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Reviews
Nekromantik 2 (1991)
Two gore scenes sandwiched between an hour of boredom
*******CONTAINS SPOILERS*************** Anyone with a more extreme taste for horror cinema would surely have come across the Nekromantik films at one time or another, and after finally hearing so much about them i procured copies of 1 and 2. To say I was disappointed would be an understatement.. I will not go into part one here, but part 2 was simply a really low budget (it looks horrible, which kind of gives the film a dirty nihilistic feel) art fest with two extreme gore sequences...
The first is a massively long sequence of the 'protagonist' cutting up the dead body of Rob which she has dug up, the scene drags on for what seems like 25 minutes, with Monika slowly sawing each limb off the corpse and pulling out its entrails. The comes the wholly unnecessary seal autopsy. I still have no idea what the point of this footage was, but i ended up fast forwarding through it. The final sequence is what got this film 2 stars from me. This scene involves Monika finally deciding that she wants the best of both worlds, that is her living boyfriends body, with her dead boyfriends head. This scene is extreme to say the least, but doesn't make up for the rest of the movie...
In between the gore sequences we have incredibly long and tedious scenes of the girl and her new boyfriend, random cuts to snails, and black screens??? As a whole, the movie is fairly unwatchable. I fast forwarded through 70% of the movie (and i never do that) because it was simply painful to watch.
Its like Jorg Buttface was giving a slap to the face of gorehounds, saying "im going to give you one real cool gore sequence, but before you see that, you're going to have to sit through the *beep*est 90 minutes of celluloid you're likely to see this year!" And i include the cutting up of the corpse.. Even though it has great special effects, it drags on and on and on and on and on and on, not only testing the viewers hardened stomach (which anyone who watches this would clearly have), but also the viewers patience.
Don't believe the hype about this movie. You have been warned.
Head of the Family (1996)
Best horror movie ever!
This has to be one of the all time greatest horror movies. Charles Band made the best movie of 96' in this little seen gem. Highly realistic and , incredibly stylised- with a visual flair David Fincher would envy, its not hard to see why Band went on to make such classics as 'Killjoy 2: Deliverance From Evil', 'The Regina Pierce Affair', 'Virgins of Sherwood Forest', and 'Timegate: Tales of the Saddle Tramps'.
With a highly sophisticated story- a tiny body with a large head controls a family of weirdos who perform experiments on naked women, this movie may be a bit too much for younger viewers and is only for the most educated type of viewer, but for those who see it, Band is able to convey subtle messages about the human condition through his masterpiece. The head is symbolic of the lost love and longing for one's inner self that we all must face at one point or another, and for this reason i was able to engage with this film on a deeply personal level. Although many earlier critics have compared Band's film to Re-animator and other lesser works, this stands head and heels above the rest. It is gorier, but not pointlessly. The gore in this film is well crafted and used to enhance the storyline, rather than to just get a cheap shriek out of the audience. Also, the special effects in this film are absolutely top notch, easily the best work done in a horror film since... well... ever! The work in this film makes Savini's effects look like the work of a blind, limbless hobo.
The only problem i have with this film is the copious amounts of full frontal nudity, which were ultimately unnecessary in achieving the composer's goal- to create a timeless epic that would forever go down in history as possibly the greatest film of all time. If it were not for this slight problem i would have given this film a perfect 10.