Reviews

Call me cynical, Narrow minded, whatever but this film is horrible in every sense. OK basically a twelve year old boy is sent by his grandmother to his mother who works and runs a big name bordello to press her for money. Being in this environment of course he gets a real education in the matters of sex. But at the end his final lesson is taught to him by dear old mom.

Where do I start?? Oh yea why is this film around. I was completely floored at the ending. This twelve year old is in a sex scene with a grown woman...two different times! In those scenes that child was a grope away from this being child porn. Even the implication of such things like when he wet down he stomach and you see a big smile on her face...c'mon we all know what that means is wrong. This is abuse pure and simple.

What floors me more than that is the fact that people seem to think this is OK. Saying " Oh its art". You can defecate in a dixe cup and someone will call it art that couldn't be motr true than here. Anyone who OK with this kind of thing...get help please. Also the whole XuXa thing. if I did this film I would try and stop it as well. She really should be ashamed of her self. the fact that she is a children's entertainer now seems real messed up.

OK lets get one thing out of the way. this is Soft-core porn and really nothing more. There is no other reason for watching this. Now don't get me wrong I really enjoyed this and the others in the Emmanuelle in space series. Krista Allan is absolutely stunning from head to toe and is not shy in this about it here. Basically Emmanuelle is on a space ship teaching Aliens about sex and sensuality through virtual reality that sends her to spots all over the world.

Now for those who have jumped straight into hard core porn...don't bother. There is not shots of penetration, money shots or things of that nature. However that doesn't mean that the series doesn't do its job...trust me Emmanuelle in space got me through some very awkward years not to be too personal.

I will say that Emmanuelle in space are not nearly as sleazy as the black Emmanuelle films staring Laura Gesmer and directed by Joe D'Amato and Jess Franco. Those are far more graphic in depictions of sex and oddly enough violence. So this is far more tame than one would assume.

Everyone else as well as the aforementioned Allan is also Gorgeous on there own as well but then again in this type of film everyone is so over the top attractive that it crosses well over into unrealistic. Its sensual and erotic without being pornographic so if your looking for a quick get me off or your a couple who wants to watch something spicy but don't want the raunchiness of standard porn then this is a definite recommendation.

When i first read about this film on the unearthed films coming soon page i was interested to say the least. The description said and i quote" Make Salo 120 days of Sodom look tame in comparison". That being said i was more nervous than anything during my first viewing, thats a bold statement and to back it up is a task in and of itself. Anyways i did my homework and the film was based on the Armin Weiwes case, the cannibal who found a willing victim. Anyways i had to sit through this film three times to fully get a grasp on just what it was that bothered me. I can say it wasn't the gore, or even the homosexual content although on most blogs referring this film that was one of the biggest complaints.

anyways what really got me above all things was how realistic everything was and not just effective special effects. The film was cast perfectly. Carsten Frank was frighteningly believable as Armin, He had this incredibly dark way about him you could almost believe he was a real deviant. The actor as the victim he came off as a very slow and easily suggestible with the same sense of deviancy as the latter. The two really feed off each other...no pun intended.

All this cycles an incredibly troubling court ship complete with a scene of homosexuality that could only be topped by hard core gay porn, honestly having seen Dora's other work and seeing what they did in those i wouldn't be surprised if Carsten Frank and the other actor actually had sex. This all leads to some absolutely vicious series of gore scenes including castration, gutting and finally cannibalism. Personally the castration scene made me curl into a ball. Finally the actual death scene has to be the most disturbing part. The way the body was being carried, everything seemed to be in place, there was small puddles of chunky vomit, bowels were voided...all in detail. All in all this film once really taken in and processed is so much more than whats taken at face value. It felt to me almost like and mind you this is all based on actual events, i was watching some perverse tragedy, there was something not only grotesque, but dark, sad,and perverse. Couple that with the minimalist piano score, which is almost become Hallmark to extreme German cinema.

If you like horror films think twice about this film, however if you are a gore hound, or have a serious interest in true crime stories than go ahead. Be forewarned.

