Hello everyone! Well, I haven't updated this blog since the 19th September. Sorry about that! There have been several factors involved that have made my absence so long, but mostly I suppose it has been sheer laziness. I have recently moved properties, so I was offline for about a month when that happened, and combined with work and general real life I felt like I had no time. This and the fact my mind was occupied on another project I was doing writing film reviews for a site called Horror Fans Asylum Reviews, which I have subsequently stepped down from to concentrate on my own page which has been neglected.
Another main reason I hadn't been updating the page was the fact I seemed to be having more interaction on social networking sites. With Facebook, I was posting a lot of upcoming film trailers and trailers for older, non-mainstream films (basically whatever caught my attention). In the past few days this has changed. It seems that Facebook has had some policy changes, one of which has impeded my ability to share with people movie trailers and clips from sites like YouTube. Pretty much killing off a considerable portion of what I liked doing on Facebook..... showing trailers and clips (old and new), and having some nice little discussions on them.
I can imagine that a lot of other fan pages are having similar problems. My page and other pages are seen as businesses on Facebook, who could possibly (who knows how?) be making money from sharing clips from YouTube and other sites of the same vein.
I never have, and never will, use this site or any social networking pages to make any monetary gain (as I can imagine is the same for a lot of bloggers). Fuck, not many people read the page anyway, there wouldn't be any chance in hell of making money off this blog! All the competitions I've had on here and my other pages all come from my own pocket!
So with New Year on it's way in a few hours, I thought I would take the opportunity to be as honest with people as possible, and make changes in how this blog will work. I'll mostly be using the blog for posting most of my random thoughts as well as the usual film posts (the way the blog should have been anyway), this will mean the blog will be my primary focus! And I'd like to still interact with all the great people I've met online on my Facebook and Twitter pages, so I please urge anyone who follows these pages to please take a few seconds to follow my blog on here or comment whenever possible! Though I'll still be on those pages, they aren't my primary focus at the moment.
While I'm being honest as well, I'm not here to write about all the news on what new films are coming out and all that crap, there are TONS of pages that deal with that! I'm just here to talk about the films I love or whatever curiosities I've seen recently. If it's a new film that's caught my eye, so be it. But I'm not really interested a lot in which new horror film or whatever is coming out soon, chances are it'll be a disappointment anyway. Most of the stuff on here will be from my own collection. Just thought I'd be clear on what my blog is all about!
That was quite a rant I had there haha! I'd like to thank Dr Blood for kind of being like a mentor to me for a while and convincing me to keep the blog going when I had pretty much given up. Thank you! Also to everyone else, I hope you have a fantastic New Year and I hope to see you soon. Below you'll find a full movie to see you through the bells!
Well, finally I have managed to make it to the 6th film in the controversial "Guinea Pig" series, "Devil Woman Doctor". So far in the series I've seen varying degrees of graphic violence, such as torture and graphic mutilation, and even more degrees of insanity. A man who can't die pulling his internal organs out, a mermaid coughing out pus and worms, midget scientists conducting human experiments, and many more bizarre incidents. But this film has to be the most bizarre film in the series!
"Devil Woman Doctor" was made in 1986 by Hajime Tabe. Strangely enough, this film was produced as the 4th film in the series, but ended up coming out being the 6th to be released.
It stars a Japanese transvestite called Shinnosuke Ikehata (AKA Peter) in the lead role as the Devil Woman Doctor, an unlicensed doctor who's job is examining "heretical sicknesses where the common sense of medicine cannot be applied".
Basically the film is a series of silly sketches, where the Doctor introduces patients with very ridiculous ailments, and the outcomes of each sketch are usually just as ridiculous. For example, a man with a human face shaped malignant tumour which called a "human face whitlow" in medical terms (insane). The patient is a loud mouth yakuza gang member whereas the tumour (which can talk) is very polite and well spoken. The Doctor persuades the gang member to leave behind his life of crime and try to become a celebrity.
Another random sketch (which I thought was quite funny) is about a relationship between a woman and a walking corpse. He isn't exactly a zombie as he can still act like a normal person, he is just decomposing. They manage to pull a few gags with that sketch. A scene where they pinky promise to love each forever, only for the corpse's pinky to be pulled off. Also another scene where the corpse is given car air fresheners to keep him smelling nice! Very bizarre but I had to laugh.
Finally another sketch where the Doctor has to remove a tattoo using a Freddy Krueger type glove with scalpels on it. the only problem is, the tattoo can move around the body and change shape. We are shown a stop motion scene of a tattoo moving around a man's body changing shape and disappearing then reappearing out the guy's anus! The Doctor tries to cut the tattoo out, but it keeps getting away until the patient ends up running out of skin.
Even for a series as crazy as "Guinea Pig", this is very out of character. It takes a very light hearted approach to things and is very slapstick in nature (the credits come up to a montage of the cast hitting each other, custard pie style in the face with what looks like a board with spikes on it, with blood splatting out of it!). It is quite an oddity even for Japanese cinema. It surely is the worst film in the series, but I had to laugh at the absurdity of it all.
There's not much else I can say about this film. It's bad but you'll find a couple of stupid laughs in it. I've had a good time revisiting the "Guinea Pig" series, from it's dark pseudo snuff beginnings, to it's high concept storyline's and then it's fall from grace with a slapstick comedy ending.
