Saturday, September 27, 2014

Rampage: Capital Punishment (2014, Uwe Boll)

I dug Uwe Boll's original 2009 film, "Rampage". Definitely one of his best flicks to date - being quite a mean and nihilistic film about a town targeted by a mass murderer.

This is a direct follow-up, marking the return of Bill Williamson, one of the most bloodthirsty homeland terrorists on record. After mercilessly annihilating over one hundred innocent citizens, he disappeared, leaving just an internet video (as seen at the end of the first film) where he explains his motivations which entail wiping out as many people as possible in order to lighten the exhaustion of the Earth's resources and prolong the overall existence of civilization. Here, we find Bill hiding out in a small house in the woods somewhere, assembling explosives and gearing up for another attack. This time, his sights are set on a TV news station, leading to a hostage situation involving the staff - namely, the top anchor, whom Bill seems to have taken issue with. As a SWAT team forms outside, Bill has some demands that he wants met...

Unlike the first movie, "Rampage 2" isn't total wall-to-wall carnage, but more of an upheaval of political indiscretion and anti-government diatribe. You really get the feeling with both of the "Rampage" films that Uwe Boll is just venting his ass off. The first being a completely masturbatory explosion of senseless violence on the unsuspecting public with the film's tagline asking, "Have you ever considered it?", while the sequel attempts to make more verbal points concerning the government, all culminating down to the stark message that the rich must be killed. Boll's harsh and unapologetic approach to these films' bold call for violent, anarchistic proletariat uprise clearly stems from a personal agenda which these movies are structured around. Can't say I have any objections... Though I'm only speculating...

As for the film, itself, "Rampage 2" (like it's predecessor) has it's flaws, such as our anti-hero firing machine guns at passersby from an alley all day and not drawing attention from the authorities. I also couldn't get past the breaking of a DVD in half just by tripping and falling on it... The positives, though, would definitely include Brendan Fletcher's performance. He really fell into the role this time around and it's much stronger, I'd say. In all, I'd give this one a recommendation for those who liked the first flick. They're not without their gaping plot holes and irritating overuse of shakey-cam bullshit, but Boll certainly seems to be coming around as a film-maker these days. I'm sure this is on it's way to becoming a big series...

Friday, September 26, 2014

Emocoes Sexuais de Um Jegue (1986, Renalto Alves, Sady Baby)

Some pretty crazy and largely unarousing Brazilian porn, here. There also appeared to be some kind of story along with it, as well, that I was unable to pick up on entirely due to the lack of English subtitles, but it really doesn't matter, overall.

It kicks off with some coffin sex, some lesbian skinny dip action, then a couple of hairy dudes in two lengthy scenes of 'hardcore' gay sex. One of these scenes shows them "fingercuffing" a black guy in a pink nighty... Eventually, there's a incredibly long orgy and few scenes involving animals...

Like I said, there's nothing remotely arousing about "Emocoes Sexuais de Um Jegue" - aka. "Sexual Emotions of a Donkey" - mainly due to the excessive amount of bearded guy-on-guy butt-banging that just ain't my thing, but it's pretty hilarious and entertaining, nonetheless. There's a pretty graphic scene in which two chicks and a guy get 'busy' with a horse, which may not sit well with some people, so consider yourself warned. In all, it's a little slow in spots, but you can't go wrong with all the XXX-sleaze material on tap, here. Plus, all the out-of-place music was hilarious.

Wednesday, September 24, 2014

The Sacrament (2013, Ti West)

Ti West's films have been a little hit-and-miss for me. I thought "House of the Devil" was a dull, overrated 'throwback', but I dug "The Innkeepers" for the most part and "Cabin Fever 2" was an enjoyable splat-fest. I really wasn't all that interested in "The Sacrament", however, due to my immense exasperation with the whole 'mockumentary' craze that has been dominating the horror genre these days, though it had been recommended to me by a few reliable reviewers so I figured... what could it hurt? Well, to be honest, this wasn't as innocuous as I expected, although I was far from blown away...

It follows a VICE crew as they travel to a utopian community to track down one of the journalist's sister. In the meantime, while doing their exposé on the seemingly content residents of the supposedly peaceful grounds, they soon uncover a sordid Jonestown-type of situation going down.