When i heard about this film i knew i had to see it. Having seen Cannibal, Marian Dora's first film i knew this was gong to be something worth mentioning. Cannibal was such a perverse and visceral film, not to mention realistic in its depiction of what happened so when i found this title there was no real hesitation. Anways i watched this title and i have to say that this easily ranked in my top 10 of the worst films i have watched. The only real time i have ever had to take breaks from a film on the grounds of just being overwhelmed. The story lacks but then again the version i saw was in German and had no subtitles so i can let that go.what i gather is that three men filled with contempt for all humanity and four women gather at an old run down house to basically have on last bang as one of the men clearly is dying. With that said once the everything descends into absolute hell.

Most of what you can think of is on display in the almost three hours of film. Rape, murder, necrophilia, bestiality, animal cruelty,fecal matter, urination, graphic nudity, close up shots of both male and female ejaculation, Blasphemy.With all that said i will give credit where it is due . Beyond the fact that this film is very harsh there are some absolutely breath taking scenery, and the score by the late great David Hess adds a haunting beauty that honestly makes this film that much worse.

Now don't get me wrong as bad as this is its still doesn't hold to that of a scat or fetish porn film as far as content in fact the films of Otto Muhel are far more graphic. however there is something in this film that is just very hard to watch and even harder to shake off later on. I don't recommend this film at all. Too long, too pretentious, graphic and between shock scenes very boring. I also feel too that the film is on top of all mentioned issues misogynistic and misanthropic. I don't recommend this one way or the other.

I have no illusions on my sense of humor, i am lowbrow to a tee the bluer the better.With that in mind i went into this film already as a fan of the Ferrelly Brothers, Dumb and Dumber, There's something about Mary,etc etc. So naturally i was expecting some laughs and i got them and then sum. The Story is basic, guy meets girl, there is horrible mix up, hilarity ensues. Although lowbrow the gags in this films are hysterical, My favorite easily is in the asylum during group therapy, when one patient asks the main character if he had sex with the female lead to which he responds yes and the first patients " Me and my wife had sex once a week till she died...then it was three or four times a week" Seriously i almost died at that line and on top of that one of the other prominent patients looked exactly like a very good friend of mine.

The jokes are crude and nothing is really sacred here. You got jokes about the disabled, incest, homosexuality, necrophilia, bestiality, semen, penis and fart jokes...its all here but consistently funny. Not for kids but to be honest not much from the this directing team is, so who cares sit back and have some laughs i know i have

As a fan of film i cringe when i hear the word sequel, because let's face it films rarely if ever have sequels that come near the original and in horror films that number is a fraction of that. With that thought in mind there are films I've come to in my travels that at the end i ask myself or whoever is still in the room at that time " How can you follow that one up?". In many cases you just can't, however there is that time when lightning indeed does strike. Ironically i came to this when watching a sequel that I had absolutely no hope for what so ever and that film is nekromantik 2.

Now before i defend my stance on this film let me catch all those uninitiated up to speed. We start out with the end of the first film where Rob is killing himself on the bed but set in an archival seepiatone lens. Cut to Monika, a nurse with a real nasty fetish, She finds Rob obituary and decides his work is not done. So she takes him home and has her fun but as usual something comes up. Monika meets a nice guy who dubs porn films for a living. The two hit it off and a really nice romance blossoms and of course old habits die hard. After some odd indicators that Monika isn't who she says she is and some soul searching she decides to have her cake...or corpse and eat it too resulting in a creative but disgusting solution to her love troubles.

Now first off i do not in any way shape or form advocate or condone necrophilia but the film was solid. The script was coherent, the casting was good, the placement of characters actually made sense witch really cut on continuity errors..which we all is a hallmark in horror sequels. The film itself was in my mind very well made, everything was here. It was dark, disturbing, more disgusting at some points than the original. I even admired the other flashback scene where Betty comes to Robs grave and gets angry that someone pilfered the plot before her. Now sitting she thinks back to the last time they spoke and how she tore him down realizing how nasty she treated him and cries at his empty plot.

