It’s very rare that independent horror movies manage to make me turn away from the screen and cringe. Not even Tom Six’s “Human Centipede” accomplished that and those movies were desperate to be considered disturbing. “Gut” and its beauty is in what is not completely put in front of the screen. Director Elias has every chance to be gratuitous, gory, and absolutely grotesque, but “Gut” isn’t for the grue fans, so much as it is for folks who appreciate delving in to the disturbing corners of the mind. The corners that elicit arousal that would be otherwise deemed taboo by civilized human beings. We all have that darkness within our mind that find something somewhat enticing, and the same can be said for character Tom, whose friend and consistent hanger on Dan, shows him a special kind of erotic film that not only embeds itself in to their minds, but haunts Tom until he begins to re-assess his feelings for the film in general.
Tag Archives: Gore
Final Destination 5 (2011) (DVD/Blu-Ray/Digital)
It pains me that we have to sit through the “Final Destination” films when it can be developed in to something with a rich mythos and an overreaching story arc that ties together various characters. Instead it trots out one death after the other and insultingly introduces a new plot element that is not only ridiculous but until now was never mentioned in a movie. Again “Final Destination” sets up a series of questions and never answers them. So I’m left asking why. And with no successful answers. Because the producers behind “Final Destination” don’t feel the need to turn this series in to a semi-intelligent franchise, they just want this to be the films with the outstanding deaths.
To kako – Stin epohi ton iroon (Evil – In the Time of Heroes) (2009)
When last we met our heroes from “Evil,” they were stranded in the middle of a futbol stadium looking for an escape helicopter rumored to be able to take them to a safe haven. Instead they were met with nothing and found themselves in the middle of a field surrounded by wall to wall walking dead. According to this film, they survived this hopeless battle and are now on the move to learn more about this dread zombie apocalypse. Never has there been such a scattered and hopelessly awful sequel than “Evil: In the Time of Heroes.” While the original was no masterpiece, it at least strived to bring us something of an interesting and intense zombie picture that practiced the formula of the modern zombie films with a twist on the supernatural.
Zombies! Zombies! Zombies! – Strippers vs. Zombies (2008)
A group of strippers, two hookers, a bouncer, and a pimp run in to a strip club after hours. The start of a funny joke? It’s the premise for “Zombies! Zombies! Zombies!” a surprisingly well made and entertaining horror comedy considering the miniscule budget that it works on from the minute one. Notice how the strip club is the same exterior as the ice rink from the prologue. But who cares? “Zombies! Zombies! Zombies!” is a classic grind house throwback that features a group of mismatched survivors and malcontents going up against an endless horde of the walking dead.
Insecticidal (2005)
“Maggoty cannibal girls don’t get dates!”
Bitchy (but hot) Josi is throwing the party of the week at her sorority house, where booze runs heavy and gorgeous women scamper around. The only sister not having fun is her own. Young Cami is a scientist and geeky (but hot) aspiring entomologist who worships bugs and garners her own bug zoo in her room. On a bitchy tirade, Josi storms in to Cami’s room and kills all of her bugs with spray. Unfortunately the spray has counteracted with the chemicals Cami has fed them and now the bugs are alive, the size of Buick’s and ready to munch on some busty party goers!
Long Pigs (2007)
At first glance of “Long Pigs” and screen captures, many movie goers will be quick to dismiss Chris Power and Nathan Hyne’s mock documentary as merely a low budget film attempting to shock us in to submission and while in many ways “Long Pigs” is a gruesome and shocking film, “Long Pigs” also has a sense of sardonic humor and intelligence to it that makes it much more than just a movie about a cannibal and his fixation on the fine art of grooming human corpses to be eaten for his cooked delicacies. The directors behind this clearly were influenced by the likes of the classic film “Man Bites Dog” about a documentary crew anxiously trying to get in to the mind of a criminal who get too close for comfort, and “Long Pigs” is very influenced by that title engaging in a long moral and social breakdown of the greatest of taboos: cannibalism, and what repercussions they have in today’s society.
Jolting Tales of Tension in the EC Comics Tradition!
I know that I may not be touching on anything novel here when I say that horror comics aren’t a dead art form, but you have to appreciate that people keep saying it after the horror comic was officially dead for a number of years. For a long time I suffered through endlessly cheesy and insipid “horror” themed comics from Marvel and DC both of whom always possessed a respectable amount of monsters and goblins, but no blood and zero realism whatsoever. Even when they evoked the moods of EC Comics, they chose to adamantly steer away from anything grisly or disgusting, thus it was PG horror that felt often like a dry hump for the respectable horror fan.