I hope you all enjoyed my post's on the "Guinea Pig" films, even if you hadn't heard of them before. Please leave a comment below and get a conversation going. If you want to hear any more of my ramblings, there are links to my Twitter and Facebook pages to the right. I have also just been given the position of film reviewer at Horror Film Asylum Reviews, a brand new site where I'll be reviewing more mainstream horror films every Wednesday. Check it out!
Hey everyone. Taking a brief break from doing the "Guinea Pig" series to talk about "Dredd 3D". I usually avoid recent movies of this nature because you generally find that most other sites have already talked about them, I like to keep it a bit more obscure! But Judge Dredd has always been one of my favourite comic characters and I felt compelled to do a post on the film.
"Dredd 3D" (2012) was directed by Pete Travis (Vantage Point), and has a script written by Alex Garland (28 Days Later, Sunshine). Judge Dredd creator John Wagner also had a close collaboration with the film.
In the future, America has become a radioactive wasteland. Throughout the wasteland there are Mega Cities surrounded by a vast desert called the Cursed Earth. Mega City One runs from Boston to Washington DC and the city is enforced by Judges from the Hall Of Justice. The Judges are judge, jury and execution who dish out instant sentences on the cities undesirables.
Judge Dredd (Karl Urban) is one of the most famous and feared Judges in the city. During a routine day on the job, Dredd is asked to evaluate a rookie called Cassandra Anderson (Olivia Thirlby), who failed the tests to become a Judge but has a talent which is very special. She happens to be one of the best psychics the Hall Of Justice has ever seen.
At the beginning of the evaluation, Dredd asks Anderson to choose an incident to investigate. Anderson chooses to investigate a triple homicide at a 200 storey tower block slum called Peach Trees, where they find out the murders were probably related to a drug called SLO-MO: a highly addictive drug which slows time down to 1% normal speed for the user. Peach Trees is controlled by a ruthless drug lord called Ma-Ma, who manufactures and supplies all the SLO-MO in Mega City One. Dredd and Anderson locate an apartment in the complex which is alleged to distribute the drug, and after a shootout, apprehend a drug dealer whom Anderson has sensed was involved in the murder.
Ma-Ma is worried the drug dealer is going to tell the Judges everything about the drug operation going on in Peach Trees, so puts the entire tower block into lock down and orders the Judges to be killed. Dredd and Anderson are forced to fight their way up 200 storeys in order to survive. I wont spoil any more of the film for you than I already have!
People have commented on the film's story, which is very nearly identical to Gareth Evans "The Raid: Redemption". I agree that it is very similar, but I think it has all been an unfortunate coincidence. "Dredd 3D" is an independent film made with a 45 million budget, meaning that the film had to avoid a lot of expensive exterior shots of a futuristic town with flying cars and robots and all that other expensive stuff. This is one of the reasons the film had to be mostly filmed indoors.
The uniform that the Judges wear has changed a bit from the comics. Alex Garland thought that since Dredd was out on the frontline fighting a war on criminals, it makes sense to be wearing a suit of body armour to withstand any knocks he might take. I don't think the uniform looks that radically different that it makes the character look bad, it makes a bit more sense on realistic terms for me.
The city also looks quite different. The comic book version of Mega City One is quite dense with a lot of buildings of all different shapes and sizes packed in close to each other. In the film the city is still bustling, but it seems more barren. Alex Garland also says that when all the tall buildings were all close together, you lose the sense of scale of how tall the buildings really are. So spacing out the high buildings were people live, shows you how massive the buildings are in comparison to the rest of the city.
Judge Dredd isn't the most talkative or emotional of characters, so the film is shown more from Anderson's point of view. For Dredd, everything is quite black and white and he is very fast at delivering judgement on people. Anderson is more emotional, and has more of a moral compass. She was raised in a slum like Peach Trees and understands the plight and desperation that most of the people in that environment have. Throughout the film, she even manages to make Dredd change slightly.
Even though there are some slight changes from the comic, this is a very faithful adaptation. The film is totally uncompromising when it comes to violence just like the comic is. There are some nice SLO-MO scenes where people are being shot in gruesome detail, and because it's so slow it seems very comic book like and even very beautiful. It's good to see a film these days that is so respectful to the source material, even in taking the risk of losing out on money by keeping the film an 18 rating. For a film like this that probably has a large audience that are under 18, it's good that the makers kept their integrity and I feel it really benefited the film.
If you haven't figured it out already, I really liked this film. Sure I may be biased since I'm such a fan boy, but I really did feel it was very close to the comic. I'll admit that the story isn't very original and is very similar to "The Raid", but if they decide to make a sequel it's a nice introduction to the characters and a good starting point to giving people an idea of the world that Dredd lives in.
Karl Urban a already a fan of Judge Dredd and had a lot of say in how the character is played, and I think he nailed it. Olivia Thirlby is great as Anderson and really does bear an uncanny resemblance to the comic version. She is as much a part of "Dredd 3D" as Urban is.
I love the dream like slow motion scenes when people are taking the drug SLO-MO. I like how the stylistic slow motion scenes are actually part of the storyline and not put in pointlessly like a Michael Bay film!
Also I like my film's violent, and on that note I'm glad they retained that tone and never pussied out.