In closing this film is not for everyone and that is a actually a gross understatement...no pun intended . Love it or hate it this is one of the few times that one will find a film that actually lives up to the original. The fact that people still talk about Nekromantik twenty five years after its release to me says something and on top of that the fact that the sequel is still just as talked about really says something about the film in the terms that how often does that happen. Who really talks about Halloween part three, or nightmare on elms street part two...not many. All in all this is worth the watch...if your strong enough that is. all the good points aside this is still a film that deals graphically with something that most will find repulsive, reviewer included.

First things first I as a horror fan am not a real fan of the small but small non the less prevalent sub-genre of horror and art films focusing on the subject of necrophilia. Personally it just does not do anything for me....just not my cup of tea and that may or may not make this review sound biased so i will try to be as objective as possible. I found out about this film around seven or eight years ago give or take and from what i had initially read this sounded like a seriously depraved piece of film. The review made the films come of as something comparable to nekromantik or aftermath but it floated in obscurity until 2009 when the good people at synapse films put out a very, very nice print of an otherwise worthless film.

I sat through most of the films in this sub-genre, nekromantik 1 and 2,aftermath, parts of kissed, still yet have to see love me dealy. However unlike the first previous mentioned three films everything that made these films compelling , disturbing, or even remotely entertaining was just not there with this film. THe story line revolves around a depraved killer who wakes up from a coma only to continue his spree witch automatically made me question the idea that director had ripped off Halloween. THe character is like stone, he wanders for the majority of the film ( that is when he is not killing and humping...in that order) he is wandering like some mindless zombie, not even speaking till the end. Even then he starts ranting that he had some type of relationship with the protagonist again i cant help but think of Halloween.

The dialog is atrocious even for a c grade exploitation film. The violence is moderate no more blood than any other slasher films. what got me was how many people said how disgusting the scene with the prostitute was. I was leary of this scene when i first slipped in the DVD because personally this type of thing really does get under my skin. However i have to say that the scene was so fake unrealistic that i got rather board with it and ended up fast forwarding through it entirely all in all this film is not worth it. If you are interested check it out just don't let someone rob you for this film it is not worth it in the slightest.

I have been watching horror films most of my life and underground horror for the better part of ten years so i can be forgiven if i come off a cynical or even jaded. I've sat through them all for the most part. Exploitation classics like cannibal holocaust, artful sickies like nekromantik, even newer ground horror like August underground. Yess i take some pride in the fact that I've looked into some crazy things and wasn't the first to blink.

However one does come across an oddity in there travels that really stays with them. For me the second and third installments of matamuras all night mong trilogy did just that with me. As i stated above it takes quite a bit to ....really even turn my head, let alone shock me. There was something about these two films that grabbed and throttled me. i will cover the third film later on but wish now to focus on the second installment.

THe film centers on a a small, very nerdy Japanese boy who appears to spend most of his time chatting away on his computer and painting a nude manga doll. With his small stature and incredibly meek demeanor he is very relatable and sympathetic even. For this critique he came of reminiscent of people i went to class with and people who i still see at my college. Not just that but his isolation was relatable to an extent.

For the most part all is well in this lonely young mans life but as with all horror films and especially this series its is going to come crashing down Whit horrific consequences. In comes a gang of thugs led by a clearly, yet not overly homosexual leader. These men a sadist's in every meaning of the word and as luck would have it the leader has formed a very odd and twisted fixation on the young man.

After an altercation witch leads to the young man cowering, and stripped the leader offers to have dinner with him. Durring this dinner we are treated to some incredibly unpleasant scenes. Most of which involve the mistreatement of a female drug addict. As we are we are treated to the unflinching abuse at the hand of the leader, He almost acts as if it were a demonstration of how cruel he could be. Horrified our main character flees and into the company of friends.

Although this peace is very short lived as the gang finds them, tortures and eventually murders his friends, all the while the leader tries to make our character a sexual conquest of his own. Realising that he will never get what he wants he order all his friends to be murdered. Finally taking enough the main character snaps in a very realistic manner and makes short work out of everyone while saving the last killing for his tormentor in a climax of violence and cruelty. However unlike most horror films where one gets revenge and then goes back to normal and everyone who manages to live goes on to live happily ever after. In this film once that boundary was crossed there is no going back.

