a group therapy session, Here he berates a middle
aged, heavy set women for her weight problem, screaming at her that
she is “fat and disgusting” and how her husband could never want
to be around “Such a fat cow” like her. While the show spends
most of the time being a fairly straight forward horror/thriller
piece it never hits the repellant heights of this disturbing scene again. It is
cruel, unpleasant and downright upsetting to watch. You REALLY want
to see him get some sort of comeuppance before the piece is over.
These first two episodes are vastly
different from each other in approach and content. I am quite
interested to see how the other eleven play out.
V/H/S/ is the hot ticket item on the
horror circuit right now, with tons of advance buzz on how scary it
is and how it has revitalized both the “found footage” sub-genre
and anthology movies. Too bad neither statement is true. V/H/S/
works in fits and starts at best and at worst is horribly annoying
and extremely hard to get through.
The idea is that eight up and coming
directors all delivered a segment, which accounts for the disparity
of quality. The wrap-around segment is directed by Adam Wingaurd who
has done some quality work with A HORRIBLE WAY TO DIE. The story here
sets the mood for why we are seeing the rest of the stories. A
handful of petty criminals are out and about assaulting women and
video taping it. But they discover that an old man has some specific
tape that if they steal it could net them some cash. So they break
into the old coot's house to discover him dead and a massive VHS tape
collection they have to sift through. Spookiness abounds.
The first REAL story is called AMATEUR
NIGHT and is directed by David Bruckner. Once again we are given lead
characters who think that sexually abusing women is a fun night out.
Here is is a group of college assholes who are partying and
eventually bring some girls back to a hotel. The gyst is that they
are video taping their escapades. Naturally one of the girls turns
out to be more than she seems. Thankfully the monster design is
really good and it goes a couple steps further than the rote premise
originally suggests.
The next segment is directed by indie
horror wunderkind Ti West who is most known for his quiet horror
films HOUSE OF THE DEVIL and THE INNKEEPERS. Here he feels hampered
by the found footage format. The piece is called SECOND HONEYMOON and
follows a couple as they goof off traveling. The two only creepy
moments the piece offered are things that have been done better by
other filmmakers like NEIL MARSHALL and DAVID LYNCH. One scene has
the couple at what appears to be the Grand Canyon and the dude
momentarily vanishes over the edge. The other scene is someone
grabbing their camera and video taping them while sleep, a moment
done better in LOST HIGHWAY. But the final reveal is so lame and not
scary that you want to throw something at the screen.
Next up
is TUESDAY THE 17th directed by Glen McQuaid and is the
first glimpse that the film has something more to offer. It isn't
great by any means but it at least a little more interesting and scary.
The segment follows yet another croup of annoying college age idiots
as they go on a camping trip. Naturally it turns out a killer whacked
a bunch of people in the woods and the video camera they have brought
along can see the killer. Albeit in glitchy, analogue feedback. The
problem here is that the characters are unsympathetic and annoying,
but the set up has a some spookiness to it and it is easily the most
violent of all the segments.
Next is the best one of the bunch,
directed by Joe Swanberg, he takes an interesting approach by having
the entire segment shot through a computer's webcam as the characters
videochat. The segment is called THE SICK THING THAT HAPPENED TO
EMILY WHEN SHE WAS YOUNGER and deals with how Emily is being haunted in her new apartment and her boyfriend bares witness to it as is
escalates. The handling of the material is above average for this
film, but what makes this segment really good is the writing. It does
NOT go where you think it is going and therefore delivers some
genuine tension and shocks.
Finally we have the last segment called
10/31/98 directed by Radio Silence. From the title you can gather the segment takes place on
Halloween night as (yet another) group of college males are on their
way to a party. But when they get there it turns out the house is
abandoned except for a girl being sacrificed by some hooded figures.
As they try to escape the house explodes with supernatural activity
that is actually fairly frightening.
VHS Styled fan art for the film.
The last two segments are actually very
good, and the third one is passable. The others are sub-par to just
plain bad. When watching an anthology movie you expect one or two of
the segments to be below average but this movie adds insult to injury
by making it in the found footage format, so the flaws in content are
highlighted by the eye straining videography and direction.
This
is clearly a case of hype carrying the movie along. Worth a look for the last two segments, but it certainly is not as good as you have heard.