Thanks for reading. I'd love to hear your opinions on the film or even your opinions on the comic, so please leave a comment below! I also have Facebook and Twitter pages which you can follow. The links are on the right of the page.
My next post will be on the final "Guinea Pig" film "Devil Woman Doctor".
Hi there! Sorry I've been away for about a month but now I'll get back on track. "Android Of Notre Dame" is the 5th film in the "Guinea Pig" series. It was made in 1989 and was directed by Kazuhito Kuramoto.
The series started out with no real purpose but to sicken with it's graphic violence and it was quite successful at doing so. Then the series went into gross out comedy territory and then fantastical fairy tale horror. This 5th installment goes into the realms of violent science fiction.
Like the last two films, this title also has a bizarre story. A midget scientist called Karazawa has a sister who is dying. He is experimenting on animals to see if it is possible to revive her when she inevitably dies The experimentation with animals is unsuccessful and he feels that to get the proper results, he must use a fresh cadaver.
Out of the blue, he receives a phone call from a man called Kato (Tomorowo Taguchi of "Tetsuo I & II" amongst other great films), who offers him the body of a 21 year old female for the bargain price of ten million yen.
Karazawa accepts the offer and before he knows it, he has the body in his laboratory. He is a bit unhappy at the freshness of the corpse (5 days old), but he proceeds with his experiments. They don't go to plan and he basically fries the cadaver with electricity! Frustrated he stabs away at the body. He comes to the conclusion that he needs something fresher.
Later on, Kato arrives unexpectedly at Karazawa's door. He says he has the final answer to successfully finish the experiments. Also he blackmails Karazawa by saying if he doesn't accept his offer, he will put a virus into his computer. Kato asks to see the secret laboratory, and when Karazawa leads him to it, he chops off Kato's legs with a random buzz saw blade he throws at him, then he kills him.
Kato is now the latest guinea pig for Karazawa's experiments, though he turns out looking like Pinhead's long lost cousin. He is basically a reanimated severed head with a robotic arm from this point on. Kato is then programmed to call his partner. She comes over to the laboratory and is then killed by Kato and his robot hand. Karazawa then takes the woman's heart and gives it to his dead sister, who then says, "Why did you bring me back to life? Finally I found peace." Then dies again. Bizarre.
As with the rest of the films in the series this film is quite short, running at just over 50mins. The film is played quite seriously, but the acting is terrible. The over the top violence which is the main trait of the series, is almost non existent in this film. Also whatever special effects are in the film are done quite badly compared to the other films. This is definitely when the series went into decline (some would say the series was in decline from the beginning), and the wooden acting and sub par special effects ruin the film. Though the film has an interesting premise and some pretty cool imagery it is largely forgettable. The only reason it is probably remembered is because the "Guinea Pig" name has been tacked on. Definitely a curiosity though! I couldn't find the trailer, so I've posted the whole film below.
Also if you're wondering where Notre Dame comes into all of this, Karazawa mentions at some point in the film that Quasimodo was an android!?
Thanks for reading. The next post will be on the final film of the series, "Devil Woman Doctor".
The fourth entry in the "Guinea Pig" series, "Mermaid In A Manhole" (1988) is the second film in the series (after "Flower Of Flesh And Blood") to be directed by manga artist Hideshi Hino.
Based on a manga made by the director, "Mermaid In A Manhole" is like a sick fairy tale. The film is about a painter whose wife has left him. He spends most of his time going into the sewers to paint the things he finds there. "This is my secret place. All my lost treasures are here. All the beautiful things I have ever lost, they are here. All the time I have lost is here. Everything is hidden in the darkness."
While in the sewer, he stumbles across a mermaid. He recognises the mermaid from when he played in the area as a child, and the sewer used to be a river. He realises that he always came down into the sewer to paint because he hoped to see the mermaid again. From now on, he will only paint her.
While painting in the sewer, he notices the mermaid has a bad infection. He takes her to his home to try and heal her and to continue to paint. The mermaid's condition rapidly deteriorates, until her full chest is covered in cysts, yet she insists on being painted. The painter struggles to find the right paint to properly depict the infection on canvas, so the mermaid asks him to slice the cysts on her chest and collect the pus to use as paint.
As the infection progresses, it takes over much of her body. In one truly disgusting scene, her boils burst and worms and other insects come out of the wounds along with pus and blood. In the end, when the painting is done and the mermaid is dying, she asks the painter to finally kill her. The painter then dismembers the body.
While all this has been happening throughout the film, his neighbours have been wondering what he is up to. When the painter kills the mermaid, the blood seeps into the neighbours flat. When they go over to see what's happening, they find the painter chopping up the body. The police are called, and come to the conclusion that he killed his ex wife, believing she was a mermaid.
Out of all the "Guinea Pig" films, I found "Mermaid In A Manhole" the toughest to watch. It was quite sad to see this beautiful mermaid dying in the most horrible fashion. The scenes where she is in pain from infection, with sores spraying blood and pus is truly disgusting, especially the scenes with worms coming out of the wounds and coming out the mermaids mouth. But I really like the story, which is quite profound.
Out of all of the "Guinea Pig" films, Hideshi Hino's contributions stand out the most. The mood of his films are the darkest, and really do have the power to affect you. He definitely put the "Guinea Pig" films on the radar and is really the man to blame for the controversy surrounding the series. I would've loved for him to continue a career in film as I think he would have made his mark in Asian cinema. I would say that this is my favourite from the whole series. I'll need to seek out some of his manga to read!