There was a lot that i found shocking about this film, but found some hidden intelligence i didn't expect.I liked the fact that although the film in general is unpleasant, it was realistic. The main character snaps as i said above he doesn't just gain back his sanity like so many other films. He was pushed past the edge and that in my mind made him a worse monster then the one who drove him to his deeds.

The film in my mind asks the question" Do we make these monsters?. There was even some symbolism in an odd place. The final scene in which our character burns his beloved doll to represents not only the loss of sanity but the loss of innocence. The fact that at the beginning of the film the doll is blank and devoid of color represents the main character's innocence and that he is in a moral cross roads. He could be good but has the potential for evil.

With that said i have to say that it really wasn't the gore that disturbed me. I've seen plenty of the red stuff, what got me was the shear nihilism of the story itself. The fact that there is no real hope, that any character who comes off as good meets a quick and gruesome end.There is no redemption in this film...only the horrors of what man does to each other. That aspect in a way reminded me of greatly of salo'or the 120 days of Sodom.

When watching this deeply troubling film i kept noticing the tag line on the DVD case. " Mankind is Garbage". That in itself to me sums up not just the theme of the movie but that general philosophy of the film maker.

All in all this film and its sequel are incredibly troubling and not just for the gore but just the ideas that it proposes. To me the film relay a showcase for an extremely troubled film maker. i cant recommend this for how disturbing it is. However if your looking for something thats both troubling and thought provoking then look it up.......you have been warned.

I remember leafing through a copy of rue morgue magazine in the Summer of 07. mostly to check whats going on with new gore releases and happened to stumble on an article about toe tag pictures mainly the august underground trillogy. I have to say my attention was thoroughly caught upon finishing said article. I have to say i was ab it leery though when i finally sat down to watch the first film at least. I had read and heard so many things about this film that i was filled with apprehension as well as intrigue.

Now first things first i didn't mind August Underground, Now Whether or not it warranted to ever increasingly over the top sequels is something I'm still not sure of. However i digress the film its self is among many other adjectives is very original.It's a little less then an hour of a murder and torture spree all caught on a shaky hand-held camcorder in extremely graphic detail.

The best way to describe it i guess would be if henry: portrait of a serial killer if it were shot in the same manner as cannibal holocaust. i actually liked this film for the fact that it pushed boundaries and was very fearless and unflinching in its depiction of evil. I Rather liked how it did not glorify murderer's like so many slasher films do. How figures like Jason,Freddy,and Micheal have almost become these folk hero's. These monsters are shown for what they truly are. Nasty antisocial people who care nothing for human life and live only to torture and kill.

I liked the fact that this film along with many other like last house on the left,cannibal holocaust,necromantik,the exorcist brought back a sense of danger to horror. It made the viewer really question the director as well.It made me at least wonder what this director was capable of if he was willing to go this far. horror films like music to me can get rather stagnant and sometimes needs that jolt. What i like most is the fact that with most horror there is a mind set that its only a movie and you'll be safe at the end credits. A sort of mental safety net. This film takes that net away and forces the viewer to confront the idea that this could happen to them.

this film is not for mainstream horror fans. It is only for certain people and if you found this disturbing do and i repeat do not view mordum or penance especially mordum.

now i have been combing the underground for the better part of ten years and i must say that i am hard pressed to find anything that would stop me dead in my tracks. Such things have only occurred to me a handful of times and when they did it was only for the fact that i was either greatly disturbed or down right offended. however as hard as it is for that to happen it is even more difficult to divide me on a film. this film did just that but before i go on let me catch up anyone unfamiliar with this film.

The film, if you can even call it that. It is not a film in any traditional sense, even calling it a documentary to me is pushing it. to me documentation seems more appropriate. The film is nothing more then thirty minutes of several autopsy procedures shown in absolute graphic detail with absolutely no soundtrack what so ever.

we are shown bodies undressed, searched for lesion's and such, there clothes are inventoried and the bodies are systematically cut up. No detail is spared. The viewer is subjected to bodies being cut open,organs being removed, bodily fluids being extracted, skin being peeled back and bone being hacked through.

