Lucker: The Necrophagous (1986)

What a colossal piece of shit this movie turned out to be. I had heard more good about it than bad and upon finally checking it out, I was left at a loss as to what so many people saw in this one. Sure, its got some rather graphic material at times, but it was all too few-and-far-between among the extensive amount of BORING filler "Lucker" consisted of.

A necrophilic serial killer escapes from a hospital after a supposed suicide attempt - killing a few staff members and stealing a car. Eventually (after fucking a strangled nurse in the car...), he makes his way to town where he kills a few more people and buys a hooker who takes him back to her place where he kills her, lets her body rot for about a week and fucks her corpse...

"Lucker: The Necrophagous" is like the total 'amateur hour' of "Maniac" rip-offs. There's no plot, what-so-ever, which would've been fine if it had at least supplied a suitable array of fucked up shit and sadism'. Instead, the bulk of the movie is the killer walking around or sitting around... I WILL say, a few of the kills are decently violent and the effects in ONE particular necro-involved scene are actually okay, but the movie was just too drawn out and dull for me to get into at all. "Lucker" is definitely not worth hunting down, I'm sorry to say.

First Transmission (1982)

From what I've researched (non-extensively...) as to the back story of "First Transmission" - there was an experimental post-punk band from the '80s, fronted by an occultist tranny, named Genesis P-Orridge. The band started a cult-like network called 'Thee Temple ov Psychick Youth' that was apparently into black magic and rituals centered heavily around S&M. "First Transmission" is a series of four videos - clocking in at about 4-hours of footage, total, that the band put out, that was meant to "express" (I guess) what their organization (cult...) is all about. I could be "off", though.

The first thing we get is a 'spokesman' giving a long-winded spiel that doesn't seem to mean a whole helluva lot. Something about "truth" and the benefits of cumming. From here, we launch into "Ritual of Psychick Youth" - a prolonged sequence of a bound guy being initiated, with whippings and having symbols cut into his flesh. He's eventually pissed on and has blood pumped into his ass through a tube. This footage is all definitely genuine and incorporates some 'artsy' cut-aways and close-ups to spruce it up a bit, although they don't make this any less long and repetitive. That said, it's still pretty fucked up...

Which brings us to "part 2", which starts off on a dull note. A guy is going around filming random people around San Diego (or somewhere else around California...). We then cut to some teenage boys passed out in a motel room. Then more filming people. Shit starts getting interesting when a young looking boy has some kind of electro-shock gadget surgically inserted into his arm before being zapped until he cums. Then more filming random people before another kid has his arm cut up and some some weird, perverted looking shit with the gadget happens before he leaves. Another kid is operated on in the motel room before the coup de grâce - the first kid we saw getting electrocuted has his penis removed. Honestly, I have no idea what the hell was going on throughout this footage due to the total lack of audio other than the faint sound of TV news and Mexican music, but it's some seriously shady, fucked up and all-too REAL shit from the looks of it.

Next we get what is mostly just Jim Jones footage/audio. Toward the end of this section is a tacked on short "artsy" piece showing a woman sitting on a toilet, trimming her pubes. She then puts a bigass centipede-type insect on her vag. Then we see a guy cutting a hole into his dick...

The final segment is easily the most boring. There's an interview with two of the members of Psychic TV talking about TTOPY - then starts the film, "Psychoporn". Sounds good, but it's just various colored blobs moving around that at times resemble people having sex. This goes on for a LOOONG time.

Obviously, as a whole, this thing is way too long and boring with too many failed attempts and being 'artistic', but, however, the first two pieces of footage are definitely some disturbing stuff. Namely, the second one by a long shot! I'm not really sure what else to say on this weird comp. Fans of "extreme" material may be interested in "Ritual of Psychick Youth" and the bizarre dick-removal stuff. The rest is pretty much overly long nothingness.

German Angst (2015)

I was very much into checking out "German Angst" since hearing about the crowd-funding campaign for it a while back (my broke ass didn't contribute, I'm sorry to say...) and after finally getting around to checking it out, I've got mixed feelings. I guess I was just expecting something a bit... different, overall.

The first segment - titled "Final Girl" and directed by Jörg Buttgereit (of "Nekromantik" fame...) - involves a young woman in her apartment who provides voice-over information pertaining to the habits of guinea pigs, of which she has two as pets. She has breakfast while listening to the details of a brutal crime on the radio, before it is revealed that she has a bound man tied to a bed in the other room. She proceeds to castrate him while her voice-over describes how guinea pigs react to castration. Eventually, she begins mutilating the guy with an electric turkey knife...

Next is "Make a Wish", from Michael Kosakowski - about a young deaf couple who go exploring in an abandoned building. Via, sign language, the guy explains the origin of a medallion he's giving her that apparently has the power to allow the person holding it to swap bodies with someone else, which, according to his story (told through a flash-back...), allowed his grandmother to escape the Nazis. Before he can finish his story, however, they are coincidentally interrupted by a group of neo-Nazis who, upon discovering that the couple is Polish, begin brutally assaulting them. That is, until the boyfriend uses the 'magic' medallion to switch bodies with the lead skinhead. From there, the goons unknowingly begin torturing their compatriot.