TRUE STORY OF A WOMAN IN JAIL CONTINUES
(1975) D. KOYU OHARA
SYNAPSE/ IMPULSE PICTURES
2.35
This sequel to Nikkatsu's TRUE STORY OF
A WOMAN IN JAIL is really just more of the same. Hijinks in a woman's
prison, with plenty of bare skin, some sex and a healthy dose of
unpleasant violence to keep things moving. And a really funky score
too.
The movie is structurally the same as
its predecessor. A group of young women enter the prison, emotionally
unprepared for the violence and struggle ahead of them. They are
immediately sexually abused by the other inmates. But lucky for them
MAYUMI is out of solitary confinement. Mayumi does not suffer fools
lightly and starts several extended fights to protect the young fish
in the tank. Soon we see there is more going on here than just
rehabilitation. A guard takes photos as the gang sexually assault the
fresh meat, a young girl wanted for shop lifting. These photos play a
large role in forcing her to be sold to the Yakuza and become a
prostitute. Meanwhile back inside the prison Mayumi has managed to
gain some respect and through flashbacks we learn that she killed a
man who raped her and her mother in a field. But will she go on a
killing spree again?
Like all the Nikkatsu films this is
exceedingly well made, it is no slouch of a production. But it feels
unfocused and messy sometimes as the narrative switches back to her
past and the sins Mayumi is responsible for. The whole rape
flashback feels awkward because we are not too sure the characters we
are seeing. Her mother and the guys make an appearance later in the
film though.
There is plenty to recommend though,
including a side plot about the transsexual inmate, or how the head
guard gets another girl pregnant, leading to a violent forced
miscarriage. There is a nude catfight in the baths that is sure to
put a smile on the face of any sleaze fan as well.
TRUE STORY OF A WOMAN IN JAIL CONTINUES
is worthwhile, but not groundbreaking like some of the other Nikkatsu
titles Synapse/Impulse has released so far. The movie gets in there
and is very functional, with sex scenes every five or ten minute,
punctuating that with violence. It is a fun movie but not the peak of
the Nikkatsu releases.
TWINS OF EVIL (1971) D. JOHN HOUGH SYNAPSE FILMS 1.66
This Blu-Ray/DVD combo pack from the
fine folks at Synapse Films represents the first time this Hammer
Production has seen the light of day uncut in the US, and what a
sight it is fully restored. Eye popping gorgeous in full High
definition this is one of those discs that horror fans have been
waiting for.
The movie revolves around the village
of Karnstein in the 1800's where witch burning has become a contact
sport. Any woman who doesn’t tow the party line can and will be
branded a witch or heretic and burned alive in the name of God.
Heading the burnings is one Gustav Weil (Played by Hammer regular
Peter Cushing, bringing great gravitas to the role). He leads a gang
of “holy men” that are basically repressed church goers looking
to find their kicks by abusing women. Into town comes Gustav's
orphaned twin nieces Maria and Frieda (Playboy centerfolds Mary and
Madeleine Collinson) to live with their uncle. Maria is the virginal
one, while Frieda is the more outrageous and daring one. She catches
the horny eye of the evil Count Karnstein (Damien Thomas)who practices Satanism and
debauchery in his castle on the hill. But because he is a count and
basically owns the town he is off limits to the witch hunters. Soon
he has cast his spell and turned Frieda into a vampire leaving her to
leave a trail of blood across the countryside, and her sister holding
the blame.
The film is the third in Hammer's
lesbian vampire trilogy that are all very loosely born from the novel
CARMILLA. Though oddly enough no one involved in any of the films
would admit to any of the lesbian overtones. Of the three films this
one is actually the tamest of the three, though it is still pretty
outrageous for both Hammer, and 1971. More interesting is how a
majority of the movie is very anti-authority, and calls out the
church in particular, and makes some very strong comments about
repression. Even though the Count Karnstein is the villain of the
piece, he is often portrayed is just a free willed person. For the
first half of the film he is actually a preferable evil to the witch
hunters. Naturally by the last reel the film comes back around to
making the church the hero, but it almost feels like an after thought.
The movie is truly subversive in dealing with everything up to that
point. There is even some off handed discussion of incest thrown into
the mix.
The BLU RAY/DVD is jam packed with
extras including a featuring length documentary on the trilogy called
THE FLESH AND THE FURY X-POSING TWINS OF EVIL which is actually worth
the price of the disc. Easily one of the most in depth films of these
types I've seen. There is also TV Spots, trailers, an Isolated music
and FX track, Deleted scenes and a fun featurette on props and
effects from Hammer films.