I guess what makes "The Sacrament" one of the better 'found footage' movies as of late is the inclusion of the timely and culturally relevant investigative journalism team, VICE, which I'd say adds more of a palpable purpose for the documentary 'illusion' they're trying to fabricate. Not to say that there aren't your typical moments (quite a few I picked out) that defy logic as to how/why certain circumstances are supposedly being captured on camera. That being said, another favorable quality I found was that the FF format seems to inexplicably come and go from time to time, allowing me - the biased viewer - to suppress the POV concept that I have come to loathe.

As far as the plot and everything, it's actually pretty engaging and the performances are believable - namely, the Jim Jones-esque "Father" character who was pretty intense and creepy. And the whole Eden Parish colony was well established and made for a adequately tense and unsettling setting.

Again, the whole 'found footage' thing works better here than in most other films of this kind I have seen in recent years, but it still tends to get in the way as always, I thought. Still, I gotta consider "The Sacrament" one of the better of it's kind and definitely one of Ti West's stronger flicks. Certainly blows Kevin Smith's pretentious mess "Red State" out of the water, in terms of religious cult-themed horror films. It hasn't turned me around on the FF genre, as a whole, but this is the best I've seen this type of thing 'work' in a while...

Monday, September 22, 2014

Sorority Babes in the Dance-a-thon of Death (1991, Todd Sheets)

Much like John McBride, Nathan Schiff and the Polonia brothers, Todd Sheets was (and still is) a micro-budget horror film-maker whose career was based on pumping out quick SOV crap to fill up the video store horror shelves. And thanks to the almost always eye-catching cover art, we rented this shit. You had to. At some point, this type of thing can be entertaining - depending on how liquored up you are and how good a mood you're in, overall - but many times it's just angeringly terrible. "Sorority Babes in the Dance-a-thon of Death" is fucking terrible, not unlike most of Sheets' prolific body of work...

Plot: A girl purchases a crystal ball at an antique shop so she can have a seance with her girlfriends at their sleepover later that night. While they're hanging out, being boring, some boys show up. No hanky-panky, though. They just play Twister (fully clothed) before being forced to spend the night in a deserted college building for some kind of sorority stunt. Seems that the crystal ball contained some ancient demon who is possessing the girls and turning them into psychotic killers.

First off, every word in the title is misleading as all fuck. There is NO dance-a-thon at all and none of these broads is a "babe". Hell, one of 'em has braces! Due to this, I wasn't too upset with the complete lack of nudity... As you can assume, the acting is atrocious and the gore is nonexistent, which makes it a totally effortless piece of shit. So much of the movie is just these idiots walking around and, in certain parts, it tries to be self-aware and witty by having one of them say, "this is just what happens in low-budget horror movies, not real life" while looking at the camera. This is done a few times near the end and it made me uncomfortable. This is the perfect example of a total gimmick film - irresistible title and cover art. Then once you got home, popped it in your toploader and caught the first three minutes, you knew immediately you had been cheated by Ma and Pa. And Todd fuckin' Sheets. The good ol' days...

Saturday, September 20, 2014

Lunacy (2005, Jan Švankmajer)

"Lunacy" is Jan Svankmajer's self-described "horror film" (although it is not, at least in a traditional sense...) that, as he states, derives inspiration from Edgar Allen Poe and the Marquis de Sade. It's definitely an unconventional and 'far out' flick, in the familiar Svankmajer sense, although "Lunacy" tackles it's bizarrely compelling subject matter in a much more comprehensive and garrulous narrative than what I have seen previously from the Czech film-maker.

While on his way home from his mother's funeral, a timid young man, struggling with mental illness, is offered a ride by an eccentric marquis who allows him a place to stay. After the visitor witnesses the accommodating nobleman performing a strange blasphemous ritual involving nude women, nails and chocolate cake (?), he is duped into playing out an intricate therapy regimen with the man's mute servant. The reasoning behind this is based in the marquis' own battle with insanity, which leads the two men to explore a sanitarium where the unorthodox recourse in treatment is total freedom...

Needless to say, "Lunacy" is quite an odd film, but still works on pretty much every level. The main objective basically boils down to the question of how mental illness is treated using the two most 'extreme' fundamentals of the healing spectrum: free will or physical torture. It all plays out incredibly well, as far as the pacing and story structure goes. Definitely a bit of a departure from many of the other Svankmajer works I have seen, in terms of it being pretty dialog heavy and not all that dependent on his unique style of stop-motion animation - though there ARE intercut moments of chunks of raw meat scurrying around (something not uncommon for one of his films), but these act more as transitional scenes as opposed to playing a big integral part in the story. At least, that's how it appeared to me since I have no idea what their significance was.

