SHOCKTOBER SPECIAL: A cat in the brain - Lisa's Review

NOTE: In honour of Halloween, We're taking a break from the DPP list.

This weeks movie was selected for 2 reasons:

1. Although it was too recent to make the DPP list, it was banned on release in the UK, and only passed in 2003 after extensive cuts.

2. It was Written and Directed by, and stars (as Himself) prolific Video Nasty Director Lucio Fulci (The Beyond, Zombie Flesh Eaters)

So to the penultimate Shocktober Special, the very strange 'A Cat in the brain'. Having heard other peoples viewpoints on this, I wasn't expecting much, in fact I was expecting it to be one of the worst so far, in fact I found I really enjoyed this. As flawed a movie as it is in many respects, I'll tell you why I liked it.

For anyone not in the know, Lucio Fulci is a very famous Italian horror director famous for the goriest of movies. In this movie, he brings together the best examples of gore from his other movies. He manages to re-use these as he plays himself in the movie and we see how his involvement with such despicable material in his movies, slowly starts contributing to his mental breakdown. He eventually starts imagining brutal deaths and thinks he is responsible for these. So thats the premise... how did it pan out?

Ok, so the acting is dire. It says something that the best performance comes from Fulci himself and he is far from an actor. The gore isn't believable in a lot of places, the script is laughable and some of the gore is so obscene, all you can do is laugh open mouthed.. I suppose that's why we get the phrase 'Eyeball Gag' with reference to all means of horrid things happening to eyeballs... a Fulci favourite.

The good points? If you're a fan of gore, this movie has it in spades. Its like taking out all of the boring, slow bits from other movies and just letting loose with gore, obscenity and general rudeness. There are boobs a plenty in this one it has to be said, which is no doubt a plus point for the majority of male viewers. I also found that even though there are several violent scenes involving women, that have an overtly sexual nature, they didn't come across as titillating or exploitative to me at all.

This movie will appeal to some and not at all to others. I don't think its going to be one of those 'It was ok' movies. It certainly doesn't hold back, that's for sure. Among delights contained therein are: Decapitation, Disembowelling, Dismemberment, Chainsaws aplenty, Knife Stabbings, Several nasty Eyeball moments, A few horrendous beatings (very realistic too!), A psycho style shower murder (but this one is much more graphic) and cannibalism for good measure.

I won't go into detail about scenes from the movie, or give away the storyline, but I will say I really enjoyed this one. I have a penchant for nasty movies though, so if you're of a weak disposition and consider movies like 'Sixth Sense' and 'Final Destination' horror movies, then probably best avoid this one.

Deffo one for the die hard gore fan. BIG thumbs up!

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Cannibal Man - Lisa's Review

So Cannibal Man kicks right into a messy scene in a abattoir where cows are being prepared for meat sale. Its all very bloody and messy but they are already dead so there are no death scenes to be had. If you eat meat, you kinda of have to be ok with this, if not, then there’s no point in eating meat and being hypocritical about it. I completely abhor animal cruelty and unnecessary suffering for any reason, but accept we kill animals for food. As a river of blood runs through the abattoir we see a worker, who we later learn is our main character – Marco, getting tucked into his lunch. Pretty strong stomach there then.

The main action starts as Marco and his girlfriend Paula are taking a taxi ride and get rather amorous in the back of the car. The taxi driver takes exception to this and asks them to get out. Marco is having none of it and comes out with the corker of a line “Haven’t you ever been with a girl before? What are you? Some kind of homosexual?” Oooooh dear.

A scuffle commences outside of the car and while the driver is giving Paula a slapping (that her father never had time to give her apparently) Marco hits him over the head with a rock and kills him.

As we progress, we sense Paula is regretting what happened and after what looked to be a very weird love scene (how either of them got anything from all the open-mouthed groaning and not much else, who knows…) we tells Marco that she wants to go to the police. He is obviously not too keen, so after a bit of a row he kills her too.

For some odd reason, he decides to confess to his brother Steve, who also wants to go to the police, oooh dear, a kind of pattern is forming. Steve however doesn’t want his life being ruined by Marcos faux pas, so his head meets with what looks like a rather large spanner (on a plus point, as his corpse is being dragged away, I note he has a rather lovely belly).

Here my copy of the film buggers up and the picture freezes so I can’t watch any more. I tried everything possible from forwarding chapters to just plain fwd and it not having it. When I eventually get a picture back, I can hear what’s happening about 20 minutes in advance of what I’m watching. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

Sorry got to come back to this one.

I was actually quite enjoying this one. It looked like it was shaping up to be a nice little movie. I will get my hands on another copy and finish my review sometime in the future.

So I'm back and ready to finish my review.  Something that is interesting is how my reviewing changed.  I used to do what it seems is more of a plot synopsis, which you really don't need, so I'm glad at least I've cut it down a bit... so where were we...

So as the movie progresses, we have more of the same and we realise why Marco works in a abbatoir.. an excellent means of disposing of bodies.  This brings me to the rather odd naming of this movie.  No-one is murdered for food.  While disposing of the bodies in the abbatoir, the human flesh is ground down and mixed with animal meat and packaged for human consumption.. that's as cannabalistic as we get.

As I watch the movie it becomes clear the main focus is the friendship Marco forms with a posh young man called Nestor.  It is quite apparent that Nestor is gay although this is never discussed or openly admitted throughout the movie (although there are some very obvious scenes which mean it never really has to be discussed).  To me it appeared that Marco is struggling with his own sexuality, hence his connection with Nestor and his frustration being focused in altogether the wrong directions.  He doesn't have much in the way of money, promise or a life.

Nestor is a bit of an odd character.  He lives in an expensive new development that overlooks Marcos's appartment and he spends his time spying on him with binoculars.

The movie is more concerned about this blossoming friendship than the gory murders which have taken place.  Its a character piece if you will.  It moved in a completely different direction than I first expected.

I can't say I loved this movie, or even liked it to a great degree as it was a very odd mix of storylines to me, but it was far from bad and was not one of the more trying titles on the list.  

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Please use the comments bellow only to comment on this post - to write your own review, please comment on the main post for this movie.