If you are a Hammer fan, vampire fan or
just like great horror films, there is no good reason to let this one
get past you.
This Australian lensed art/cum/crime flick directed byJon Hewitt, is about a
high priced call girl on her last night before flying the nest to Paris
vs a teenage whore on her first night in the job. The two women end up
working a job for a drug dealer who is killed by a rogue cop sending
them in the run.
The movie tries to be gritty and street
level in the depiction of a prostitutes life. But it never really is.
This is a fantasy version of a whore's life complete with dirty old men
asking for silly prices and rich drug dealers making the women come when
eating them out. The crime element becomes increasingly silly and is
hard to take seriously except for one head crushing scene clearly
inspired by IRREVERSIBLE. The movie is about as edgy asJOHN LANDIS' 80's comedy movie INTO THE NIGHT, but not as funny or well made.
What this movie DOES have going for it is some very impressive night time photography, and seedy location work. But outside of that, this is simply never as ugly, or shocking as the filmmakers clearly think it is.
watch for underground writerJack Sargeant
And fellow Aussie director Richard Wolstencroft in cameo's during a strip club scene.
A well shot, well intended, but ultimately very silly movie.
Some horror fans pride themselves in
searching the outer reaches of the genre for those films that will
psychologically scar them. Recent years have seen the genre move to
those outer edges in a reaction to a not so subtle seismic shift in
our culture after 9/11, ten years of a war in Iraq, and watching our
economy plummet while people blame each other. The horror film has
always been a mirror to the anxiety of the society of the time, and
with the viciousness of our current times it is no surprise we have
ended up with films like EDEN LAKE, MARTYRS, BROKEN and of course the
very ugly and controversial A SERBIAN FILM. Now we have another very
unsettling film to throw onto the short list of movies that will lay
a long and nasty scar on your brain. Adam Rehmeier's and Rodleen
Getsic's searing cinematic assault, THE BUNNY GAME.
But this one is quite different than
even the other (some quite excellent) films mentioned, as it is as much an art film as a
horror film. Shot in harsh black and white, and edited with near
brilliance at times, this is a movie that is very aware of the
artifice being used to bring it to the audience. The film-making on
display is never less than completely assured, coupling with a nerve
wracking use of sound design and loud and abrasive music all collide
to make THE BUNNY GAME an experience that only a brave few will make
it out alive from.
The story is really very simple. A
young woman played by co-scripter Rodleen Getsic, is BUNNY, a woman
who has found herself a prostitute. Whoring her way on the streets to
survive. These early scenes, which make up roughly the first quarter
to a third of the film, are deeply unpleasant and the perfect flip
side to a movie like PRETTY WOMAN which makes prostitution look easy,
clean, and never really dangerous. BUNNY is shown plying her trade in
hardcore close up, sucking cocks but never for a second enjoying it.
Soullessly getting roughed up, but taking it because it means enough
money to get through the day. We see her in the shower in tears as
she adjusts to getting past her last encounter and on to the next
nasty John. Much of this is scored with super loud and abrasive death
metal music just to add to the even more aggressive feel.
Soon she is picked up be a seemingly
benign old truck driver played by Jeff Renfro. After a brief
discussion of exchanging money for sex, he offers her some drugs and
next thing she knows she has been kidnapped and her life is about to
become a living nightmare.
From here on out the film is an
aggressive onslaught of humiliation and torture. The Trucker
systematically sets out to break her, emotionally, spiritually and
sexually. Holding her captive in the back of his tractor trailer,
stripping her down, shaving her head and playing an extending,
extremely brutal S+M based game of total dehumanization. Oddly enough he never actually sexually penetrates her, but the
entire enterprise is basically one long extended emotional rape of
her very being. During some moments she has a rather disturbing
rubber Bunny mask on that further dehumanizes her. All the while the
Trucker laughs maniacally becoming a very demonic presence, leading
the charge in this nightmare.
THE BUNNY GAME could have been just
another torture exhibit freakshow for gorenographers to jerk off to.
But instead the film-making on display sets it apart from that. There
is real force of nature at work here. Seriously unpleasant stuff, but
not without merit. Even if I had not known the back story why this was
made I would look at this film and see there was more to what was on
screen than simply an exploitation of a woman’s suffering.