At first i was a little bit disgusted with the inner workings of the dead but after a certain amount time has passed i started have the thought that although these were once people they now were nothing more then raw material...not to sound to nihilistic.

I guess what divided me was the fact that although the film was grotesque it was honest. Probably one of the most honest pieces of film i have ever seen. although graphic it was not exploitative nor was it artful as many have claimed. It was exactly what it was, nothing more nothing less. That i can respect.

what i found ironic was the fact that when i first watched this film i was reminded of nacho cearda's aftermath. on the DVD during an interview jorg buttgereit even asks mr. cearda if he was influenced by this film. what i found interesting is with Stan breakages other works like window water baby moving among others is that especially with said film is one captures the being of life and the other captures the end.

the point i guess I'm trying to make is that as uncomfortable a subject as mortality is, the point of Stan breakage's work was to capture life on film. and death is a part of life. to quote metallica " to live is to die"

I remember being 15 and discovering a website called video mayhem of Florida. I remember it was a vast oasis of wonderfully obscure and violent films,most of which i never dreamed i thought id'e see. To my luck i have though. One title in particular stood out to me as something i never in my wildest dreams thought id'e get a chance at.

The film was vase de noces,also known as The wedding trough,and the much cruder title The pig fornicating film. The basic story is of a lonely farmer who may or may not be the last man on earth,although i think the idea of the last man on earth is a much more disturbing plot point. Anyway through his loneliness and isolation he from s bond with a large sow pig. As the film progresses we see a bizarre courtship between man and animal culminating in a very graphic scene of bestiality. Strangely enough the sow becomes pregnant and gives birth to three little piglets in a graphic birthing scene. We watch as the farmer tries in vain to raise the quote unquote children but fails as they prefer there mother to him.

In a fit of desperation he hangs all the piglets. This being seen by the mother pig,she runs into a mud pit and drowns.To the farmers despair he hauls his beloved out of the pit and attempts to bury her with himself. Now in complete state of hopelessness he goes on a spree of eating both animal and human feces until he grows violently ill and hangs himself. The last image is of his swinging corpse.

Now before i actually watched this film i can not tell you how many negative reviews i read about this film. When i finally got down to watch it i was surprisingly entertained. The film plays out like tragedy. I was not so much disturbed by the content as i was by the themes of this film. At first glance one would pass this film off as nothing but zoophelic garbage passed of as an art film,and it would be hard to argue that.

however to quote shrek this film is like an onion,it has layers. And the deeper you go into this film the harder it is to take. Once you get past the ideas of bestiality you realise that there are themes of isolation,madness,loneliness,the trials frustrations of parenting,and even forbidden love to a strange extent.

I do not condone this film for the fact that the idea of platonic love between a man and an animal not only disturbs me but i also find it reprehensible. I can though and I'm not trying to sound contradictory understand the fact that the single true character in this film deals with true mental illness and one has to understand that in that state of mind one can be capable of some truly vile acts.

To me this film is a showcase of a directors demons and personal woes although i can not say if bestiality is his true focus. Maybe the aforementioned issues above...who knows. As a film vase de noces surpasses any art film i have seen with the exception of begotten. Really as an experiment more then anything, for that alone i give this film a higher then usual rating. However be warned this film is greatly troubling whether its the content or the themes you may not walk away from this film with the same outlook for a while.

I started getting into underground horror and art films between the age of 14 and 15. During this time a virtual world was opened up to me. I discovered the world of brutal underground Japanese horror,the work of jorg buttgereit,nacho cerda,passalini,the great video nasties list and a vast oasis of great underground films including begotten. Begotten didn't intrigue me as much as gave a sense of foreboding doom about it,yet it drew me in to an extent.

The film runs roughly 94 min and is shot in complete black and white with absolutely no dialog or music. Only ambient noise throughout. The entire production fall around a very odd metaphysical storyline in witch a divine being who strangely looks like leatherface i might add is seen in an abandoned ruin disemboweling himself with a straight razor. This entire scene is very disturbing and quite graphic in its depiction. Once this act of diecide is committed, a woman literally emerges from the remains and proceed to extract the semen from the corpse and inseminate herself. Directly getting pregnant and birthing a new being.

