Female Market (1986, Yasuaki Uegaki)

"Female Market" is a decent enough entry in the Nikkatsu diapason, despite the palpable lack of plot or much originality. However, if you don't mind 70 minutes of wall-to-wall rape and female degradation, then this will certainly titillate your inner sleaze-hound.

A bunch of young women are abducted and held captive by a bunch of sleaze-bag sex slave ring creeps who are getting their rocks off while attempting to break each girl's spirit before selling them off to Africa. Of course, a few of them aren't giving up without a fight...

Not a whole lot else going on in this one other than the above mentioned debasement. It's all well and good, but, personally, I do prefer a LITTLE more 'depth' to my pinku sadism, which "Female Market" opted for the total straight-forward sexual deviancy/rape format. I'm fine with that, but I did find it getting a little monotonous and drudging after a while. And considering the non-stop "action" on display here, it never really crosses any bold lines or does anything memorable with the abundance of perverted violence it features. Still, I've seen worse, but I've seen far better. Nikkatsu completists should check it out, anyway.

American Mary (2012, Jen & Sylvia Soska)

For a while now, I haven't been very interested in newer horror flicks, due, primarily, to the undeniable stagnancy of the genre, but there's been a few titles that have been mentioned to me that I figured I should check out. I need something to rejuvenate my appreciation for horror and "American Mary" had the potential to do so, but it ultimately stumbled into an Eli Roth-influenced fuck-fest.

A medical student decides to take up stripping to pay her phone bill, which leads to her involvement in some kind of seedy shit going on in the basement of the club where they promptly require her surgical knowledge for a guy who appears to have been all cut up. She's thrown a wad of cash on the spot and, the next day, gets a visit from some Joan Rivers-faced, squeaky-voiced, plastic surgery-freak who wants to hire her to provide her Barbie doll-looking, freako friend with the necessary anatomical alterations to complete her inhuman image. Things go well and, eventually, she starts making a name for herself in the world of underground body modification surgery, working out of the sleazy strip joint where it all started...

This one kicked off in a fairly intriguing manner - doling out a suitable dose of weirdness and unnatural characters having unnatural interactions about doing unnatural things to themselves. So the premise there was enough to rope me in early on and I was able to enjoy the film, for the most part. Problem I had was the pacing seemed a bit odd and clumsy. Too much happens way too quick to the point where the story's structure seemed way too confused and arbitrary. Things happen and there's really no reason given for them, which CAN be fine in the right context with the right film narrative, but it didn't really work with this, I thought. A lot is just glossed over really fast. The script just seemed like it could've used some tightening so things could've had a better "flow". The film is dedicated to Eli Roth, which didn't surprise me as the whole 'tone' of it oozed fangirl reverence. Filmmakers... please. For the sake of the genre, do NOT take pointers from that guy!

Fairy in a Cage (1977, Kôyû Ohara)

Some fine Nikkatsu rapey goodness on display within "Fairy in a Cage"! Not the best, in terms of plot, but I'd definitely say there's enough to keep it rollin' along, plus a more than adequate amount of bondage and sleaze to maintain it's pinky integrity.

During WWII, a corrupt military police squad is unjustly arresting women for "interrogation" which consists of perverted torture and sexual abuse. The wife of a successful jeweler is snatched up - along with a sissy stage actor - accused of anti-government sedition and imprisoned by the police who subject them to crazy, cruel humiliations and torture under the orders of the scummy head of the squad...

"Fairy in a Cage" is one extremely straight-forward pinku film, which may not appeal to those who prefer the more plot-heavy entries, which, personally, I don't really care. As long as you got Naomi Tani suspended from her ankles while her vag is filled with water for five minutes, I'm happy. Not only that, ya got some vaginal rope burns, a wimp who seems to hate having his cock sucked, a hilarious Omorashi scene, some painful wooden horse torture and two bound people's genitals being coated in some kind of itching cream, forcing them to hump each other for relief. Yeah, it's not the most 'stylish' or innovative of it's kind, but "Fairy in a Cage" is a damn enjoyable S&M flick.

A Serbian Film (2010, Srdjan Spasojevic)

Like many, I had heard a lot about this flick prior to it's DVD release - including some of the many "taboo" and "shocking" things that were featured in it. Needless to say, my curiosity peaked and I finally checked it out a few weeks ago. Here is the inexplicably late review...

"A Serbian Film" definitely lived up to the hype, cramming in as many outrageously vile acts of sexual violence and controversial themes as it could, while managing to work within the confines of a decent plot. A retired male porn actor, Milos - now living comfortably with his wife and young child - is offered a new "adult" film gig being directed by an eccentric new "arthouse" pornographer who is desperately trying to bring something 'new' to the industry. Milos is given no info on what he will be doing in the film - only vague instructions through an earpiece as he quickly discovers that this is not like the run-of-the-mill films he had worked on in the past. Here, he is forced to perform violence laden sex acts at shady locations in front of children. That is only the beginning... The director wants his candid style of porn to exceed the bounds of "mainstream" fetishism by including torture and murder into the game-plan.