One thing that indeed set's this apart
from the horror film of it's peers is that NOTHING on screen is fake.
That very fact risks making this a bit of a geek show, but it also
lends the movie a visceral, raw authenticity that makes it impossible
to escape from. So when we see BUNNY being bound, gagged and
tormented it is for real. When her head is shaved and she is force
fed a whole bottle of vodka, it is real. In the same scene there are
cars in the far distance driving by that are clearly not part of the
film-making crew. Just people tooling down the highway that adds a
very disturbing edge in that we are watching this bound, naked woman
being abused and people are just driving past. The sexual scenes
early on are not fake, and there are several scenes of things like
cutting and branding that are not fake either.
All of this is possible because
Rodleen Getsic comes from a performance art background. Most of her
former work dealt with feminist and political themes. She also was
very involved with things like political activism and was well known for
her charity and philanthropic work during the Katrina disaster. It is this background that
allowed her to take the punishment netted out in the part. But more
importantly is the WHY she conceived the the film and role. It is my
understanding that some where in her past she was indeed abducted by
a sexual sadist and suffered greatly while held hostage. To wipe the
experience from herself she conceived this project as a way to
exorcise the demons. Getsic fasted for forty days to get to a
physical place to play the role and they shot the for film for 13
days during which she committed to taking all the abuse as close to
reality as possible. Including the very real violence. Once the shoot
was finished she went away to a retreat for a month to rid herself of
the emotional experience of the shoot and the memories it was based
on.
Some films are not meant to be enjoyed,
or even be entertaining. Some are meant to be endured as they very act
of making them were acts of rebellion for the filmmakers. THE BUNNY
GAME is one such film. It isn't for everyone, only a select few will
be able to stomach the horrors on display. Approach it with extreme
caution, and understanding that what you are seeing is an act of
extreme catharsis. It could damage you if unprepared.
This roucaus nudity filled, splattery Sci-Fi throwback was a nice evening out after the low budget ridiculousness HORROR OF THE HUMUNGOUS HUNGRY HUNGAN we watched earlier. While this is certainly low budget, BRAIN DEAD is consistantly inventive, fun, and always knows when it is time to deliver the goods, whether that be beautiful naked women, or healthy splashings of gore.
The story isn't terribly knew, a space rock blasts through a redneck fisher-man's head instantly turning him into a zombie (who in turn rips his friend's head open and eat's his brain). Then we spend a solid amount of time meeting a menagerie of characters (mostly female) from a Preacher and his beautiful assistant who he is trying to bed down (who has the best set of boobs I have seen in man a moon)
to some skinny dipping med students and unforunately a couple of bumbling criminal dudes who are the leads. They all end up holed up in a broken house with the monsters coming after them. Turns out a space parasite is moving from host to host ala NIGHT OF THE CREEPS or THE HIDDEN turning people into monster/zombies attacking them. It is still the NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD model but here made fresh with a lot of inventive directing, very likable characters, and loads of cool special effects. And some of the hottest women I've seen in this type of movie in a long time too.
Kevin S. Tenney's movies have been hit or miss with me, I like WITCHBOARD a lot, NIGHT OF THE DEMONS is ok, but WITCHTRAP is pretty awful. This is is another hit for me as for as I am concerned. I hope it isn't a number of years before he ends up directing again.
KILLER YACHT PARTY (2010)
D. Piotr Uzarowicz
TROMA
1.78 non-anamorphic
From the name of the director of this flick you would assume you are getting some foreign slasher action. But the first ten minutes are some L.A. hipster insider look at the club scene. Sort of a how to get into a sleaze club and how it works from the inside. That should be the first sign you have been had. Two fresh on the streets of L.A chicks hit the scene trying to party, one "hot" blonde named Lacee and her "plain" friend named appropriately enough Jane. We see how to pay off the door man, how to let the owner of the club grope you for drinks, how the hot guys deal drugs and how it just doesn't fuckin pay to be plain cause in L.A. that means you are a "dog" and you wont get in free anywhere. Somehow the babe still get invited the Yacht party the next day where some dude who looks like a reject from the TWILIGHT Movies is hanging around the sideline obviously waiting to do something nefarious. Not to mention the really pissed off Gen-X drug dealers that were thrown out of the club who are gonna have to get some action of their own. Could be a KILLER YACHT PARTY.OH SHIT!!!
