WEEK 106 - Nekromantic

Year: 1987

Reviews / Author Comments due: 01/06/2013

Reason for Inclusion: Banned in many countries, never submitted in the UK.

BBFC Status: Never Submitted

More Info: Wikipedia, IMDB

DVD: US import (R1)

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Feel free to use the comments section of this post to add your own reviews and thoughts about this movie.

Army of Darkness - Will's Review.

Army of Darkness used to be one of my favorite films; in fact, I believe I saw it before I saw the original Evil Dead movies, and was initially disappointed by them in comparison.

That said, it was the mid 90's, and I was in my mid teens; With it's ramped up action and comedy, I think that teenage boys are exactly the target audience for the 3rd Evil Dead movie... How will it fare up now, while trying to look at it through adult eyes?

Actually, pretty well!

I can't be certain that some of my fondness isn't a hang-over from earlier viewings, but I like to think that I would still have enjoyed this if watching it for the first time last night.

As much as I love it though, it's best seen as an Evil Dead spin-off, rather than a true sequel; The slapstick is turned all the way up to 11 this time, way beyond Evil Dead 2, Ash has had a personality transplant, and is now a ballsy one-liner-cracking ladies man, and the horror is non-existent... Its the kind of movie my parents would have let me watch as a kid in between Hammer films.

Transported to England in the middle ages, Ash is tasked with retrieving the Necronomicon that the locals may free the land of "deities" (who may or may not be the Candarian Demons of the first two movies), the book will also allow the town wiseman to send him home. Of course all doesn't quite go smoothly, and instead Ash frees the evil fully, allowing it to amass an army of the dead, and potentially take over the world.

Although it does have a cohesive plot, at times it still feels more like a series of sketches (at least until the deadite army is risen in full force), as ash bumble from one misadventure to the next... he's attack by a miniature army of Ash-Clones, splits into two and fight himself, gets stretched cartoon-style and so fourth. He also seems immune to serious damage; at one point his face gets melted to a hotplate (to the extent that he needs to scrape himself free with a spatula) causing one cheek to be slightly reddened for a short time!

There are two endings, depending which version you see; an upbeat one, and a downer that sees Ash screwed in a whole different way. Army Of Darkness 2 is currently in development, and will apparently kick off from the downer ending.

I'll recommend this one; but as a fun action Comedy, not as a sequel to the Evil Dead movies.

Army Of Darkness - Lisa's Review

*** SPOILERS ***

If I were to review this movie as a sequel to Evil Dead 1 & 2, then it probably wouldn't fare too well with matters such as consistency.   I had never seen Evil Dead 1 nor 2 until recently, but I remember watching 'Army of Darkness' many years ago and enjoying it then.  Such is the level of fog in my brain, I remember absolutely nothing about the movie apart from the fact I liked it, so I sat down again this evening to re-watch.

I was glad not to be disappointed and found that I still enjoyed the movie.  For me, if taken as a standalone movie it is excellent, but you have to leave most of whats gone in the first 2 movies behind when you watch this one as the contradictions are endless.  Ash's character (although still played by Bruce Campbell) has completely changed, although IMO most definately for the better.   Where we start the movie with Bruce in the middle ages does not tally with the situation we left him in at the end of the second movie.   Although he was sent back to this time, we left him hailed as a hero by villagers for slaying a demon.  Army of Darkness has him pulled through a time portal and kidnapped by Lord Arthur, suspected of working alongside Duke Henry, who he is at war with.

We see Ash thrown into a pit to his assumed death, but he manages to fight his way out and even kills a Deadite who crawls out of the pit after him.  Hey Presto, he is celebrated as a hero.  The movie follows his search for the Necronomicon again as this is the only way he can get back to his own time. Obviously all hell breaks loose (quite literally) mostly down to Ash's inaptitude.  When he forgets a magic phrase which should enable him to retrieve the book safely he has to battle with a host of evil he unwittingly releases.

What I loved about this movie is how much the humor is ramped up.  You can't look at it as a horror at all.  I loved the one liners and tongue in cheek jokes.  You could be forgiven for thinking you were watching 'The Holy Grail' in places during sets in the village.   Its just good all round entertainment.  Although it was probably not intended, it reminds me of something you could sit down with your family and a couple of older kids and watch on a bank holiday.   An early but more amusing 'Mummy' movie for example.