As always, I'd love for you to leave a comment. It helps me know people are reading! Also like my Facebook page or Twitter (links are on the right hand side of the page), as I'malways ranting on either one of them!
Hello! As I'm not the most prolific of bloggers due to constantly being busy recently, I thought I'd ask some of my followers on Facebook if they would like to submit a post on the page for people to read.
James Bell sent me a post for the film "Dumpling" (2004) directed by Fruit Chan. Thanks James!
Here's what he has to say about this great film!
"In my later teenage years I started a love affair with oriental cuisine, and out-sourced foodtypes from different Asian regions to try and quench my hunger, even though I can't handle spice. I remember becoming mildly obsessed with dumplings, the dough or flour wrapped bundles that could contain meat, vegetables and in some cultures sweets. I loved the variety of flavours, and how you could boil them, fry them or steam them, to create a multitude of differing offerings. Around the same time I got into Tartan Asian cinema, and the 'Extreme' sub-genre of this, and came across a film aptly entitled 'Dumplings' (2004); later I found out there are two versions of this film, the full-cinematic release (which I prefer) to the smaller original short, part of the Three...Extremes (2002) compilation.
It follows the story of a middle-aged woman, who is in a loveless and (not by her doing) open marriage. Feeling isolated from her husband she turns to a local chef who – it is believed – can help restore beauty, and although what she offers works, the side-effects are not just physical, but also morally repugnant. What lines would you cross to get the image you desire, and what are you prepared to have to eat to get it? Apart from the lead storyline, a second, more human one, grounds you to the inhuman events unfolding elsewhere, and tie together nicely – but I tell you now, because of this film, I can now only bring myself to eat fried dumplings, at a push."
Thanks, James Bell for taking the time to submit this post! If you haven't seen this film you should definitely give it a shot. You'll never look at a dumpling the same way again!
I've talked about the worst two parts of the controversial "Guinea Pig" series, but that is pretty much where most of the controversy ends. "The Devil's Experiment" and "Flower Of Flesh And Blood" were pseudo-snuff movies with very little to no plot, and pretty much made to disgust the audience and leave a bad taste in their mouth.
"He Never Dies" (may as well use the short title) is a more silly and bizarre title. After the controversy of the first two films, made to feel real and were quite serious and mean spirited in nature, the series took a very surprising turn. It had a script, a full cast, opening and closing credits, and was made as a horror comedy!
"He Never Dies" is a 1986 film directed by Masayuki Kusumi, who doesn't seem to have directed anything since. The film is about a man who lives alone in a small apartment. He is experiencing problems with his life and with his work. Not only has he lost his girlfriend, but he is bored and always in trouble with his boss at work, who wants nothing to do with him. He attempts to cut his wrist at home, but the pain makes him reconsider his attempt at suicide.
Instead of suicide, he decides not to go back to work. After 4 days of sitting about bored, and with not a single phone call from anyone to see if he's OK, including his boss, he assumes he has just been forgotten. He finally gets the courage to cut his wrist and does it properly this time. He panics and sits on the floor, waiting for death, when he realises that the pain is gone and the blood has stopped.
He then stabs through his arm with a pen, which also does nothing to him. Frustrated, he chops his hand off which also doesn't have the desired effect of killing him! He comes to the conclusion that he can't die and even tries calling the emergency services to tell them this fact, but even they don't care. After some more attempts at killing himself to no avail, he decides to get revenge on his ex-girlfriend and a co-worker who is going out with her.
He calls his co-worker (who is also in the company of his ex-firlfriend) and asks him to come over under the pretence that he needs gardening utensils for some reason, and also a hatchet! When the co-worker comes to his house (also with the ex-girlfriend who waits in the car) he proceeds to terrify him by cutting open his stomach with a knife and throwing his internal organs over the co-worker.
The ex-girlfriend comes up to see what's taking so long with her boyfriend. When she goes into the apartment she finds her boyfriend unconscious on the floor and the man's severed head (which is still alive) on the table. Instead of being scared, she berates the man for making such a mess of his apartment, and starts to clean up all the blood.
All very bizarre. The end credits are of gory scenes from the movie played backwards and of an outtake of everyone goofing around and laughing. Also there's an American guy who presents the film at the start, and also closes the film saying there could be more immortal people in the world like the man in the film who don't realise it yet!
Besides the extreme violence, this is a very lighthearted and fun film. The main character is very likeable and quite funny, and at just over 40 minutes in length, it doesn't outstay it's welcome. It's also one of the strangest films in the "Guinea Pig" series, especially when placed beside the previous two films in the series. I bet no one was expecting a sequel like this after a film like "Flower Of Flesh And Blood". That's probably why I like it so much!
After the realism of the first two films and the way they were probably taken so seriously by the press at the time, I think this is the series way of telling people to lighten up a bit. You can tell they had a lot of fun making this film. As unsettling as "Flower And Flesh And Blood" was (which is a credit to the director Hideshi Hino for making an effective film), when you see the making of the film, all you see is the makers of the film and the actors having a good laugh and goofing around. It's weird to see the contrast between the making of a film, and the film itself!
