User Reviews

Android of Notre Dame: 4/10: Demented DNA dabbling dwarf seeks to cure ailing sister (her ailment isn't specified but I'm guessing Ali MacGraw disease as she becomes prettier the sicker she gets). He gets a living dead girl to experiment on from a blackmailing body procurer (Tomorowo Taguchi who has only one expression but it's a doozy and kind of reminds one of a Japanese Phil Hartman). Taguchi gets greedy, the living dead girl decomposes, the sister gets sicker and the dwarf goes to a bad place.

The script sometimes writes checks the F/X can't cash (The legs and flying saw blade scene is particularly unconvincing) And the movie concentrates so much on the anatomical gross out it starts looking like an alien autopsy film. Yet an overall goofiness survives throughout.

Maybe it was the complete lack of humor (This is straightforward Poe style moralizing), the video quality that reminded me of a Canadian television movie, or the fact that after watching companion feature Devil's Experiment anything looks good but this little film wasn't all that bad.

I have seen all "Guinea Pig" movies and "Android of Notre Dame" is surely nothing special.It's definitely not as shocking as "Devil's Experiment" or "Flowers of Flesh and Blood".There is a reasonable amount of blood and gore,but the action is pretty dull.The film is neither funny nor disgusting.Anyway "Android of Notre Dame" is about Japanese dwarf who is trying to bring his girlfriend back to life by inserting various machine parts into her body...So if you're a fan of "Guinea Pig" series give this one a look,just don't expect something really repellent.5 out of 10.

Android of Notre Dame is third Guinea Pig movie, the first is Devil's Experiment and second is Flowers of Flesh and Blood, and these first two are the sickest in the series. Mermaid in a Manhole is fourth, and the rest of the series I can't remember clearly in which order they have been made. Anyway, Android of Notre Dame is no better than the others, and it isn't particularly disgusting either, and that is a achievement when we're talking about Guinea Pig films! A funny looking dwarf tries to save his beautiful sister from a deadly disease by using dead girls as guinea pigs for his experiments. The experiments on dead girls are pretty vile, but dull too. They don't shock too much even though the film tries it very much. The severed head reminds me of Re-Animator but that's all these films have in common. The acting is again non existent and the film was pretty hard to sit through for the second time, even though the film runs only slightly over one hour. The scene in which the dwarf tears off his victims/guinea pig's ribs with sound effects, is perhaps the most disgusting scene in the film, but it is also very stupidly made and the make up effects look as realistic as ketchup flying to the wall.

Android of Notre Dame is one of the worst shock intended movies I've seen and the most trifling part in the series because it offers absolutely nothing significant for the viewer. Japanese cinema fans will probably check this out, and so did I, but the expectations shouldn't be too high, and that applies to the whole series, too. Even the first two are not as sick as they could have been, but they are still very rough and mean spirited. Watch if you think you're interested in this kind of sicko cinema.

I didn't exactly know what the hell was going on since I saw this in Japanese without subs, but from what I could piece together the plot involved a dwarf scientist trying to find a way to bring his dying girlfriend back to a healthy physical state. Along the way he does lots of bizarre and graphic experiments on naked women (and he always nods his head after doing *ANYTHING*) and holds some guy captive who apparently tried to sucker him out of a business deal. The movie was certainly interesting to watch, and as with the rest of the series the special effects were for the most part phenomenal; but it just wasn't as gritty, humorous, or disgusting as the other GUINEA PIG films. However, I still feel that it's a worthy effort.

Another daft entry in the extremely gory Japanese Guinea Pig series, The Android of Notre Dame sees a demented dwarf scientist attempting to discover a way to save his terminally-ill sister.

When a mysterious stranger contacts the little guy offering to sell him a female body for use as a 'guinea pig', it looks as though he might be on the verge of a breakthrough—but he botches the experiment and, in a fit of rage, mutilates the corpse (repeatedly stabbing it in the chest with a scalpel).

Soon after, the stranger turns up on the wee fellow's doorstep, once again offering a corpse in exchange for money. This time, however, the scientist decides not to pay for his next cadaver—killing the visitor instead (by removing his legs with a buzz-saw booby trap), and using his re-animated severed head in a series of tests.

Eventually, the girlfriend of the dead guy comes looking for her beau, but also becomes a victim of the dwarf, thus providing him with a suitable body into which he can finally transplant his sister's 'consciousness'.

A rather tongue-in-cheek effort, Android of Notre Dame is far removed from the first two Guinea Pig movies, which attempted to be as nasty and as realistic as possible: this one features lots of hokey gore and unconvincing surgical procedures (including a particularly messy scene featuring rough 'n' ready rib removal) which make it a fairly entertaining experience for those who like their horror rather twisted and laden with blood, but not in the least bit disturbing.

As far as I am concerned, mad dwarfs, gratuitous violence and naked women always make a film watchable, so I wouldn't consider AOND to be a complete waste of 51 minutes, but those expecting anything quite as horrific as Flowers of Flesh and Blood (Guinea Pig 2) will be rather disappointed.