There is Ray Harryhausen style effects in spades again with skeleton soldiers and a scene where Ash is cloned and spends a brief amount of time as one half of a conjoined twin.  The lack of effort in places though was hilarious - i'm thinking of a scene where a skeleton attempts to punch Ash in the face as an example.. it looks like someone just flung the skeletal arm in the right general direction and it just flails about.

Its most definately a 'punch the air' movie with lots of excuses for 'yays' and celebrations.  It has lots of laughs and a fantastic script.  In my humble opinion it is far superior to the other 2 movies, at least I enjoyed it tenfold in comparison.  If you're a fan of an awesome movie quote, you'll probably get all the one's you want in this movie.

What is somewhat disappointing is the ending to the US version.  This version see's Ash take a potion to sleep and wake up in his own time.  He does so and he is shown working at a supermarket and boasting to women about how he could have been a king.  A creature inexplicably appears and he kills it... THE END.

The UK version however has Ash oversleep and wake up Post Apocalypse, which is just fantastic and surely is how the movie should have ended.  Apparently though they wanted a 'positive' ending for Ash's character for the american audience, even though Bruce Campbell and Sam Raimi preferred the oversleeping storyline.

That aside a most definate thumbs up from me and this one gets the 'recommended' tag slapped on its backside!

Week 105 - Army Of Darkness

Alternate Titles : Evil Dead 3, The Medieval Dead

Year: 1992

Reviews / Author Comments due: 25/5/13

Reason for Inclusion: Third part of Evil Dead trilogy

BBFC Status: Passed uncut in 1992

More Info: Wikipedia, IMDB

DVD: LINK

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Feel free to use the comments section of this post to add your own reviews and thoughts about this movie.

Evil Dead 2 - Will's Review.

***Spoilers for the original Evil Dead***

Many people consider ED2 to be a remake of the original; I don't think that's entirely fair. It ovens with a remake of the pertinent points of the first movie (This time the croup is gone, with only Ash and his girlfriend Lynda traveling to the cabin), but by the 7 min mark, Ash is the only survivor, and an unseen force is rushing towards him - the final shot of the first movie.


For most of the rest of the first hour, Ash is more or less on his own; Bruce Campbell does some amazing slapstick work, when his hand becomes possessed and tries to kill him.

On the subject of slapstick, the humor has been cranked right up this time around, and if people think they have a favorite line from Evil Dead, you'll usually find that it's actually from the sequel.

This time, the cast is rounded out by the daughter of the cabin's owner, her husband, and a couple of local who help them find the cabin (for a price) now that the bridge is out.

The acting is good enough (save for a couple of bad screams) with only Cambell really shining; particularly in a scene where the events have taken their toll and he has an extended fit of manic laughter.

Effects wise, despite the bigger budget, there is no massive step-up in quality from the first movie, save for a couple of very Harryhauseneque stop motion bits.

All in all, if you enjoyed The Evil Dead, you should get a kick out of Evil Dead 2.

Evil Dead II - Lisa's Review

So, I finally check out the sequel (or remake with a bigger budget as some would have you believe) to Evil Dead, aptly named Evil Dead 2.

From the get go, I'll say I really didn't like this movie AT ALL.  I know that possibly seems like a complete contradiction given that I really enjoyed the first Evil Dead movie, but this one didn't grab me at all.  I hadn't seen it before tonight and I expected something akin to the first movie with better effects.  Speaking of effects, while you can clearly see there is a bigger budget with this movie, I felt the effects were needless and in places ridiculous.  Looks like Buffy looked here for some of its ideas.  All the charm of Evil Dead seems lost in the attempt to bring this one up to date for the time.  Ironically it manages to date this movie even more than the first Evil Dead installment.

We have the same premise, albeit without the group of teenagers this time round.  A recorded message, which was meant as a warning is played, which contains passages from the Necronomicon (Book of the Dead).  This unleashes a demon which sets to possessing various people and inanimate objects throughout the course of the movie.