It's safe to say that "Lunacy" is one of Svankmajer's most 'absorbing' films, though I'd also recommend his more 'visual' films, like "Little Otik" and "Conspirators of Pleasure", especially for those unfamiliar with his style.

Friday, September 19, 2014

Lucifer's Angels (2014, Ricky McDonald)

For about the first half of "Lucifer's Angels" I thought it was pretty substandard indie-backwoods slasher tripe. I was pleased to find that it improved significantly within the final half to where I can safely say that it DOES turn into a worthwhile flick...

A group of buddies are out on a camping trip to drink and meet chicks (one of whom has this inane notion that there will be chicks just hanging out in the woods waiting for them and is actually confused to find that there are none...) when they come across a redneck father and son. The son offers up a 'disturbing' campfire story about some ultra-depraved inmates from a nearby mental asylum that may be roaming the woods. Turns out, they are...

There're some pretty big plot-holes and the acting and dialog is uncomfortably bad, though the way it came together in the end was pretty well done, I thought. Again, a little flawed and confusing in spots - regarding the relation of certain characters and what-not, but, for the most part, the execution of the last half DID work fairly well. It's well shot for such an obviously low-budget effort - the wooded setting lending a nice atmosphere thanks to some relatively competent cinematography - and there are also a few adequately violent murder/torture scenes. Overall, there's enough good elements to "Lucifer's Angels" to get past it faults, for the most part, making it a reasonably enjoyable horror flick.

https://www.facebook.com/lucifersangelsmovie

Police State (1987, Nick Zedd)

"Police State" is clearly an overt delineation of transgressive auteur Nick Zedd's hatred for cops. It's a bit over-the-top, to say the least, but clearly comes from a real personal disdain on Zedd's part, as well as containing some rather felicitous caricaturizations of the police...

Zedd stars as himself (I would only assume...) who is stopped and hassled by an obnoxious pig while walking down the street. After getting mouthy and refusing to identify himself, he is taken into custody where he is repeatedly taunted and beaten by the sadistic swine.

Like I said, it's purposely 'excessive' in depicting police brutality, though there is an underlying truth to it. The joy the cops take in commanding their helplessly cuffed victim to sit in the chair while another comes in and screams for him to stand on the table over and over again in a perpetual mindfuck torture - as well as the threatening of castration - is an undoubtedly exaggerated, albeit apt, example of unitized police bullying and intimidation tactics. For an 18-minute short, "Police State" is enjoyable and contains a few pertinent messages referring to police abuse.

Thursday, September 18, 2014

I Am with AIDS (1986, David Cardoso)

I'm not really sure what to make of "I Am with AIDS" (aka. "Estou com AIDS"), mainly because it's in Portuguese - one of many languages I am not fluent in. It appeared to be a very 'campy' and sleazy anti-homo documentary/mockumentary concerning the forefront of the AIDS crisis...

From the looks of it, some gay dudes are giving women AIDS and everyone is dying. One dude is even about to bone a chick when he gets the call that he is infected (of course, that's what I assume happened since he looked less than happy and she couldn't get out of there fast enough...). The film really just attempts to show the contemptible degeneracy of the ultra-sleazy gay lifestyle of the mid-80s through porn and drug addiction causing the spread of disease.

In that regard, "I Am with AIDS" obviously comes across as very dated and laughably bizarre. At times, I couldn't help but question whether this was meant to be taken seriously or not, but considering the year it was made, I can only assume that it was definitely meant to spread some outrage. I just wish I could've followed along with the dialog and interviews, cuz I'm sure it would've made this flick even more of a hoot as people are writhing in their AIDS scabs and puking their guts out. Pretty strange, sleazy film...

Wednesday, September 17, 2014

Errors of the Human Body (2012, Eron Sheean)

I'd advise anyone going into this flick not to expect a 'wild' sci-fi/'body horror' thrill ride. If you adjust your expectations accordingly, then "Errors of the Human Body" is actually a pretty well-acted film with a reasonably interesting story.