Yet another disappointing installment in the "infamous" "Guinea Pig" series. To be quite honest, none of the films in the series are all that great, but this one REALLY sucks. Long story short - freaky dwarf guy tries to heal ailing sister through weird experimentation. The story is retarded, the "gore" scenes are laughable at best, the acting is non-existent...I honestly can't find a single redeeming quality in this mess. Unearthed does a great job with the transfer quality, but that doesn't save this piece of garbage. Not gory, not shocking...In my opinion "Flower of Flesh and Blood", "He Never Dies", and "Mermaid in a Manhole" are really the only "Guinea Pig" films worth looking at at all, and even those aren't masterpieces by any means. Leave this one alone... 1/10

"Android of Notre Dame" is a strange little film. This sci-fi / horror production is the truly bizarre tale of a mad, vertically challenged scientist and his dying sister. This film reminded me of what might happen if a bunch of horror fans stumbled across a disused "Doctor Who" studio from the '80s...the production was a combination of cheap sets, colourful lighting and gallons of very bright and otherworldly gore...just what the doctor ordered!

"Android" is definitely a hesitant recommendation but perhaps a necessary viewing for "Guinea Pig" completists and fans of alternative J-Horror.

After the notorious first entry the people behind the Guinea Pig franchise decided to make a flick where there's no doubt that it is a real flick and not a snuff. But that doesn't mean that it was all that bad. The Guinea Pig is known for it's so-called snuff flicks but this is also a worth seeing.

It all reminded me of Re-animator (1985). We also have the severed head being reanimated but this here goes a bit further in part of the gore. It starts off rather slowly and in the beginning I was thinking, what's the fuss here but after a while when the brother who wants to save his sister is ready to catch a victim the gore and nudity comes in. First he's experimenting on a naked female and that doesn't work that well but like I said, once he captured a live species this flick turns into a gorefest. Still not as some other entries in the franchise but the removal of the heart looks rather real.

If you are a big fan of Re-animator then you must see this. If you are a fan of weird Japanese flicks then you will like this too.

Gore 2/5 Nudity 1/5 Effects 3/5 Story 3/5 Comedy 0/5

This is actually part 3.Blame Thomas Weisser for his useful but highly innacurate Japanese Cinema Encyclopedia,this is where lots of mistakes like this originate.The first two entries (on Midnight Video) in this series are DEVIL'S EXPERIMENT and FLOWERS OF FLESH AND BLOOD.This entry (which is curiously also called GUINEA PIG 2 in Japan) is from a completely different video company (JHV).You can tell because this is where the series switched from thoughtful and detailed meditations on sadistic behaviour (although you'd have to be an idiot like Charlie Sheen to really think it's snuff) to camp gore comedies like this. Toshihiko Hino (who can be spotted as a torturer in the first ZERO WOMAN-not the one available on Japan Shock video as Zero Woman,that's actually ZERO WOMAN 2) is a dwarf scientist trying to find a cure for his terminally ill girlfriend.He experiments on naked women.Parts are funny,and it's easy to sit through at only 50 minutes.Director Kuramoto is also responsible for the first two SEX BEAST ON CAMPUS sequels

The guinea pig-series is a quite odd and unique franchise. The series began as a snuff-type of franchise in which women get tortured in as many ways as imaginable. The series then also picked later some more comical and artistic approaches. This movie is like a mix of a more comical and artistic approach. It isn't really the best blend imaginable but this movie is maintaining enough to please the fans of the genre and of the odd Japanse series in general.

Due to its approach the movie is never quite serious to look upon its gore as something shocking or disgusting. Yet this movie still foremost picks a more of a serious approach with its story and because of this the movie also can't quite be called a humorous one. The movie is basically in between genres and it's also a real middle of the road movie.

Obviously it's not really a movie for just everyone but if you are familiar with some of the other movies from the series, this movie is still well worth watching for you.

6/10

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None of the urban mythology surrounding some of the other Guinea Pig films applies to this one which is just a mad scientist tale involving quite a bit of gore. It does not resemble a snuff film in any way, nor is it supposed to appear to be anything more than a movie. The effects are visual amazing, but are not all that realistic, not that androids have ever been dissected before in reality.

It's only about an hour long and the production values are low, but still it might be worth tracking down. The story is interesting enough and deals with the ethics of killing someone to save another person's life.

If you like Japanese horror, and there are many reasons why horror fans should, avoid this SOV piece of garbage. Not scary, not shocking, not entertaining. It does not make a horror film simply to throw lots of ketchup around and try to look gory. How this flic ever achieved a commercial release is a mystery to me.

The story of this borefest centres around a dwarf mad scientist who is trying to find a cure for his dying sister. So on he goes to commit murders in the name of research. This episode is in no way as gruesome as any of the other guinea pig films i have seen and the special effects arent realistic. I fell asleep after 35 minutes of watching this and i was in no hurry to watch the rest, but when i did get around to it, it was just the same old crap what i seen to begin with... BORING!!