The last story - "Alraune", directed by Andreas Marschall - is about a photographer who arranges to meet up with a chick he came across online. As they're about to hook up in the restroom of a nightclub, she is led away by some guys as the photographer follows. It takes him to an apartment that houses some weird secret society that he wants to get into in order to get to the chick. He gets more than he bargains for when he's granted admission and finds that they're running some kind of weird, demonic sex ritual thing where you're tied down and fucked by a sexy monster. He becomes addicted to this psychotropic 'sensation' and it leads him down a bad road, so to speak...

First and foremost, I was really disappointed with Buttgereit's contribution to this anthology. "Final Girl" is by far the weakest "story" (it's not even a story...) with an off-screen castration and an all too abrupt ending. I feel like the director was really phoning it in on this one and he was the one I, personally, was the most excited to see contribute to this film.

I enjoyed the second entry, and may even call it the best of the three. There's a good deal of violence and a pretty downer ending, which I liked, but it still wasn't all that great.

The final part provided a good enough story, but still felt a bit disjointed. Kinda felt familiar, like a "Tales from the Crypt" episode or something, but I'd say it had the most solid performances of the film and is shot very well. I wasn't all that blown away by it, though.

In all, "German Angst" is an alright anthology. Perhaps I was just expecting something a bit different - maybe something a bit more 'graphic' and 'extreme', considering it's from "Germany's most shocking directors". Instead, I found it significantly tamer and more 'stylish' than I would've thought, which isn't bad. All three shorts are well shot and acted and two out of the three have decent enough stories, but just didn't dole out the crazy gore I was expecting. I would say "German Angst" is just okay.

GG Allin: Pissed Off/Pissed On (1991)

I can never seem to get enough GG Allin material in my life and, thankfully, the deceased punk rock legend's brother, Merle, has produced some quality DVD comps of some of the more rarely seen GG/Murder Junkies antics and performances. I hope to be able to pick them all up eventually, but I couldn't help but snatch up the "Pissed Off/Pissed On" disc - the vast majority of which... you guessed it - is GG indulging in his love of golden showers.

There's some other things on tap within this 'treasure trove' of debauchery and rock 'n' roll chaos - such as tampon eating, GG eating out a dog, an interview with the Allin brothers, circa '93, the famous diarrhea french fries, GG violently ejecting a bitch from his hotel room and more... But, of course, you have no shortage of "piss party" footage where sluts willingly (and sometimes seemingly less willingly...) squat over his face and and douse him in yellow magic...

GG Allin fans that want some of a glimpse into the man's perversions and love of piss, as well as some lesser seen stuff should definitely get their hands on this.

Wrong Turn 2: Dead End (2007)

The original "Wrong Turn" was a pretty entertaining 'backwoods' horror flick that made up for its unoriginality with some undeniably strong suspense and make-up effects. Since seeing that one years ago, I've had the displeasure of having seen a few of the later, barely watchable sequels (I wanna say "4" and "7"... I'm not sure), but have heard that the first few follow-ups contained a reasonable amount of silly gore so I figured I'd give the second installment a shot.

The contestants of a "Survivor"-esque reality show are led out into the rural back country of West Virginia to make it through a series of challenges. Of course, their shoot is disrupted by the family of mutant cannibals inhabiting the woods...

This straight-to-video sequel takes things in a more over-the-top and non-serious direction than what we saw with the first movie, which, I guess works in its favor. The gore is more cartoonish this time around, while the tension levels are significantly... missing. I'll chalk that up to the drop in budget and lack of Stan Winston. In all, "Wrong Turn 2" is a basic 'backwoods' slasher film.

I Spit on Your Grave III: Vengeance is Mine (2015)

I really didn't like the "I Spit on Your Grave" remake. At all. Not only did I never in my wildest dreams think that Meir Zarchi's 'rape/revenge' classic would be blasphemed with a 'revamp', I never, EVER would have imagined it would turn into a franchise. An incredibly shitty franchise. I guess I was naive cuz nothing is sacred. In all fairness, I haven't seen the second installment so I'm not totally 'caught up' (I could give a fuck...), but if it's any better than either of the other two I've seen, I'd be very surprised.

So the rape victim of the previous movies becomes friends with a man-hating, punk rock chick at her sexual assault survivors support group and the two decide to start striking some fear in the hearts of perverts targeting girls from the group. When her friend is suddenly murdered by her ex-boyfriend, Jennifer amps up the harshness on her perv-punishing to full-on sado-torture and murder...

Pretty dull stuff, here. This is actually more along the lines of "Ms. .45", what with it's more urban setting, just without everything that made that awesome movie so memorable. There's really no exploitation 'feel' - much like the initial remake - which makes the incessant feminist angle seem so contrived and laughable, as opposed to imperative, as it were in the original film and even the far inferior remake. As for the violence, there are a few rather 'graphic' kills, most notably a castration and a guy getting a pipe rammed up his ass with a sledgehammer, although it's nothing 'good' enough to make up for how weak and clumsy and half-assed the story is and how it has no business bearing the "I Spit on Your Grave" title. That's all I care to say. Avoid this bullshit and, while you're at it, avoid the rest of this putrid trilogy.