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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