Twitch Of The Death Nerve - Lisa's Review

*** SPOILERS ***

My flabber is well and truely gast this week!  2 movies worthy of a 'Recommends' tag from me in 2 weeks!! What is the world coming to?  I really enjoyed this weeks movie, on pretty much every level.  I knew from the opening scene, it was very likely that this was a good 'un.   The cinematography in this movie is cracking! I loved how they used the camera, lighting and staging.  In the opening scene alone, the filming of our first victims home (from inside and outside) is just stunning.

Flesh for Frankentein - Lisa's Review

*** SPOILERS ***

I'm hoping I can remember enough about this movie to so it justice with my review. I say do it justice, but I can see most people around my house ready to kick my rather ample posterior after having watched this one on my recommendation. I stand stubbornly forth though and state, 'I enjoyed this movie'. Why did I enjoy it? Well.....

For starters, I don't think Flesh for Frankenstein is to be taken very seriously. Although there are some very dark and disturbing scenes within the movie (copulation with a ladies innards being one), everything seems to be very tongue in cheek.

Our premis here is the basic Frankenstein idea of a mad scientist who creates a life. In this case, our scientist (who for the record is married to his nympho sister and has 2 kids, none of which he seems to have very much time for) is attempting to create the perfect male and female beings to start a master race with him as the führer. (see what I did there?...)

He is played by a new crush of mine, Udo Kier. We have seen him before in Exposé. Its a shame he's old now, but hey he's well worth a watch in this. The eyes are hypnotic! Hell, he even made humping his female creations innards seem somewhat appealing.

So where was I? In our movie, we arrive as the female has been fully created (we could have done with bigger boobs in my humble opinion, but hey ho). Our male is just missing a head. The scientist dictates that the owner must be a bit of a perv (kind of a Quagmire if you will) and he seems a bit obsessed with it having the perfect nose? Unfortunately as he sets out to aquire this head with his faithful assistant (everything about the assistant is hilarious, from his facial expressions, to the way he moves, to the lines he delivers), they mistake a young man who seems to have no interest in sex whatsoever (and in fact wants to be a monk) for a sexual pervert as he is seen coming out of a brothel. In fact he is only in there as his best friend (who just so happens to be a sexual pervert) is desperate to convince him that a religious, sex free life is not the way to go. He convinces him to try sex just once.

The actual beheading scene is well worth a belly laugh, as is the severed head when it has left his body... it is well deserving of a place in the crap 'chamber of horrors' I visited in Blackpool as a kid. Another belly laugh was had when the 2 of them put the completed male and female together later in the movie and on constant demands of her to kiss her male counterpart, they stare at his genitals, wondering why there is no movement. Poor bugger.

The story in this movie is just plain weird. The scientists horny wife hires the friend of our frigid wannabe monk as her 'man servant' - I'll let you guess what she uses him for. He sees his friend (or should I say his friends head) behaving rather oddly and starts an investigation into whats happening.

After more weird happenings, the sex with a surgical wound scene and lots of really crap sex scenes (that horny guy REALLY needs to learn how to kiss) we culminate in the female creation being destroyed after the assistant tries to replicate his masters sexual prowess, The male creation strangles the assistant and then impales the mad scientist on a spear-like implement, lancing his liver on the end in the process (you can see the bits made for 3D). Our male creation ignores his friends pleas and feels he is better off dead and so kills himself.

We end the movie with the man servant being the only one left hanging above this whole mess. The scientists children walk into the room and pick up a scalpel each and start to turn the winch he's attached to. You're left to make your own mind up as to whether they are going to cut him down and rescue him or continue their dads work. Given the opening credits of the movie where they cut the heads off their toys and sew them onto different toys, I go with continue their fathers work.

Wierd movie, funny movie but one I have to admit I did enjoy. Will deffo seek out the movie where Udo plays the count!

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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 Holocaust - Lisa's Review

This is one I wanted to get over with as soon as possible after the contents of Cannibal Ferox and the knowledge that this contained similar scenes. In fact, I found this movie much more disturbing, disgusting and really wanted to switch it off after half an hour. The fact I wouldn’t have completed the challenge stopped me, coupled with the fact it would be kind of wet to switch off a movie because I found it hard to watch when I’m watching a list of all the banned movies. What’s to be expected really…

There is a warning as the movie starts about the graphic nature of its scenes and the fact we can only be glad this sort of thing is no longer tolerated… how true.

This movie, like Cannibal Ferox is set in the Amazon rainforest among the indigenous tribes people and centers on the concept of cannibalism, although that is the least disturbing part of the movie. We cut between New York

and the amazon as a search party are sent out led by Harold Monroe, an anthropologist sent to find out what happened to a documentary crew who went to film the tribes people but have been missing for 2 months.