So the whole interchangeable cast end up out on the water on the yacht we later find out is supposedly haunted by the ghost of its owner that was killed in some insurance scam. We get an interminable amount of walking down hallways, partying down, and conversations to convince us that Jane is oh so plain and not compatible because she does things like read books and doesn't want to be int he spotlight. A weird thing is that the movie is chocked full of L.A. styled bimbos but none of them take their clothes off or do their duty to fill the movie with skin and sin. The movie takes itself way too seriously, never committing to being the exploitation movie that it really is. The one very brief nude scene has the gal sitting on the toilet for crying out loud. Well maybe some Troma fans are into that type of thing...
"Oh bitch you is so damn Plain! Your name is probably Jane! see this movie is clever like that!"
One last thought. The final reveal on who the killer is would actually be kind of offensive if the movie around it was better made, but here it is not a surprise at all and just lame.
WARNING: Even for the material normally discussed and contained on this blog, the following pictures and video may be objectionable and disturbing. The following contains images of real death and embalming, so proceed with caution.
Orozco The Embalmer (2001) D. Tsurisaki KiyotakaCinema ObscuraS.O.V.
Widely considered to be one of the must brutal and in your face of the mondo-documentaries that has floated around the underground in recent years, OROZCO THE EMBALMER has gathered a reputation that's proceeded it. Mostly by gorehound death fetishists that don't understand, nor care enough to look beyond the guts being spilled on screen to see the spiritual, political or just plain human context they may be watching. All they want to see is bodies being ripped open and blood splashed all over the place. This movie delivers that in a matter of fact manner that puts films like FACES OF DEATH or even the turgid and offensive FACES OF GORE series to shame. But at the same time there is an exploration of a real person here, who does a very real job, in a very real place, that very much resembles hell on Earth.
Orozco is an embalmer in one of the poorest, most crime ridden grottoes in Columbia. It is not uncommon here to see someone gunned down in the street, or for cars to run someone over and reduce them to paste in some sort of drug fueled vendetta. A life of crime is basically the only way to survive in this place and people die all the time.
Even the stray dogs have to take time to get plastered up to heal after street warfare in Columbia.
Hell, even the stray dog's are not safe. Orozco's business is booming due to this. But at the same time, he understands that the people he serves are poor and suffering, so he charges less than the city hospitals for an embalming and he makes his services affordable to the people he lives and works among. He also hires as assistants people from the neighborhood, including a local mentally handicapped man and that man's son who he has basically almost adopted as his own and is training.
Orozco finishes dressing a dead child for a funeral, while the parent waits patiently in the wings.
But don't let all this selflessness fool you - Orozco is one grumpy son of a bitch. The daily grind of cutting people open for little pay obviously gets to him. He is an old man now, the lines of a life that has battered the shit out of him are etched on his face. He barely seems to blink, and his mouth is always down turned in a frown. He applies his trade in a swift and aggressive manner, cutting into the bodies he is working on as someone would expect a butcher to attack a side of beef. Chunking his knives into the flesh hard and fast, tearing into abdominal cavities to release bloated gases, pockets of settled blood, and sack after sack of gorged internal organs that are simply in his way. He is not performing an autopsy, his job is to relieve the body of the artifacts that are going to start decaying soon that will prevent the body from being in a funeral service. He might even go as far as to apply make up if he deems it necessary for that particular person, though he has pretty strong opinions on that matter, expressing about one corpse "why paint this person up like a clown now, when that never looked like that when they were alive?" The brain is always removed and replaced with newspaper because that rots away the quickest and will smell immediately. It is all a daily grind for him: body after body, old men, women, and occasionally little babies or children. Sometimes he will notice things the hospitals or morgues have missed, such as an elderly corpse on his table he clearly notices had been abused while alive, but the cause of death does not indicate such. But he steps away from saying anything, claiming that to do so would only start trouble. Orozco was in the military when he was much younger but refuses to talk about it, as well as his time in the police. He clearly saw things that were quite awful, illegal things, murderous things. Things in which to spend his days among the dead is not terribly different.
A typical way someone ends the day in Columbia now and again.