I couldn't find a trailer for this film but I found a best of video. Enjoy!
Hey there! In the last post I talked about the first film in the controversial "Guinea Pig" series called "The Devil's Experiment", which is quite disturbing in it's own right. Now it's onto the 2nd film in the series "Flower Of Flesh And Blood", which is the most infamous, notorious, and extreme out of the collection.
It was made in 1985 (the same year as "The Devil's Experiment") by a Japanese manga artist called Hideshi Hino, with the story being based on one of his comic books.
The film opens with a brief description of what the film is about.
"It was in April 1985, the time of full cherry blossoms in Tokyo, bizarre cartoonist Hideshi Hino recieved one horrible parcel from an unidentified person who calls himself an enthusiastic fan, of 54 still pictures and a 19 page letter. The letter told the cartoonist that a horrible and bizarre crime seemed to have been performed by the person of aesthetic paranoia in some secret place.The 8mm film was considered to be a vivid and authentic film showing an unidentified man chop the body of a woman into pieces and put her into his collection. Therefore, this film should not be shown to other people. Hideshi Hino newly created this video as a restructured Semi-Documentary based on the 8mm film, pictures and letter."
A woman leaves a station and is followed, sedated, and kidnapped. She wakes to find herself tied to a bed in a room with blood spattered walls. She see's a man dressed as a samurai sharpening blades in the corner. The samurai goes to another corner of the room where there is a chicken in a cage, takes it out, and standing over the woman says "Look! This is your fate!". He then proceeds to chop the chickens head off.
The samurai then makes up a syringe and drugs the woman. "The woman is at present in a state of ecstasy from an injection of drugs. She feels no pain at all, as you see. Not only does she feel no pain but the feeling is rather pleasurable. When her bright red blood starts to creep voluptuously and creature-like on her white skin, like blossoms of blood and flesh blooming in a sea of red, truly a dazzling, intoxicating rapture. There is absolutely nothing more beautiful in life than this. I am going to show you the ideal of beauty. First of all, red blossoms of blood blooming from her wrist." At this point the samurai is talking to the camera and to the people watching.
What follows is a truly graphic depiction of the woman's hand being severed by the wrist. The rest of the 40-odd minute film is a step by step dissection of the woman in graphic detail. Before each part of the body is removed the samurai turns to the camera and give a short description of his intentions in his usual poetic way. After all the dissecting he goes on to disembowel, behead, and take out one of the woman's eyes (which he also decides to have a nice little nibble on!).
After all this is done you'd be safe in assuming that you've pretty much seen all the film has to offer but then the samurai adds one more thing. "Now, I am going to present my collection to you." He pulls back a curtain to show his collection of body parts he has amassed over time. This is the most unsettling part of the film for me. While showing close up shots of body parts decomposing with worms and maggots crawling about them, the samurai sings quite a disturbing song over it which really nails the tone of this film.
A funny story about this film is that the actor Charlie Sheen saw it in the early 90's and thought it was real so he contacted the FBI. To be honest he probably saw it on an old tape with no subtitles, and the special effects are pretty good so must've looked all the more real on VHS. Before that the movie was only really known in Japan where it was a top 10 hit in the VHS charts! Somehow a copy had managed to get to Charlie Sheen who then made a big deal about it, got it into the news, and gave the film a lot of publicity. If it weren't for that incident, the film would probably be forgotten now and wouldn't be out on DVD.
The makers of the film were also ordered by Japanese authorities to prove that the film wasn't real and that the woman was still alive. They made a making of feature to this effect and it has been a companion piece to the film ever since.
What are my thoughts? The film is very basic story wise and running at about 42 minutes means there is very little filler. It has slightly more of a story behind it than the first one where a plot is non existant, but the real point of the film is to deliver shocking scenes of violence that are supposed to offend the viewer, and it really does deliver on the violence. It doesn't shy away from showing you everything in gruesome detail, down to the samurai chiseling away at the bones in the arms to remove them. To the samurai, the dismemberment of the woman's body and the blood that flows is like a seed blooming into a flower. To everyone else, it's pretty insane (though it would make a great character study if fleshed out a bit more).
Kudos has to be given to the special effects team. The effects are quite realistic and are the reason this film is so disturbing, and some of the close up's look shockingly real, and to the untrained eye I can imagine people could see this as real (some scenes also give the game away that they are obviously fake too though, so I don't think anyone else would be doing a Charlie Sheen haha). Extreme horror and a resurgence of splatter films have made this film more relevant than ever, as it one of the originators of ultra violent extreme cinema. Even today it runs circles around modern films!
I wouldn't recommend this to everyone but if you're a real special effects fan or gore hound, this is a must see. Also the film is very cruel and straight to the point for people who like their films disturbing. I found the end of the film when the samurai shows off his collection th most disturbing aspect of the movie. For anyone else, you might as well steer clear and forget the film even exists.
For those that want to see the film, it is on YouTube in it's entirety. Though be warned it is graphic!
The next post will be a bit more light hearted. It will be on "Guinea Pig 3: Shudder! The Man Who Doesn't Die".
As always please feel free to post comments below. I also have twitter and facebook pages that can be linked to on the right hand side of the page if you want to join in!
Hi there! The next few posts are going to be concentrating on the infamous "Guinea Pig" series of films. As you can see from the image on the left, these films are nice and romantic!
