Salo - Lisa's Review

*** SPOILERS ***

I'm at a bit of a loss this week as to how exactly to review this movie as I have no want to give a blow-by-blow account of it, thats for sure.  The fact I am feeling more than a little ill today also would make me want to avoid even thinking about it, never mind reviewing it.

So, what can I say.  Having read a bit about the movie, it seems that the absolute and utter depravity we see on screen from start to finish is in actual fact a very political message about facism, with the 4 main characters (a bishop, a president, a duke and a magistrate) representing different sections of our society.  The bishop - religion, the president - political leaders, the magistrate - the legal system and the duke - nobility.  Well that was all very much lost on me I'm afraid.  To me it just appeared to be an excuse to be shocking, to show as much depravity as possible and get away with it under the usual screen of proclaiming it as 'art' with an important message.  Bollocks!  It truely felt to me, like a few people sat in a room and wrote a list of what they could get away with depicting onscreen.



Now before I go into the small amount of detail my stomach permits today, I will say, although I hated this movie and really wonder why anyone would WANT to watch it nevermind enjoy watching it, I realise every movie has its audience (it would be a very boring world if we were all the same), so I don't think the movie should be banned, I am amazed however that it is not.  As Will stated to me, Human Centipede 2 has similar (yet nowhere near as shocking) scenes which were cut and the movie was banned under the obscene publications act... how is this possible?  It seems with the 'art' umbrella you can get away with an awful lot.

So to the movie... well the story itself is minimal and quite hard to follow.  The 4 main characters I already detailed make an agreement to marry each others daughters as a start in the quest to make real whatever perversions they can imagine.  The movie which follows is basically those perversions carried out.

We have sexual torture, scalping, eyeball gouging, burning of genitals with candles, defecation, urination in mouths and on faces, rape, torture, general degradation.... what more is there to say really.

In one noteworthy scene a wedding is taking place between a young boy (bizarrely dressed as the bride) and one of the perverts.  The young women have been ordered not to defecate for some time before the feast as they are to perform on the day for everyones delectation... Several young women walk out with silver platters piled high with faeces which everyone proceeds to get tucked into (some with a lot of gusto it has to be said).  This in itself is repugnant, but the scene of the young women beforehand who was reprimanded for having a poo in her chamber pot a day early as she 'couldn't hold it' was just twisted... they even examined her and realised she'd had the audacity to clean herself after!!  What AM I watching?

In another scene a young girl is forced to urinate on someones face and in their mouth... okaaaaaay.

An idea of the degradation is shown where a group of the naked young men and women (they are all naked throughout the movie) are shown kneeling down, bums in air, head on the ground to be examined by these perverts by way of a torch being shone where the sun aint supposed to shine to see who has the most beautiful backside!

Nearing the end of the movie we are shown scene after scene of torture and mutilation is shown through the eyes of the 4 perverts who are watching through binoculars at what they have created.  I was just a bit in shock that this movie has been passed at all!  It is without question, the sickest piece of movie making i have had the misfortune to sit through.

The political message was lost on me completely.  It just appeared to be a load of shock elements using the guise as 'art' to get away with as much as they could.

I can't recommend this at all.  In fact I have no idea why anyone would have a desire to watch this or would sit through it all if not for the purpose of a challenge or review... AVOID!

Cannibal Holocaust - Will's Review

NOTE: This post is tagged "Will Recommends", Please be aware that this recommendation applied ONLY to the Directors "new" cut, and NOT the uncut version viewed for this review.

Sigh, Animal cruelty again...


To be fair, I knew in advance this time, and (but for the nature of this project) I would never have dreamed of watching the uncut version. Luckily for those of you not taking stupid self-imposed challenges, director Ruggero Deodato has a new edit of the film coming out which excises the cruelty, and I would recommend it as a rental, because the film itself is actually quite good!

Last weeks movie did hit a lot of the same beats (chunks of it were bluntest lifts from this earlier, better, movie); there's a castration, a turtle murder, cuts between the Amazon and new York, even lines like "We are the real cannibals"... Certainly, the makers of this would have every reason to scream "Ripp off" at the makers of Cannibal ferox!


This time, our New York scenes are much less intrusive, and do feel like part of the same movie - The setup is that a NY film crew have headed off into the amazon to film a documentary, and are now missing, presumed dead. A rescue party is launched, sponsored by the "Pan American Broadcast Company" and "New York University" and headed up my Professor Harold Monroe, an Anthropologist from said university. They do not find the missing crew (or rather, they do, but in the form of a grizzly shrine on human remains) but they do find their film canisters, which the native believe to be cursed and are all too happy to get rid of!


Upon the canisters' return to NY, the movie switches between a found-footage type film, and scenes where the TV company are trying to convince the Professor to host a multi-part documentary based around the footage.


We quickly learn that the lead Journalist / Director from the original film crew was a total scumbag, who would set up real tragedies, just to film them. The Movie attempts to criticise Mondo film making, and to make a political point about how uncaring and disgusting the media is, a point which is lost in the hypocrisy as we see a real pig getting kicked around and shot FOR REAL, just for this movie, and Deodato even finds an excuse to use some genine execution squad footage from Nigeria!

The acts we see the film makers commit against the tribes they encounter get worse as the film goes on, and it isn't long before we're siding with the 'savages' and looking forward to them getting their comeuppance, at one point, the three male members of the crew take turns alternately holding down a native girl, raping her, and filming the assault. Obviously, the female crew member objects to this; they cant use the footage, it's a waste of film! - the bitch only really gives a shit when her boyfriend takes his turn as the rapist!

The really interesting part about this movie though, is the trouble it caused here in the real world - Deodato paid the 4 leads to go into hiding for a set time after the film's release - he had to bring them out of hiding early in order to prove to the Italian courts that he had not made a snuff movie! Indeed, the effects hold up remarkably well even now (most especially the movie's iconic impaling) and it's easy to see how the use of stock footage and real animal deaths would cause someone to wonder.

Deodato has claimed in recent years that the use of animals was "a mistake" - the implication is that he regrets it, I suspect though, that he regrets the trouble it has caused him!


As I say, check out the new edit, and just be thankful that movies are not made this way any more...

Body Count: 26.5 (including many from a virtually unrelated army sub-plot and 4 real deaths from stick footage - .5 for a foetus)
Boob Count: 24 pairs (mostly from tribeswomen and girls)
Animal Body Count: 5 - all real (a 6th was killed in footage that landed on the cutting room floor)
Most Memorable Death: Native on a stick

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