Like Ferox there is unforgivable animal cruelty and 7 actual real animal slaughters. I was just absolutely disgusted and for only the 2^nd time since I started watching movies from this list, I agreed with the banning of this movie.

It should never have seen the light of day and the fact there is a market for people who enjoy this kind of thing is staggering.

After 1 animal slaughter and a disgusting sexual torture and death scene for a woman who had apparently been unfaithful carried out by her husband, we see the second group gaining the trust of the tribes people by saving them from a rival tribe.

They witness some horrible atrocities, tortures of women in the tribe and rapes.

Eventually they come across the video footage of the lost documentary crew and start to discover what happened to them. This is where our story switches from our second recovery team to our original documentary crew. At the start of the footage that is found, there looks to be real documentary footage of executions and horrible shootings. I’m not sure where its from but it definitely didn’t look like movie footage to me. Apparently the director staged some of the scenes for effect.

I’m starting to get more and more peeved at this film the further we go into it.

We then move on to the group starting their trek through the jungle and another downright graphically disgusting and nasty death of a turtle. I thought I coped quite well with Ferox but it had absolutely nothing on this. Ok so I’m angry now. The makers of this documentary just seem set on shock and disgust at any costs. The turtle is killed for food as they have been trekking for 6 days, so they dissect and eat it. As they move further on, one of the group is bitten by a snake and has to have his leg amputated by way of a large machete. Well deserved I say!

It doesn’t save him and he dies anyway… well at least he experienced some of what the turtle did before he was dispatched!

After getting out of water just in time for a crocodile and anaconda not to catch them (damn) they come across some tribes people killing monkeys (for real) in the most grotesque of ways (I’m sickened) . They shoot one (native) in the leg to slow him down so they can follow him to the village. Once they reach the village, they shoot a little pig (yup for real)…. I actually want to get my hands on the makers of this and carry out some torture of my own!!! They round the tribes people into a hut and proceed to set it alight to stage a scene for the documentary.

Nice people then…

They just continue to disrespect them by pissing in their streams, killing and wasting animals they use for food, filming in a nonchalant manner an old womans last moments when she has slunk off to die, which is something the tribes people do. I found the next scene confusing. The tribes women string up a young pregnant woman, remove her unborn baby and bury it in the mud. The documentary team say they have to eliminate weakness from their tribe? Not getting this at all.

They then proceed to bash the womans head in with rocks.

We keep cutting back to New York where a member of the second rescue team has obviously made it back with the footage and the TV execs are viewing it and want to air it. He keeps trying to persuade them not to such is the graphic nature of what is on the reels.

Undeterred they want to go ahead.

Back to the amazon and our documentary makers capture a very young tribes girl and they all proceed to rape her one at a time. The woman in the group - Faye doesn’t seem keen on wat they are doing, but doesn’t seem to do an awful lot to stop it apart from whine and whinge. Her main problem seems to be when her boyfriend joins in. Their friend and camera man hold her down while her boyfriend ‘has his turn’. All the while the tribes people are in hiding watching whats going on. Again disgusted and one of those scenes which went on longer than it needed to and seemed to be played for male titillation rather than the vile act it is. They impale her on a wooden pole (thankfully not shown) and the camera man has to remind his friend to take the smile off his face and look disgusted at what natives are capable of, as they’re getting the blame in the footage. A powerful message here of what man in general is capable of I think.

Just goes to show, we’re all the same when supposed civility is stripped away. How they did the pole effect here deserves some credit as it was remarkably realistic.

We’re approaching the end… I’m breathing a sigh of relief. One of the team – Jack is hit by a spear and they decide to shoot him to see what the natives do. What would we do with friends like this?? What follows is probably the best and most realistic make-up work and effects Ive ever seen. I can see why it was thought to be a snuff movie as the barbaric disecting of the body by brutal force and the way the carcass behaved looked unbelievably realistic. The severed head looked real and the organs were obviously real animal organs. Very realistic, very well done and very disturbing.

Next Faye, the lady in our group is captured and is brutally raped (which again goes on for far too long. She is finally beaten and beheaded. All the while her ‘friend’ is filming all of this. He meets a nasty end as well though as the camera drops to reveal him lying on the ground covered in blood getting the same bludgeoning as Faye just got. Come-uppance? I think so…

So the TV execs have seen all the footage, they finally agree it isn’t for public consumption and ask for it all the be burnt.

The final question posed is.. I wonder who the real cannibal is?

My thoughts? Well I think I made it pretty clear what I thought about most of this movie. I hated it. Would never watch it again. Thought it contained unnecessary suffering, the animal bits were unforgivable and the rape scenes were played too much for titillation, one of my pet peeves. It seemed to do anything to shock rather than concentrate on producing a good movie. Whats a shame is that the effects and gore were fantastic and probably the best I've seen. They rival anything out there today, but for sitting through the rest of it… simply not worth it. Best avoided unless you’re sick in the head.

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