The Guinea Pig series are highly controversial Japanese gore films made in the 1980's through to the 90's. The first two films (this is the first) are known to be the most notorious due to strong scenes of torture and mutilation, and no storyline so to speak. The films after the first two became a lot more comedic with proper stories driving them probably due in part to such high controversy.
This will probably be short. "the Devil's Experiment" was made in 1985 by director Satoru Oguya (who went on to produce several of the other films). The plot is pretty non existant, it's just scene after scene of terrible things happening to a woman.
Each torture scene begins with a black screen with a word describing what tortures are going to happen. These tortures are kicking, claw, unconscious, a sound, skin, burn, worms, guts, and needle. So basically you have scenes with the woman being kicked, repeatedly slapped, spun round in a chair and forced to drink whisky, having to endure a constant high pitched sound with headphones strapped to her head, burned, have meat thrown on her, and finally a needle put through her eye!
This all sounds pretty horrific and you may be wondering why I would watch this? In the 80's, watching this film on a bad quality tape would have probably made this film seem a lot more brutal than it actually is. Watching it on DVD, you can see how bad the so called acting is, and you can see that the slaps and kicks aren't really connecting. Though the eyeball scene is still quite well done.
Another reason I watch this stuff is because I'm interested in the history of horror in all it's aspects, and the history of censorship throughout the years. Though before you judge me, think of the masses of people who flock to the cinema to watch the latest "Saw" or "Hostel", this is really no different. Hollywood is basically ripping off and slightly watering down the same style of violence for it's horror movie franchises (and I'm sure Eli Roth was watching films like this in his youth and taking down notes!). Though the Japanese really took some of their violence to the extreme in the 80s and 90's splatter films.
"The Devil's Experiment" runs at just over 40 mins long as do the rest of the films in the series. This films sole purpose is to offend and sicken the viewer with its unnecessary violence, and for it's time was an experiment in how far the boundaries of acceptance where in film. Watching it nowadays, it's quite tame compared to some of the newer gore films. Though the Japanese have always excelled in the art of suffering, currently reclaiming their throne with "Grotesque" (which is also banned in the UK), which almost seems like a spiritual successor to the "Guinea Pig" films. I also feel that film stuck it's middle finger up at Hollywood, and reminded them that Japan were making films like this a long time before the States!
This film series is still pretty underground, it is banned outright in the UK and even in it's native Japan (who have even banned the words guinea pig from being in a film title). If you really want to see it, check online for a copy though be prepared to pay a bit more than a normal boxset, or you may be able to download it!
My own thought on the film is that I like it. To me sometimes horror has to be challenging and uncomfortable. A horror film should actually horrify and leave you feeling a bit numb. People should try and continue to push boundaries instead of making the same stuff over and over. That's what the Guinea Pig series done in the 80's and it's effect is felt to this day, even if you haven't heard of these films. Fortunately there are still a handful of people making interesting horror but 9 out of 10 horror films these days are really bad! Rant over.
Thanks for reading! The next post will deal with the second, even more controversial "Guinea Pig 2: Flower Of Flesh And Blood).
If you have any thoughts, please feel free to comment below!
Michael.
Warning! This trailer has a scene of violence some may not find suitable. You have been warned!
Hey everybody! A nice blogger named Grimm over at Grimm Reviewz was so kind as to nominate me for a Liebster Award! Thanks Grimm, it's good to know that people are reading and hopefully enjoying the blog!
The Liebster Award is really more of a hypothetical pat on the back and a nice bit of encouragement for bloggers than a real award, and it's great that someone kept me in mind!
These are the rules:
Each person must post 11 things about themselves.
Answer the question the tagger has set for you.
Create 11 questions for the people you have tagged to answer.
Choose 11 people and link them in your post.
Go to their page and tell them.
No tag backs.
Here's 11 things about myself:
I'm 30 years old (going on 15 haha!)
I live in Glasgow, Scotland.
I'm left handed.
During the day I work as an engineer.
I love videogames (I have all the current consoles)
I play guitar.
I have a massive music and film collection.
I don't write enough on my blog.
I have a large 3D TV to watch my films on.
I love gadgets.
I'm addicted to Irn Bru (Scottish fizzy drink)
These are the the answers to the questions I've been asked
What's your favourite horror movie moment?
One of my all time favourite scenes is in "Friday The 13th: Part 2", When the disabled guy gets a machete to the face and pushed down the stairs. It's also a great horror film!
What's your favourite horror movie?
Probably the original "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre". The art direction by Bob Burns and just the idea of Leatherface are so imaginative.
What celebrity would you pay to see naked?
Mila Kunis.
What's the funniest thing to happen to you in the last week?
I broke my key and was locked out my flat and I had left my phone in said flat!
What's the scariest movie you've ever seen?
Probably "The Exorcist".
What horror movie poster art do you think is the best?
Again, "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre".
How many DVD's do you have?
I'm not sure as most of them are stored in boxes, but 500+ easily (excluding blu rays)
What size shoe do you wear?
8.
How old were you when you saw your first horror film?
5 and the film was "Halloween".
What is your favourite food?
Pasta (probably spaghetti)
What is your favourite drink?
Irn Bru.