The documentary crew visit one of the local hospital morgues to watch how they do their embalming, which is no more high tech than Orozco. In fact, in some ways it is just as savage. They take more time in the clean up, with more make up and prep for the funeral, but the actual cutting up and discarding of parts it is no different. Still, the embalmer has no problem talking shit about Orozco and his team. In a weird and out of place bit, the documentary director begins to talk off camera to the embalmer about the corpse and how it has a "really pretty hairy pussy" which kinda comes out of nowhere. Once that is said, though, it does sort of make you notice that a lot of the camera work has included crotch shots of the corpses which seemed a bit unnecessary. And very, very weird.
Which leads me to the movie's biggest detriment, the direction. The movie has a truly fascinating subject with Orozco, and the actual town in Columbia, but the direction itself is beyond sloppy, with many long, useless montages of life in the street (all set to the same droning, repetitive music) that just pad out the movie. There is one long aside of a drug addict allowing the camera to follow him to a corner in an alley to smoke crack, that has nothing to do with the movie at all. Then there is that weird sort of leering sexual asides the movie takes form time to time, the worse being the bit at the hospital morgue, where the camera seems to linger on a corpses genitals or breasts just a bit too long, which seems really fucked up.
The brain is removed to prevent stink of decay during any services the family may ask upon.
When I mentioned this on a message board someone mentioned that this film started life as an episode of the DEATH FILES series in Japan which is just a Mondo Death footage series (and one of the most brutal and outrageous). That series is just footage of dead people, usually at accidents in third world countries (of which there is plenty of here) or murder sites (once again plenty of that here). One of the most famous of that series was an off shoot called DEATH WOMEN which is just that, random footage of the corpses of women at accidents, murder scenes, morgues etc. Seems this director cut his teeth working on those series, and then make some short "art" films called JUNK FILMS which were basically more of the same. Orozco was originally intended to be more of this until he got a hold of such a fascinating subject and it become something entirely new. And that saves it. The focus on Orozco himself gives it all context and form, as well a lot of social dynamic as he explains how these people live and die.
Certainly well worth watching if you can stomach it. But be warned it IS as rough as you've heard.
ReGOREgitated SACRIFICE (2007) D. Lucifer Valentine Kingdom of Hell Productions S.O.V.
This sequel to the underground sickie SLAUGHTERED VOMIT DOLLS goes out of its way to up the ante on the violence, gore and all around bad taste in every single way possible. There is certainly a case of one upmanship in the gore underground in who can make the most repellent and disgusting movie and Lucifer Valentine is clearly going for the gold here. The thing is that the guy clearly has a specific and unique vision that is unlike any other underground filmmaker out there, even if some of his material is a little too familiar at times. It is this technique that sets what he is doing apart and makes this film interesting, especially when it simply devolves into a fetish spectacle of puke, piss and prurience.
Ameara Lavey stars as the put upon porn star telling her tortured story.
The sort of story is almost impossible to decipher without having read some material before hand, or seen the first film. Ameara Lavey plays a young porn store who is holed up in a hotel room on a drug fueled suicide jag. Apparently this is meant to represent the final days of Kurt Cobain or at least be heavily inspired by them (late in the movie actual footage from outside his house is shown, with a bit of writing on the fence there serving as a major piece of the movie). She recants memories, confessions, and disappointments.
Siamese Twins get separated, the hard way.
Concurrently there is a "story" about two porno twins and a cameraman (who is shooting this entire movie and we never actually see) that are going around conning women into sexual congress, getting them drunk, forcing things into their mouths until they puke violently over and over, abuse them all night and then violently mutilate and kill them. We meet these twins as they are actually Siamese twins attached at the head and the "Cameraman" separates them with a butcher knife. Later they seem completely healed and normal and begin these vile attacks.
But look and feel much, much better after the "operation".
The women they attack are usually on board sexually until during or after the violent puking and it becomes clear that it is leading to a brutal ending. Between these interludes we sometimes "meet" these women as they talk openly to the camera about being a whore, stripper or teenage porn star and their rather unsettling experiences doing those jobs. Almost as if the road traveled has led them to this fate. Eventually another man appears without explanation into the proceedings while the twins are gutting a naked woman and forcing her to gag on her own entrails until she regurgitates continuously.
Forced to puke and choke on her own entrails. How lovely.
This dude, painted up like one of the Insane Clown Posse is apparently the Puke Master as the vomit quotient raises ten fold with his entry into the movie. He just fuckin pukes on everything. Continuously. His purpose in the movie is to puke and later, to maul and desecrate a severed head (that he eventually pukes into). Several of the girls are forced to pledge their allegiance to Satan before they expire.