Bruce Campbell is an iconic character but I found even him irritating in this movie.  Its the original Jim Carey of enthusiastic over acting.   Also the scream we hear over and over from the lead actress is probably the worst I've heard in any movie EVER.  No fear, trepidation, horror, nothing!  Just an attempt to be as loud as possible.  I didn't care about any of the cast, so any deaths were a bit meh for me.

There were a few slight chuckle moments ('A Farewell to Arms' for anyone who has seen the movie), but no belly laughs were I think they were intended.  I just didn't feel anything watching it at all.  All in all it seems a bit of a waste of time to attempt to improve the first movie with this offering.  The special effects are dated and lack the original charm of the crude effects in the first movie.  I was surprised to not see Ray Harryhausens name in the credits at the end given some of the effects in places, I'm thinking especially the dancing decapitated corpse near the start of the movie.

I don't know what else I can say really.  I didn't like the effects, especially what felt like overkill with the transformation of the old lady in the cellar under the trapdoor.  I didn't like the 'feel' of the movie.  I didn't like the characters.  In fact I found it quite hard to stay awake, which is saying something from a person who suffers from regular insomnia.

I would definately not recommend this one, but would say avoid and just enjoy the original Evil Dead instead.  This one adds absolutely nothing in my opinion and just feels like a waste of time to me.

Week 104 - Evil Dead II

Year: 1987

Reviews / Author Comments due: 18/05/2013

Reason for Inclusion: Sequel to DPP nasty, cut on release

BBFC Status: Passed uncut in 2001

More Info: Wikipedia, IMDB

DVD: LINK

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Feel free to use the comments section of this post to add your own reviews and thoughts about this movie.

Guinea Pig 2 : Flower of Flesh and Blood - Will's Review

There are 6 entries in the Guinea Pig film series (7 if you include the "best of" entry) and all of them would be suitable for "Beyond Nasty"; all are extreme gore / splatter movies, and all are nominally banned, never having been submitted to the BBFC.

However, we don't want to get bogged down in a 6 week run, so we've selected jut one of the movies to represent the series.

Part 2 was chosen, because it was actually investigated by Japanese authorities and the FBI as possibly a real snuff movie.

The only conclusion I can draw from this is that the aforementioned authorities are full if idiots, and that no one, at any time, thought to show the film to anyone who had even a rudimentary understanding if the human body, anyone who had ever seen real meat, or anyone who has any idea how cameras work.

The "story" such as it is, is that a manga artist received an 8mm snuff film from an obsessed fan, and that this movie is a dramatised recreation of that snuff film. This is explained in on-screen text, before the "dramatisation" proper commences. We then see a young woman kidnapped, drugged, and dismembered. If that sounds a little thin, then it probably explains the movies scant 40 minute run time.

So, from the on screen text we know that the movie isn't even TRYING to convince you that it's a real snuff film... Which is just as well.

Once the woman is heavily sedated, the first thing the killer does is to cut off her hand. It's a nice clean cut (he uses very sharp tools), and one he repeats on the other side.

Ignoring the fact that one of her hands seems to live for a while after removal (!) the blood barely trickles out of the artery (as opposed to the spurting one would expect) and she survives further amputation of the arms and legs, before being disembowelled; not dying until she is finally beheaded!

If the woman's ability to live with the kind of blood loss that would kill a mere mortal in under 60 seconds weren't enough to tip off the Feds that this was only a movie, the fact that her muscle tissue seems to be made of red jelly should have clenched it for them; add to that the fact that the camera angle changes regularly (but we never see any of the cameras) and the case on this one should have been closed in a single viewing.

But that's more a critique of the critical thinking skills of two nations investigative agencies than it is of the movie itself.

As far as the movie goes the gore effects, while not always convincing, were at least effective, and at 40 mins the plotless butchering doesn't really have time to grow dull; that said, a single scene of butchery with no real surrounding story isn't particularly entertaining.

As a curiosity, it's certainly of interest to gorehounds, but as this is a scene, not a movie, I can't make it a recommendation.

Guinea Pig 2 : Flower of Flesh and Blood - Lisa's Review

*** SPOILERS ***

I type 'Spoilers' at the start of this review, but I'm sure anyone who watches this movie, will know exactly what they're letting themselves in for as its not exactly a mainstream movie known by most people.  Die-Hard horror fans will no doubt know about this movie, even if they haven't watched it.