Create 11 questions for the people you've tagged to answer,
Hi there! Well after writing about the film "Maniac", starring Joe Spinell, I thought I'd just write a short post on the proposed sequel and the short promo film that was made.
"Maniac 2: Mr Robbie" was made in 1986, and was filmed by Buddy Giovinazzo who had only just made his first film "Combat Shock". Unfortunately shortly after this promo was filmed, Joe Spinell's untimely death cut short any plans for a feature film. Joe Spinell was upset that so many females were upset about the first film (not surprising really), that he decided to make the main character a vigilante who kills abusive parents.
Mr. Robbie is a children's tv personality, and receives a lot of mail from fans. Some of these children talk about how they are beaten up by their parents for watching too much tv. Mr. Robbie is upset about this and decides to bring the law into his own hands!
I could say more about this film, but the video at the bottom of the page says about all there is to know about this short film, and also includes the film as well.
It's too bad that Joe Spinell died before he had a chance to make a feature film. From this concept it looked like a good idea and could have been quite an enjoyable film!
Thanks for reading! (I told you it would be short!)
I first saw "Man Bites Dog" in 1999 when a friend of mine bought it on VHS, and it has really made an impression on me ever since. It is a Belgian film, released in 1991 and was directed by Andre Bonzel and Benoit Poelvoorde.
The film is a black & white mockumentary about a serial killer named Ben (Benoit Poelvoorde), who is being recorded for a warts and all documentary. The camera crew joins Ben while he is murdering people, visiting his family and friends, or listening to his views on a broad variety of subjects (poetry, cinema, music, the weight ratio needed to sink a human body in the water).
After a while, the camera crew starts to get involved in the killing. Instead of just Ben murdering individual people, they target families and couples in their homes. The killing stops for a bit when Ben gets arrested after a victim escapes. Somehow he manages to escape jail but afterwards he, the camera crew, and his family are being targeted in some sort of revenge attack which pretty much ends in everyone's death.
This is just a brief outline of the plot, but there is so much more to this film than was mentioned. "Man Bites Dog" is very much a very funny at times, black comedy. He talks about how he likes to attack old people in their homes because they are easier to rob, as it can be made to look accidental and old people keep all their valuables in their property. He is very particular to postmen, who are his favourite victims. Ben is a very entertaining person in front of the camera, and has many insightful opinions on many different subjects which he talks about at length. This gives him a bit more depth than most films of this type.
It can be that entertaining at times, that when the violence does happen it can be very sobering. The deaths are filmed quite realistically, and most are very violent. There are some scenes that are very hard to swallow, especially once the camera crew become involved in the killing. In one scene a family at home are targeted, the camera crew smother the child while Ben deals with the family. In the worst scene, after an entertaining scene of the group getting drunk, they target a couple at home. What follows is a disturbing rape scene, followed by a horrific morning after scene of the aftermath.
As disturbing as these scenes are, I hope it doesn't put you off watching the film entirely. As grim as I've made the film sound, "Man Bites Dog" has a lot of humorous scenes and the main character Ben can be really funny and engaging. It won various awards around the world, including two awards at Cannes.
As you can assume, the film was very controversial when released. Even the posters couldn't escape controversy. The poster depicts Ben shooting downwards, while a small amount of blood and a baby's dummy are shown flying through the air. This never happens in the film nor is it suggested. Even though, certain posters for this film replace the dummy with a pair of dentures! At the bottom of the page is a comparison of the two posters. The left image is "graphic" and the right image is "censored".
In my last post for "Don't Go In The House", I talked about how horror was being attacked by critics and certain groups of people because of the violence, usually against women. I also mentioned another film, "Maniac". This film was released in the same year as "Don't Go In The House", and I think these two films really go hand in hand for fanning the flames of controversy.
"Maniac" is a 1980 released film directed by William Lustig, who has made a few films with the word maniac in the title. He directed the popular films "Maniac Cop" 1&2, and co-directed 3 with Joel Soisson (a writer/producer on many straight to dvd films like "Highlander: Endgame", "Mimic 2", & "Hollow Man 2"). William Lustig is also the CEO of the entertainment company Blue Underground which has released a nice 2 disc region free blu ray of this film.
The film revolves around a lonely figure called Frank Zito (Joe Spinell), who lives in a dingy apartment with his collection of mannequins. He is a serial killer who stalks and kills women, then afterwards he scalps them and takes their clothing to dress up his mannequin collection. He often has conversations and even sleeps with these mannequins. These conversations give a bit of background on Frank. He talks to the mannequins like they are his mother who we find out was an abusive prostitute who orphaned poor Frank after a car accident.
One day Frank notices a photographer in the park called Anna. After a visit to her apartment they start dating and things seem to go well. On the last date, Frank asks if he can visit his mothers grave before going to the cinema. When he visits the grave he goes completely insane and tries to kill Anna, who manages to escape. I hate spoilers so saying anything after this point would ruin things!