This being to my knowledge is supposed to represent mortal man. Yet man in this case is displayed as a convulsing crusty mannequin. Later five hooded beings reminiscent of the hooded figures on black sabbath's mob rules cover descend upon the woman and apparently suffering man. Through the rest of the film we watch as the mortal man vomits his own organs and they are excepted as gifts from the shrouded beings. For the remainder of the film The man and woman are brutally tortured,raped and finally murdered.

What struck me about this film is the fact that within ten minutes of watching the initial shock wore off and boredom eventually set in fortunately though it is not a long film. interestingly enough i mentioned this to my therapist and even she said that this was a bizarre film. Now that to me says something,a woman who deals with people with various mental problems says a film is strange then it has some true impact regardless of me.

I cant necessarily recommend this film for a number of reasons. some will find this film at the very least hard to watch. while others may find the films content to be blasphemous,nihilistic,bleak,and depressing. All said above adjectives well justified in this reviewer's opinion. Although i see quite a bit of inspiration not only from early David lynch,but more from thiery zeno's vase de noces. From the ambient sound to the generally bleak nature of the film.

I guess to put it into a more simple context the film is a short yet very dark journey. the effect will very on most like all films. Really...begotten is only for those who really want to view something different.

Like many people this was not the film through witch i discovered the work of David lynch. Not to sound cliché'd but like many my introduction through the elephant man. I actually found this film through a horror website called losamans lair of horror. What hit me about this and many other experimental/art films was the thin line between art films and horror. I've seen art films that have been far more disturbing then most horror,like vase de noces,begotten,pig and so fourth. Yet i've seen horror that had tremendous artistic value.

This film has all the above qualities. Basically the film centers around a peculiar man named henry Spencer. He is a hapless man who drudges through a black and white post industrial waste land. Yet through all the eccentricities there is something both relatible and sympathetic to our hero. He strives to live normal in a world that seems to grow more and more unstable as the movie progress's. He does normal things. He works,lives in an apartment,even spends time with a girlfriend.

Things start to get a little strange from here on out. We watch as He stares over his dinner which bleeds when punctured with a fork.All the while the girls father watches in anticipation. Henry is soon informed that a child was born and he is the father. We see the child witch is wretchedly deformed to the point where resembles an unborn goat fetus. We soon see the two new parents living together,but the incessant crying of the child drives it's mother away. Leaving an already daunted henry alone with the child. A child with needs that henry can not provide for.

As the time passes henry grows unstable and becomes plagued with delusions. A range of visions pass before the screen. A woman who preforms on a stage inside the radiator. She dances on the stage and steps gleefully on small fetuses. As henry watches his head falls of his shoulders and is replaced with the head of his deformed son. falling into a pool of blood. His head is then taken to a badly scarred man who runs a machine that creates...you guessed it eraser heads. He invites a woman home and gets intimate only to be interrupted by her horror at his child's appearance. Furthering in the two of them melting into each other in a bathtub.

Finally in an act of desperation or madness. he slices open his child's bandages only to reallies the bandages were his body and then proceeds to stab and kill off his child. In the last scene we see henry watch in horror as his ons innards foam and he is surrounded by white light. The last image we see being embraced by the dancer from his hallucinations.

This film really had no effect on me when i saw it as a young man. However when i saw later on after having a child i saw it in a much different light. It deals with a lot of the anxieties that i believe most expectant parents go through. The fear of raising a child alone, the fear that you wont measure up. And of course the overwhelming anxiety that your child will be different.

Although sometimes disturbing it deals with these issues in a very sophisticated manner. The sound track that consists mostly of industrial noise would prove highly effective in later work. Filmed in a very striking black and white,It gives the film a very claustrophobic and schizo feel. Although beyond all oddities of this film, It's been incredibly well received. Being applauded by the likes of john waters and Mel brooks. The later of which would lead him to great mainstream exposure and success.

Although arty and a bit strange it's well worth the watch 100 times over.