I feel that's all that really needs to be said about the general plot line. From what I have heard from others, "A Serbain Film" is a movie that many understandably find hard to stomach. Not sure what that says about me, since I didn't see the film as 'disgraceful' by my own standards, yet it DOES certainly cross a line. I mean, if other hardcore horror/sleaze sickos are loosing their shit over this thing and turning it off, there's definitely something to be said about my own sense of morality since I actually enjoyed and appreciated it for the most part. The storyline itself was good, but nothing all that astounding, in my opinion. The acting was solid, however, and deeply effective at times. There were a few nice twists and turns, which were nice to see in a flick that will undoubtedly be known specifically for a number of ghastly scenes that, I could definitely see, taking top bill over the story. Of course, the scene depicting a newborn baby being raped is the stand-out moment that will, no doubt, secure this movie a legacy for quite some time. Yes, it is a gruesome and heavily sinister concept ever-so brazenly featured in an unflinching and graphic context on film. Other notable moments of brutality include necrophilia, a woman's bloody, toothless mouth being fucked until she suffocates, and numerous references and renderings of pedophilia...

Obviouisly, "A Serbian Film" is not for all tastes, but those interested in such films that push the limits of decency should check it out.

Evil Dead (2013, Fede Alvarez)

Like all of these horror remakes, I really didn't give a shit about seeing "Evil Dead" '13, though I'm still adamant about keeping an open mind at this point since there is no fighting the eminence of this type of bullshit. I'm pretty much numb to it at this point like everyone else should be and I'll usually end up checking out the remake eventually, but I'm typically not running to a theater on opening day. As far as this one went - I heard of the extensive gore content (BETTER fucking be! It's Evil Dead!) that tempted the dreaded NC-17 prior to it's release (probably a bullshit marketing gimmick to rope in gore hounds...). Was also hearing early on that the movie consisted of all practical effects. No CGI. After watching film, I see that I was misled on that. So I picked up a copy to give it a shot...

Well, unlike the original, it ain't party time at this rustic little cabin in the woods. They're actually detoxing the one dude's sister who's gotten a bit outta control on the dope. One of them - who kinda looked like Kurt Cobain with out-of-date glasses - comes across a book... THE book and goes about yapping the spell that unleashes the malevolent entities in the forest. As expected, all hell breaks loose...

To be honest, I was pretty much all in with this once I shook off the disappointment of the CGI fire within the first 5 minutes. Apparently, only MOST of the effects were practical. Oh well... My bad, I guess.The gory action gets going and stays pretty constant, although not really reaching that no-holds-barred craziness of the original. Still, there's some decent bodily mutilation going on here with syringes, retractable blades, nail guns, chainsaws, etc. They didn't really play with those tense 'lows' that Raimi's did with shit like the giggling girlfriend and the crap in the basement coming alive, which really added to the suspense and astringent, insanity-inducing seclusion. My major gripe, however, was the formulaic, lone female survivor ending, that modern horror is obsessed with resorting to, whether it makes sense or not. With this, they clearly made a last ditch ruling and frantically kill off this version's Ash (though, I'll say, he wasn't nearly as effective) and resurrect the junkie who carries out a wildly implausible ending (yeah, I'm referring to the super human-like removal of an appendage, specifically). I know that modern mainstream horror film makers are compelled to promote feminism at any cost, but can't just ONE sneak by just for the sake of contrast? Eh...

"Evil Dead" '13 is a fine gore flick. Not one of those frustratingly shitty remakes, but still won't 'blow your mind'.

Lucky (2004, Steve Cuden)

Been revisiting some straight-to-DVD, video store shelf-fillers from the early-to-mid 2000's lately for some reason. There was quite a few I recall being pretty decent, but, from the looks of it... those days long gone... Anyways, "Lucky" was another random rental I picked up from some big chain about 10 years ago after having picked over the horror archives and because I didn't give two fucks about shit like "The Notebook", which I'm sure they had 800 copies of.

A lonely, balding, alcoholic cartoon writer hits a little Chihuahua-ish breed of dog on his way back from a beer run one night. He takes the little guy home and attempts to nurse him back to health while continuing to struggle through writer's block as he contemplates his entire existence through bleak, yet humorous voice-over narration. When it appears that the dog - ironically named Lucky - has died, the guy digs him a little backyard grave, but to his surprise, Lucky springs to life and begins communicating telepathically with the miserable writer and starts helping him get his failing writing career back on track with a new cartoon script. Things start looking up for him when he meets the woman of his dreams (or perverse fantasies) and starts selling quality scripts around town. Unfortunately for him, Lucky's work ethic gets in the way of his master's personal life and bodies start piling up...

"Lucky" isn't anything phenomenal, but it's definitely a fun way to kill and hour and half. There's some pretty funny bits of jet black humor and goofy dialog. Plus, toward the third act it get's into the topic of necrophilia and S&M pretty heavy which was kinda awesome. And it's always nice to find a micro-budget horror film that manages to compensate for it's lack of high-end production value with a skillful proficiency such as this. "Lucky" never really feels as cheap as I'm sure it was due to some fairly competent film making. Check it out.