Joe Spinell began his film career with a non speaking and uncredited role in "The Godfather". This part opened to door to many other films where he usually played some sort of violent thug. He was a close friend of Sylvester Stallone and starred as the loan shark who employs Stallone in "Rocky". They were already friends beforehand when Stallone was a struggling actor, and Spinell later on became Godfather to his son Sage Stallone. He later starred in other Stallone related films. Spinell wrote, co-produced and developed the story for "Maniac", which is probably his best performance. He is truly believable as this unhinged psychopath who at times can be very charming to people and sometimes be someone you can really sympathise with due to his past. The scenes when he is alone in his flat are the most disturbing to me. A planned sequel was in the works, though there is a short promo that is unfortunately Spinell's last time on camera before his death in 1989. This short promo was directed by Buddy Giovinazzo who was also supposed to direct the sequel. Giovinazzo is famous for his first film "Combat Shock", which is one of the best films Troma ever distributed. I'll put the trailer at the bottom of the post.
Another person who contributes to the notoriety of this film is Tom Savini who done the special effects. The special effects are quite realistic and very bloody, and Savini keeps the best special effect to himself and one of the most infamous effects in horror film history! He stars as a guy who drives his girlfriend out to a nice, dark, secluded area, where they attempt to make out. Spinell jumps onto the front of the car with a double barrelled shotgun and shoots through the windscreen, blowing Savini's head apart in realistic slow motion. This really is the "money shot" of the film. The prosthetic head was filled with animal innards and bits if animal brain, then really shot apart with a shotgun.
As I said before, horror films were being attacked for their violence mainly against women, and there is no denying that this is a violent film. It doesn't have a body count like "Nightmare On Elm Street" or "Friday the 13th", but what it does have is highly realistic, very bloody deaths. At the time, New York was crime capital of the USA, and street violence was commonplace. It wasn't unrealistic to think people like this would be roaming the streets, especially with American serial killers like Ted Bundy and David Berkowitz (Son of Sam) only recently being caught and still in people's memory.
If you like your horror films gritty and bloody try and get or borrow a copy of this film, I thinks it is without doubt an underrated classic. Very soon the remake will be released, starring Elijah Wood and written by Alexandra Aja and directed by Franck Khalfoun (a very successful team who made "Haute Tension" and the excellent "P2"), and it looks like it could be very good. I'll put the trailer underneath this post too!
Thanks again for taking the time to read the page. Please feel free to comment below, like my facebook page which I update a lot more than I do here (sorry I'm not the most prolific blogger but I do try!), or join my twitter. There are links to the right of the page. Also check out the other blogs that I think are very good that are linked also.
"Don't Go In The House" is a 1980 film directed by Joseph Ellison. This was pretty much his only directing job apart from a film called "Joey", made in 1986. It was largely unseen and never made much of an impact compared to his first film.
"Don't Go In The House" has went on to be a cult classic, and only recently has been released in the UK by the label Arrow Video (under their ArrowDrome guise) after years being stuck in video nasty limbo. Needless to say I snapped it up.
The story is about a man called Donny (Dan Grimaldi), who was physically abused by his mother as a child. She would regularly punish him and try to burn the evil out of him over the kitchen stove. He develops an obsession with fire and grows up to work at the local incinerator. There is an accident at work where a can of aerosol gets into one of the furnaces and explodes, setting someone on fire. Instead of helping the guy out, Donny just watches the guy burn as other people come out to save him. Afterwards, he claims he froze with shock.
After that incident, he goes back to the house he shares with his abusive mother. When he goes to check on her, he finds out she has died in her sleep. At this discovery he becomes totally unhinged. He decides to modify a bedroom into his own furnace, with steel walls and a chain for hanging people on. He then goes on to pick up various women to take home to become victims in his "room of steel", as the trailer likes to call it.
This is where the film gains some notoriety. At that time the horror genre was being attacked by critics and feminine groups for it's depiction of violence pretty much solely against women. Roughly around the same time a film called "Maniac" was released, basically following a serial killer who preys on women and kills them in horrible ways. Critics were saying that the people who made these films were "sick" and "depraved" individuals. These two films were the main examples of that argument. I'm not really here to spark debate as to whether that is true or not (if you have anything to say, feel free to mention in the comments below).
I liked this film. I can see what critics are getting at with the violence at parts, and is slightly disturbing, but there are a lot of other films from that time period that I would deem more disturbing. "Maniac" being one of them (watch that movie if you get the chance!). The film is pretty short. It could have been an extra 20 minutes at least, the film ends quite abruptly. I would rather let you watch the film to see what I mean, but the ending left me a bit underwhelmed. The running time may have been due to budget constraints, but I suppose for what money they did have, they managed to make a fairly decent, disturbing and effective film. It also has one of my favourite horror trailers ever, and for people wanting to see the film but would rather not buy it, the entire film is on youtube for your enjoyment! The trailers for "Don't Go In The House", and "Maniac", are at the end of this post.
Thanks for reading the blog. I took a bit of time out and I'm not the most prolific of bloggers, but I hope you have enjoyed reading. Feel free to comment below, join the page, or get in on the conversation on twitter or facebook (links are on the right of the page). I actually do a lot on my facebook page so you should check it out!
Just in case anyone has noticed there hasn't been a post in a few weeks. I've just been really busy but hopefully I'll have something up soon. Got a few films that be writing posts about so please keep an eye out.
Also if you have the time and you haven't already, please like my facebook page. I have been talking a lot on there, doing competitions and talking about films in general. The more the merrier so check it out! There is a like button on the right hand side of the page. If you are already liking the page, please spread the word!
Also for more reading, take a look at some of the other blogs that I think are great that you can go to by clicking on the links on the right too!
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