A well respected American geneticist is called to a German biology lab to lecture on treating genetic mutations. He ends up uncovering the secret experiments being conducted by a few students who are injecting live mice with some potentially lethal virus that is possibly capable of rabidly regenerating living organisms. While sleuthing around their research, he's bitten by one of the lab mice and becomes infected with the sickness...

"Errors of the Human Body" isn't a bad film at all. Nothing quite along the lines of a Cronenberg flick, to say the least, but still a relatively engaging, low-key 'psychological bio-horror' film with extremely solid performances and some fairly gripping, depressive atmosphere. Again, it's nothing spectacular, but if a more slow-burn type of 'body horror' flick sounds like something you could get into, I'd give it a rec on a strict acting and storyline basis. Worth a look.

Tuesday, September 16, 2014

Serial Killer Culture (2014, John Borowski)

"Serial Killer Culture" is a pretty decent documentary that explores certain people's fascination with this particular sub-culture of memorabilia collecting and various forms of artistic expression.

The first guy was an interesting collector whose gig was acting as an art dealer for incarcerated murderers, such as John Wayne Gacy (one of the main ones...), Richard Ramirez and Elmer Wayne Henley. He also possessed an extensive array of Ed Gein artifacts and other interesting shit. The film also covers a few bands that specialize in 'graphic' lyrical themes pertaining to serial killers, a guy who got in some 'hot water' for a Dahmer comic book he put out, as well as some people who give Dahmer tours around Milwaukee. They also talk to David Van Gough who breaks down some of his Manson paintings and their cryptic detail and the famous Joe Coleman who brings it all home by telling of a meaningful exchange between him and Gacy...

One thing about each of the 'subjects' here was that they all appear to have a firm grasp on reality and moral decency, despite their rabid interest in the macabre subject matter. There's really no straight-up WEIRDOS in this doc. Everyone is pretty likeable and is able to explain their morbid fixation in an articulate, down-to-earth kinda way, which I was honestly happy to see. The former-serial killer art dealer, at one point, has such a casual stance on this type of hobby, to which he states, "... when I die I don't care what happens to all this shit...". However, the dime museum guy seemed a little crazy-eyed and disturbingly obsessive, but not too bad. Lot of eccentrics, for sure, but they all tend to keep it in check more so than I expected.

Pretty enlighening doc that's well worth checking out.

Wednesday, September 10, 2014

Omnivores (2013, Oscar Rojo)

I had heard some pretty positive remarks about this one so I made a point to bump it up a few notches higher on the 'to watch' list. I don't know what people are seeing in this, but "Omnivores" pretty much sucked.

A prominent restaurant critic/writer is commissioned by a publishing house to sample the culinary wares of a new wave of "clandestine restaurants" - highly exclusive, underground dinner parties featuring extremely exotic and expensive meals. He catches wind of one that is supposedly serving human meat to knowing guests who pay big to partake of such rare 'delicacies'...

It's basically the same set-up as "Hostel" - involving rich pricks who 'get off' on human peril and bloodshed and even go so far as to bid on it. The violence and gore is incredibly subdued to the point of being pretty much nonexistent. The opening scene and a somewhat 'graphic' throat slashing were the only standout moments of 'carnage'... Other than that, the acting is fine but all the characters are wooden as all hell and painfully boring. As far as the plot, everything is incredibly heavy on lead-up - such as the bearded butcher collecting and preparing the helpless victims and the critic's admittance into the cannibalistic supper club - which, in particular, builds up for a very boring and predictable outcome. It's so brief and underplayed that it's impossible to derive any satisfaction from the big conclusion.

"Omnivores" is a boring, pointless 'torture porn' retread. Very disappointing on all levels.

Monday, September 8, 2014

The German Chainsaw Massacre (1990, Christoph Schlingensief)

"The German Chainsaw Massacre" (aka. "Blackest Heart") is a bizarre and exuberantly absurd splatter-comedy with a strong 'arthouse' tenor. In that regard, it's a bit hard to get 'into', but I found it enjoyable nonetheless...

After killing her scumbag husband (who I'm pretty sure was played by a woman in a Moe Howard wig... ), a woman flees to west Germany to meet up with her boyfriend. There, she falls prey to a psychotic family of butchers who use GDR citizens as a cheap form of bratwurst meat.

