I love David Chronenburg's more linear work, but I'm not always a fan of his more surreal / abstract movies. As such I can safely say I appreciated Videodrome... But I didn't really enjoy it.
It begins straightforwardly enough; Max (James Woods) is the owner of a small TV station, which keeps its viewers by showing a steady stream of sleaze, violence. And soft porn. Max is delighted when a friend of his discovers and decodes a scrambled satellite signal of a show called "Videodrome" a plotless (fake?) snuff show, in which a bound person is beaten, tortured, and murdered. Believing that Videodrome could be the next big thing for his station, Max sets out to track down the makers of the show, with hope of buying the rights and bringing it to his channel.
Showing posts with label Snuff (not the movie). Show all posts
Showing posts with label Snuff (not the movie). Show all posts
Friday, 13 February 2015
Saturday, 7 February 2015
Videodrome - Lisa's Review
I'll start this weeks review by putting it out there - I hated Videodrome! I seem to be standing out there in a very lonely place with that viewpoint. I've read so much about manipulation of mass media, subliminal messaging and how clever the movie is, but it most certainly isn't something that I would choose for a nights viewing.
The movie is directed by David Cronenberg who is known for his love of movies with an underlying message. He also is a big fan of body horror, which Videodrome definately falls into the category of. I am no Cronenberg fan, it has to be said., with the exception of a small number of his movies that I can count on one hand and still have some fingers left over, I find his work incredibly dull and self indulgent. The effects artists he works with on movies are where the talent lies. I will admit some of the actual body horror itself is impressive in a disgusting kind of way. That's where I find myself intrigued and glued to the screen. If I wanted to start watching political movies or movies with a specific hidden agenda, I would. Mostly I just want to be entertained and carried away to somewhere much more interesting not educated on "the impact of mass media perversity on the human psyche".
Saturday, 11 May 2013
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.
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.
Saturday, 13 April 2013
The Last House on Dead End Street - Will's Review
This is going to be short.
I was even considering just putting the word "shit" in massive letters, and leaving it at that but if anyone actually reads these things, they deserve better...
Guy gets out of jail, decides he wants to make exciting new movies, teams up with a washed out porn-director and a bunch of weirdos and makes snuff films. That's it. That's the whole movie.
It's incredibly non-linear (apparently cut down and shuffled from its original edit) and very badly dubbed - seriously, the worst dubbing I've ever seen (inexplicably, given that it was already in English).
The gore that we do see is unconvincing but most of it (and this is a movie about making snuff films, remember) happens off screen.
It tries its best to build an atmosphere, and with a better... Everything else, may have succeeded.
I will say this for it though; it's probably the only time you'll see a man being forced to fellatiate a deer's foot as it hangs from the fly of a topless woman's jeans.
I think I've made this sound more interesting that it is...
I was even considering just putting the word "shit" in massive letters, and leaving it at that but if anyone actually reads these things, they deserve better...
Guy gets out of jail, decides he wants to make exciting new movies, teams up with a washed out porn-director and a bunch of weirdos and makes snuff films. That's it. That's the whole movie.
It's incredibly non-linear (apparently cut down and shuffled from its original edit) and very badly dubbed - seriously, the worst dubbing I've ever seen (inexplicably, given that it was already in English).
The gore that we do see is unconvincing but most of it (and this is a movie about making snuff films, remember) happens off screen.
It tries its best to build an atmosphere, and with a better... Everything else, may have succeeded.
I will say this for it though; it's probably the only time you'll see a man being forced to fellatiate a deer's foot as it hangs from the fly of a topless woman's jeans.
I think I've made this sound more interesting that it is...
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