The title for my review although cliché' and absurdly simple. It is the truest statement that sums up this film. This film had a lot going for it from the beginning. Fist of all it was produced by Mel brooks,directed by David lynch,and features the acting talents of sir Anthony Hopkins,john Gielgud,john hert,and Anne Bancroft.

The film starts out with a fairly self explanatory intro and then we are introduced to Dr. Fredrick treaves making his way through a Victorian London carnival. Whats great about this is that David lynch uses the same claustrophobic,industrial atmosphere that made eraserhead so disturbing and surreal. yet it completely works for London in the midst of the industrial revolution. Its shot in a sleek black and white that makes it look like it was filmed thirty to forty years prior,however its not grainy or scratched. Dr. treaves wonders into the freak show tent seeing the usual oddities. the fat lady,the bearded lady,Siamese twins,etc. He is drawn to display that is being given a great deal of attention. people are walking away,a woman leaves the exhibit sobbing.

We hear a man arguing harshly with police man. saying things like "i know my rights" "he is a freak,how else will he make a living" only to be responded with This is an abomination. The man leans against the wall and says "we have to move again my prize". Automatically you don't like this man. He is a pathetic man who cares only for his own self. The kind of man who is soley responsible for the mistakes he has made yet will never admit to it. Instead he uses a man of much worse circumstances and exploits him for his own profit.

intrigued the doctor follows the man back to a squalled basement slum,inquiring a view but is rebuked. However at the offer of money he is let in. Here we are shown one of the more iconic scenes of the film. As treves sees john for the first time,all we see is a single tear run down his face. He offers more money to examine the man at his hospital to witch he shows his colleagues and sends him back convinced he is completely retarded.

As he arrives he is scorned and beaten by Mr. bytes, his owner. What compelled me about this scene is not the fact that Merrick is beaten,but rather his owner is so dependent on him as a freak and the obviously little money that comes in,that one has to ask who is the more pathetic creature? John is brought in and put in isolation where his face is finally revealed. It is also revealed that under a shell of disfigurement and deformity lies the soul of a man with great intelligence and a great capacity for kindness. As we progress john is introduced to an assortment of different people. some good and some bad. Even an actress of the London stage who befriends john and later towards the end dedicates the play she is in to him. Although at one point Dr treves is convinced that he may be no better then the monster he took him from.

Later john is stolen with the help of an unscrupulous worker, and moved to a cheap freak show in France. In one of the harsher scenes we see john forced into a baboon cage.naturally this frightens the baboons. A group of freaks approach the cage and inform john that they have decided that he does not belong there. This however is not an act of ostracism,rather a true act of compassion.

The last scenes of the film consist of the famous scene in the train station where john exclaims the immortal saying " I am not an animal!,I am a human being!". and finally the scene at the opera where john is excepted by London society and finally the end.

Warning the last scene is a real tear jerker. john sits at his table putting the finishing touches on his paper model and hoarsely whispers"its finished" although he is referring to his model. I also believe he is talking about something much deeper.

As he stumbles to his bed we are set to a hauntingly beautiful choir score. As he stumbles we can truly see his pain. You know now that he is gonna die and you don't want him to because over the course of the film we see the man under the deformities and we don't want him to go. then he proceeds to take the pillows from his be and go to sleep like a normal man,something he never could do. The camera pans out to the night sky and deeper into the stars and we see a face appear and say " nothing shall die".

I loved this film because it challenges the viewer on more then one level. The obvious is to watch a deformed man. It also challenges the viewer to look at his own self. To understand that man is capable of both great kindness and great cruelty. Also to take a look into the fear all men carry with them. the fear of the what he does not understand.

i also loved the fact that although john Merrick was a victim of cruel circumstances,he did not allow himself to be a victim. He understood that although he was an outcast do to nothing more then simple genetics. He was still a man and must make it as all men do.

I believe this film is more important now then it was thirty years ago. Especially in a culture that seems sometimes to be losing it's humanity. It shows that kindness is still real and true beauty lies within.

First of all this film is legendary in extreme horror circles, and most of you out there who know this film don't need me to explain the history and of course the Charlie sheen story.Although that story has been changed around and embellished over the last 20 something years.