Instead of going the straight horror/splatter route, this flick plays out as more of a political satire on German government and as a mean spirited commentary on the reunification process of 1990. It's an incredibly disjointed film due to the political context expressed through over-the-top characters and general inanity, though, in that same token, it's pretty damn entertaining. Udo Kier pops up a few times - once with a weird drawn-on swastika Hitler 'stache and again as a giggling loon igniting himself with flammable alcohol - and completely steals the show. All of the characters are as memorable as they are crazy and strange and there's a fair amount of cheap, splattery gore.

It's too weird of a flick to recommend to the casual viewer, but those into truly 'offbeat' cinema will get a kick out of this, I'm sure.

Sunday, September 7, 2014

Necrophile Passion (2013, Tom Heidenberg)

"Necrophile Passion" was obviously going for the ol' "extreme-arthouse" approach, but really just ends up being lame and boring. It basically just comes across as a very simplistic and amateurish necrophilia fetish film...

A guy finds the corpse of a woman in the woods. He contemplates calling 911, but ends up taking her home and boning her. He then has some flashbacks of a bitchy woman nagging him before he goes into the bathroom and slices his own shoulder with a blade. Somewhere in there, there's a long scene of a chick fucking a decomposed body (... that looked like it was coated in barbecue sauce). He then hears some voices and has some rough sex with his girlfriend, whom he wants to kill. There's also a very abrupt 'twist' ending.

I'd say the only halfway 'interesting' thing about "Necrophile Passion" was how the corpse banging was actually conducted in a way that was meant to be 'erotic'. Or at least that's how it appeared. Still, that all happens early on and is pretty drawn out, which leaves the rest of the movie seeming aimless and dull. Clearly, this flick was very "Nekromantik"-influenced in it's attempts at being aesthetically distinctive, but it just ends up falling flat and being a tedious and highly pretentious piece of shit, even despite the runtime coming in at under an hour. For better necro-themed films, check out the short film,"Nekro", or Nacho Cerda's "Aftermath". Or, of course, the classic works of Jorg Buttgerreit.

Thursday, September 4, 2014

The House on Straw Hill (1976, James Kenelm Clarke)

Can't say there's anything real remarkable about "The House on Straw Hill" (aka. "Trauma" / "Exposé"), other than it's moderate 'claim to fame' as being the one of the only British films on the 'Video Nasties' list. Like most films on the list, I don't really see what all the fuss is about, as it isn't all that shocking or 'nasty'.

Udo Kier plays a pretentious writer on a strict deadline who hires on a typist to assist him in completing his latest erotic novel. There's some past turmoil that occasionally surfaces through bloody hallucinations of slit wrists and a dead man, which isn't too hard to figure out before the 'big reveal' during the end...

Not a terrible 'exploitation-thriller' flick, just nothing all that great, overall. Like I said, the outcome is very predictable so there wasn't much to keep me all that interested aside from a little bit of 'light' lesbian action thrown in, mostly around the tail end. That and only about two unexceptional death scenes (the tit-slashing was decent) - just not enough of the 'good stuff', if ya ask me. Again, not a BAD film for what it's worth, just a little lacking in all departments. One of the 'tamer' of the notorious 'nasties'.

Tuesday, September 2, 2014

The Seasoning House (2012, Paul Hyett)

Damn, I was pretty surprised by this one. "The Seasoning House" is an incredibly solid and harrowing 'revenge' flick about child prostitution. It's quite an unflinching and violent film, despite a few moderate flaws...

A military unit - under the sadistic orders of a ruthless commander - abduct young girls from their homes to thrust into sex slavery in a rundown old house out in the woods. One of the girls is a deaf-mute who is put in charge of cleaning, feeding and applying crude makeup on the other girls as well as shooting them up with dope before 'guests' arrive. When the commander shows up with a few of his soldiers for a 'good time', one of the girls - already with a broken pelvis from an earlier vicious rape - is brutalized by one of the men which incites retaliation from the deaf girl who is capable of crawling through the walls to gain the upper hand.

All the performances are great and the depictions of violence and rape are very nasty and realistic. The only 'flaw' I picked up on was that it started kind of feeling a bit rushed in the final act with a little too much going on, such as the whole scene of the house full of pig decor belonging to the wife of one of the soldiers. Seemed a little far-fetched and out-of-place, I thought. That said, "The Seasoning House" comes highly recommended to those who dig more unpleasant-type films. Definitely a much harsher flick than I was expecting with some effectively grim moments and some great dark and depressing atmosphere.