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.

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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