The Puke Master applying his trade. Somewhere a Carnival is crying.
The movie climaxes, if you will, after several really intense murders, with Lavey looking absolutely beautiful (the rest of the movie she has looked strung out, pimple ridden, tear streaked and pitiful) as she reads the essays left on Kurt Cobain's fence outside his mansion.
Ameara is FINALLY allowed to look good! It doesn't last long though.
Then the Camera Man makes her fellate him as he throat fucks her until she vomits. Then his clearly fake cock starts to come blood - fountains of it - covering her naked body in some sort of baptism. The end.
Ejaculating blood is good times for all!
Stylistically this movie is a triumph. Valentine takes what is clearly a shoestring budget and stretches to the breaking point. His editing is breakneck -literally thousands of cuts - with dozens within any given moment. This guy must have shot so much footage it cannot even be fathomed. The Whitehouse inspired industrial drone/noise soundtrack is disconcerting as all get out too. The hyper-editing and soundtrack alone make this something that get under your skin from the get go. The content wouldn't even have to be startling and aggressive the way it is put together. The shot choices and images are very often incredibly striking and powerful. The first shot of the Siamese Twins for example with them appearing at a distance, just a little out of focus, among the trees, is haunting.
Several of the murder scenes are among the most brutal and harrowing I have ever seen in a movie. About midway there is a scene where the camera man murders a hooker and forces her to pledge her soul to the devil. Shot with the camera scooting around about two feet, almost randomly, which coincides with an ear piercing scream and white noise on the soundtrack. The whole time she is begging, pleading and being forced to obey. By the time she is finally mauled and mutilated (which isn't even entirely on screen) it is among the most disconcerting things I've ever had the displeasure to witness. Powerful? Yes. Would I watch it again? I'm not sure I would.
The aftermath of one of the most harrowing and brutal murder scenes I have ever seen in a movie.
Which brings me to several topics of concern with the movie. Several moments in the film when the girls are talking openly, or Lavey is breathlessly confessing her past, feel a lot like voyeurism into real people's lives. Which I am sure is the intended effect. But part of me cannot help but to wonder if there isn't some serious exploitation going on of these girls who think they are going to be in some gooey horror movie and end up bearing their darkest secrets in a freakshow, underground assault piece that makes them look really bad, before stripping them bare and forcing them to puke relentlessly? I mean, I'm sure they knew what they were in for to a degree, but were they aware how much of their personality would end up on film? Or am I just barking up the wrong tree and being fooled by really good acting? Also there are several moments in the movie where the "acting" goes too far and crosses the line into what looks to be real assault. For example the twins are roughing up this black girl and forcing her to puke and beating on her with what looks like an answering machine. They are clearly hitting her in the head FOR REAL over and over, but the girl is being held down and being forced to puke so how can she protest? Earlier in the movie the same twins are abusing the stripper whom they have gotten drunk and scratching her with their nails, once again it appears to be all for real. As the welts all appear on her body as they really scratch the shit out of her. She is clearly REALLY drunk off her ass and really pukes up what she has been drinking up to that point. Where is the line crossed here? It is not up to me to be the morality police or anything, but watching this made me feel extremely dirty and wrong. Much more than all the porn, puking and Satanism stuff.
Which leads to the biggest complaint with the movie by far. For all the artistic integrity the movie displays, and there is a lot, it still devolves endlessly into a fetish movie for the director who clearly has a thing for vomiting and piss. The girls and forced to vomit over and over and most of them are forced to piss on camera as well. One even drinks her own pee for no real reason at all other than to do it on camera. By the end of the movie the whole thing becomes one endless jack off fantasy for the demented, mixed with tons of gore. Which distresses me to think there are probably people out there willing to jack off to that too. Thank god no one was shitting on people in this movie, the ONE thing that isn't explored here.
This movie was only available as a DVD-R that cost $50(!) directly from the filmmaker (and through Xploited cinema, who are now unfortunately gone) in a limited edition. Unearthed Films has picked this up as well as the first movie. Getting this into any kind of stores ought to be a challenge for them. I'd imagine there is a limited audience for Vomit Gore. But then again I've been wrong before.
This official trailer makes more sense and tells more "story" than the actual movie does. The plot points in this trailer are not clearly apparent in the actual movie.
-poster.jpg)