I saw this movie maybe a year and a half ago, but watched it again this morning.  There is no storyline here to speak of.  The movie is a mere 40 minutes long and exists purely to document the kidnapping, dismemberment, disembowling and decapitation of a young woman.  This is all played out very slowly, very close-up and the camera NEVER pans away.  Disturbingly the woman is alive throughout the entire ordeal until her decapitation.

The actual special effects, while they have faults are very well done.  You watch it and find yourself wondering how they achieved certain parts of the movie.  There was a bit too much red jelly-like material for me for it to look as authentic as it could have, but the actual cuts and dismemberment look eerilly real.  Special mention has to go however to the authenticity of the removed eyeball and the yicking it caused me when the perpetrator enjoys a suck on it.  DISGUSTING!  Just as much so as the tonguing of the decapitated head....

The young woman is injected with drugs before the murderer sets to work and I don't know what he has given her, but by gawd it must be strong for what was endured without as much as a squeak from her!  I could do with me some of that for when the old back is playing up.

I could recommend this movie to carefully selected friends, but most people you would recommend this to who watched it would no doubt think you were seriously disturbed for watching it, never mind recommending it.  Never-the-less, I hand the 'recommended' award to this one, purely because I think fans of gory horror really should see it as I don't think I have seen anything like it before.

I found it difficult to watch and it felt very exploitative to me due to the close-up unflinching depiction of this poor womans demise, but you have to hand it to them, they achieved exactly what they set out to I imagine.    I'm not a squeamish person at all, but I found myself wrinkling my nose on more than 1 occasion watching this one, for that alone it deserves the thumbs up.

Week 103 - Guinea Pig 2: Flower of Flesh and Blood

Alternate Titles : Ginî piggu 2: Chiniku no hana

Year: 1985

Reviews / Author Comments due: 11/05/2013

Reason for Inclusion: Investigated in the US and Japan as a real snuff film.

BBFC Status: Nominally banned - Never submitted, probably because no one wants to pay to submit a film that will certainly be denied classification.

More Info: Wikipedia, IMDB

DVD: Unavalable in UK, Expensive from US

No Trailer Available

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Feel free to use the comments section of this post to add your own reviews and thoughts about this movie.

Blood Feast 2 - Will's Review

After being board stupid by the original Blood Feast I was, understandably, not looking forward to it's long-time-coming sequel; where the original at least had its age and relative importance working in its favor (it was arguable the first ever 'gore' movie) this sequel would have to have more going for it than a few pounds of butcher's shop offal going for it to justify its existence.



The plot is pretty much the same this time around; Fuad Ramses' grandson (Fuad Ramses III) inherits his grandfathers catering business, and is almost immediately hypnotized by the statue of Ishtar in the back room, at which point he sets too killing off young girls in order to prepare a 'blood feast' to resurrect the goddess.

This time the party Ramses has been contracted to cater is a wedding; the groom being a local police detective, the bridesmaids being the gore fodder.

From a technical standpoint, Herschell Gordon Lewis is never going to win an Oscar for direction, but it's comforting to see that he has at least improved on the 39 years between installments Although not directed brilliantly, this movie does at least appear to have been directed - the original installment looked very much like the cameras were just vaguely pointed at the actors, who were then given free reign.

Sound wise I'm guessing someone agreed to give some friends' music some coverage - virtually every scene in the movie features music, to the point where it's actually distracting.

The effects, bizarrely, have not improved at all in the almost 40 years between installments still consisting mostly of close ups of hands playing with pig-intestines stuffed into mannequins.

It would seem though, that the (very) old school gore (like the hammy acting) is a very deliberate choice this time around.

Unlike the original, Blood Feast 2 is every inch the parody. From Tip-of-the-hat in jokes, such as the names of the detectives (Myers and Loomis) to in-your-face Airplane! style sight gags.

And it genuinely is a good move; as parody, the film actually works! Like Lewis' direction, it's not going to win any awards, but it does the job.

Some of the gags are a little on the nose, others quite subtle; there was a very quick back and fourth where someone "mistakenly" identifies Ishtar as a Babylonian goddess (which she is) rather than Egyptian (as per movie cannon).