To begin this review i must admit that when it comes to horror and extreme films i am quite jaded. In the last ten years i've had two films that have truly frightened and disturbed me. Don't get me wrong though,this film gave me a run for my money and that in itself is a rare thing.

The film runs roughly forty minutes and is as basic as one could imagine. Basically a woman is abducted by a man dressed as a samurai. The woman is bound, injected with a sedative and slowly and graphically dismembered. At the conclusion of all of this we find that this is not an isolated incident as proof of the murderer's surroundings and has plans to repeat his crimes.

With very little story or narrative to progress the film what truly holds it together and gives 98% of the shock is the special effects.

The special effects are extremely potent and realistic. So much so one could understand, especially in the late 80's and of course on a grainy VHS bootleg how this could be thought to be the real deal. The sound effects work to its utmost potential. My stomach rely turned the most when he is done cutting off her hand and detaches it. It makes this sound of pulling apart an extremely fresh head of iceberg lettuce. not to mention when he chisels through her shoulder socket and you can hear the clang and crunch of metal through bone. However upon close examination one can tell this is fake for the simple fact that in the aforementioned wrist cutting scene, the hand once severed clenches tightly and anyone with anyone with the slightest bit of medical knowledge knows that once an extremity is severed it goes limp and requires the proper muscle contractions to clench like seen.

The acting and casting is done quite well with what little of that there is.

The man who plays the samurai is ugly and throughout the whole movie gives off an incredible sense of perversion. As he proceeds with his "ritual", he does it with a horrible erotic performance. From the way he chooses his instruments,the way he holds the detached limbs and examines them with the cross between an aroused man and a child finding a new insect in his back yard. Even the look in his eyes made my heart sink and my stomach turn. There was a feeling that he was really getting off on what he was doing.

to say this film is dark is a very gross understatement,no pun intended. I really in good conscience cant find a way to recommend this film. I guess your looking for something extreme,i guess one viewing might be worth it. Although i don't ever see myself watching this film again. Just really to say i sat through it. i guess 25% bragging rights, 75% morbid curiosity.

Although the DVD transfer,mainly the update in the picture quality and making of dose reduce the shock, but very little. This is not for mainstream horror fans and definitely not for kids. precede with caution.

I have finally had the chance to see bad boy bubby. I have to say i was really surprised in a lot of ways. Although this was billed as a black comedy, i saw no humor. At times disturbing it was always thought provoking to the very end. Unfortunetley this film is not for everyone,there are a lot of people who wont make through the first thirty minutes. We start out with bubby. An extensively retarded and disturbed thirty year old man who has been convinced by his violently abusive and unstable mother that the air outside is poison.So bubby lives for thirty years in a one room slum Where he is abused physically,mentally and is a victim of incest. witch is shown in two very disturbing scenes.things regressively get worse when bubbie's abusive,unstable father shows up.Bubby kills both his pearents by suffocation. In this scene i felt no remorse for his victims. Not necessarily for there abuse but because bubbies mental state is that of a child. He doesn't understand what he does. So our hero is thrown into a very hostile and inhospitable new world from witch he adapts quite well. Although he lacks any if all social skills. He gets through and eventually finds acceptance through the rock band he ends up fronting and a nurse who sees him for more then just another handicap. A lot of people are gonna see this as just another art\exploitation film. it does deal though with a lot of tough issues that are presented in a visual style that at times can leave a bad taste in your mouth. It deals with more then just abuse,retardation,and incest.It deals with the effects of dysfunctional families,the fears and anxieties of steping out into the world,and ultimately perseverance. warning though. the first thirty minutes of this movie are very hard to watch. Namley the incest scenes. However they are not eroticised in any way. The actress is old and unattractive and we are forced to watch her have graphic sex with her son,and it is shown for the ugly vile and repulsive act that it is.In fact the whole perental relationship is shown as a complete abomination. Also there is quite a bit of language and sex,male and female rear and full frontal nudity.and as whole this film can be quite disturbing. This is in no way for kids at all of any age, i cant stress that enough. i thought it was excellent for the fact that i am not easily offended,and i really love films that are outside the box. also it forces you to face thought that most wont confront.