I particularly liked the recurring gag involving a character who was accidentally killed, then never mentioned again, but who's body keeps cropping up in unexpected places (and being ignored).

There are plenty of 'nudie cutie' moments too - an all woman lingerie modelling party, a gratuitous shower scene, etc. but (as with everything else in the movie) they are played as much for laughs as anything; the absurdity of them being part of the joke.

I really don't know how to classify this one; it was an entertaining movie, and I think any horror fan with a penchant for 'Naked Gun' style humor would enjoy it.

I think I'm going to mark this one as "so bad it's good" but that's not quite accurate... after the first 20 mins it becomes apparent that both the lack of quality and the humor are intentional, so I'm not sure if that does make it a "bad" movie‽


Either way, much kudos to all involved. Usually, in order to make a movie this poor, but at the same time this entertaining, one needs to be inept, but earnest. Troll 2, Plan 9 from Outer Space and their ilk are funny only because everyone involved though they were making a masterpiece. Intentionally making a "bad" movie that's still entertaining is no easy task.

In fact, screw it; I've talked myself around! I'm going to recommend this one.

Blood Feast 2 - All You Can Eat - Lisa's Review

*** SPOILERS ****

I don't quite know where to begin with this weeks movie....  When it started there was much eyeball rolling in this house, but I have to admit as I watched a bit more it was definately entertaining.  Not in the way you may think.  This movie is hilarious!

It's not funny because its so monumentally crap, but it is actually played for laughs all the way.  The whole script and every character are almost cartoon in style and everything is tongue-in-cheek.  I found the humour similar to Airplane/Naked Gun type humour but with LOTS of gore.

The movie follows on from the original Blood Feast (released several decades earlier and on the DPP list) and has the original character Mr Rasmes's grandson Mr Ramses the 3rd, follow in the footsteps of his grandfather after he is possessed by his grandads statue of the Egyptian god Ishtar.  He sets to murdering lots of attractive young women, who just happen to be bridesmaids for a wedding that he is catering for.  His plan is to do what his grandfather didn't manage to do and make a 'Blood Feast' for the wedding with parts of his victims.

Surprisingly the gore is actually not too bad either in places.  You can tell this movie didn't have a big budget to play about with and true, there are some effects that are awful, but I found the appearance of the internal organs, intestines and brain to be very authentic.  There were places that made you cringe and I was quite surprised the camera didn't cut away in a lot of places, but that seemed to be what this movie did best.  Showed you the bits other movies don't.  We see a partial decapitation which goes on way longer than I thought it would.  Another scene shows a young woman have her face peeled down and her de-skinned face is still screaming.  The murderer then proceeds to saw off the top of her scalp and play with her brain in an way which would imply he was getting some kind of sexual arousal from it. This is also shown from his fingering of the holes where eyeballs used to be (removed with a little melon scooper) and the sliding of fingers into what I think was a liver?  I'm not sure...


It all sounds a bit gruesome but it is ridiculously over the top and almost comic book in style.  From the cold, opinionated, nasty mother of the bride to the innocent, cute, endearing bride.  From the young bumbling stupid police officer who vomits at every crime scene to the older, even more stupid fat partner who never stops eating EVER through the movie, even when looking over the remains of victims.  The only person in the movie who seems to have a brain cell (apart from our murderer of course) is the secretary in the police station, who of course is your stereotypical beautiful woman with hair all scooped back and glasses on.  We get to see her shake the hair down, take the glasses off and get the bits out in one of the policemans fantasies... I didn't see that coming AT ALL!

Another section of the movie shows all the bridesmaids deciding that a 'lingerie party' would be an excellent idea, so we get to see them all strip down (in a way that no woman every strips unless its for a mans benefit) to their very sexy underwear.  Similar to the needless shower scene where there is much posturing about by the nubile young woman who wears her towel around her waist man style for all of about 5 seconds when she exits the shower.

The murders are all pretty gruesome but like I said, the movie isn't to be taken seriously and is actually genuinely funny.  This is one that would probably be quite good fun to watch with a group of like-minded mates.

I struggled with whether I should recommend this one as I did enjoy it, but I decided not to as the vast majority of people would think this was absolutely dire.  I would imagine though that Will quite enjoyed this one too.