Ruptured Review: Grotesk

Country of origin- Denmark
Year of release- 2013
Director- Peter J. Bonneman
Stars- Heine Sorensen, Rock Uglen, Stacy Sick, Mads Jensen 

  

The film begins with an emergency distress call from a NASA spacecraft plummeting to earth, a good way to start any film.  AS we watch the huge explosion from the spacecraft as it crashes into the sea, the opening credits begin to roll. During the credits we see a horribly mutated and mutilated human washed ashore dressed in what appears to be fishing overalls. The mutant stands up and begins to head inland where he finds a young couple sunbathing on the beach. After dispatching these unfortunate people with extreme prejudice, and an axe, he begins to head towards a large caravan park. Also heading towards the caravan park is what I think might be are “hero” but is actually an idiotic racist piece of shit. A showdown between these two is inevitable, but for now the mutant fisherman has plenty of other scum bags to dispatch in many varied ways. It may not seem like much of a plot, but the film is only 64 minutes long so give it a break.

I went into this one knowing absolutely nothing, I actually bought a copy of this film at Comic Con without having ever heard of it before. Since then I haven’t been able to find much about it online, and there doesn’t even seem to be a site where you can buy it from. However if you ever see a copy of this for sale you should pick it up, because I had a great deal of fun with this one. From the Necrostom levels of cheap and cheesy gore to the sickly green and yellow filters used in the cameras this film is a blast! It delivers buckets of splatter with weird characters and a grimy setting.

It also delivers Troma style bad taste with one scene bringing a whole new meaning to “looking inside yourself”. The film does have a few problems though, it suffers from two common problems of no-budget cinema and that is poor acting and slightly off putting cinematography. However because the run time is so short and the film is so fun I can overlook these issues. Overall this film is great fun, it pays a fun and faithful homage to the work of directors like Herschell Gordon Lewis, Andreas Schnaas, Olaf Ittenbach and the early work of Peter Jackson. If you’re looking for an over the top grimy gore fest with a hint of bad taste, then look no further. I give this one 7/10, if you can find it, watch it.                    
 

Ruptured Review: Ogroff The Mad Mutilator

Country of origin- France
Year of release- 1983
Director- Norbert Georges Mount 
Stars- Robert Alaux, Françoise Deniel, Pierre Pattin

Usually I have a pretty good idea what a film will deliver when I sit down to watch it, this is not one of those instances. Before I watched this film I thought I would be watching a camp splatter fest with cheesy characters and a ludicrous plot. Instead I watched what can only be described as a nightmarish LSD fuelled fairytale with absolutely no regard for any of the established norms of film making. The film has literally no plot what so ever for the first 50 minutes, and once the ‘plot’ kicks in, it is one of the most alarming and convoluted things I have ever seen. For the first half of the film are main character Ogroff just wanders around killing everything in sight. When Ogroff isn’t doing this, he is in his crumbling woodland shack masturbating a pickaxe handle, and caressing a picture of his dead wife. But to be fair who hasn’t done that?

 

Although there was no plot for the first half of the film I was rarely bored, because I was so distracted by the barrage of gore which the film throws at the unsuspecting viewer. It jumped from an axe dismemberment to childes head being sawed off like a chicken on a chopping block. This bombardment of butchery was rapid, and executed with all the finesse of a baseball bat to the face. Couple this with cinematography that switches from POW to wide angle like a madman with a light switch, and you have a gory mindfuck of a film that feels like the product of genuinely deranged mind. Eventually the film begins to settle into what could possibly be described as a plot, but is actually just a bizarre collection of tangents that have looser connections than a 100 year old fuse box.

 

 

Without spoiling the many wonderful, yet woeful tangents the film has to offer I will say that they include such delights as; a nasty surprise in the cellar, and one of the most insane motorcycle chases I have ever seen.With the film having a total of less than 10 lines of actual dialogue, and a soundtrack that constantly hangs on the edge of pure insanity, don’t go into this one looking for an audio treat. Instead it should be treated as silent film.           

 

There is so much to say about this film. You may choose to look at it as a fascinating example of no-budget French horror surrealism, or you may choose to look at it as a brainless, aimless splatter fest that will probably give your dog seizures. Honestly, I sit somewhere in the middle of those positions, yes the film has some artistic moments that lend it some credibly as more than just schlock. However it has a scene in which Ogroff hacks a VW Beetle to bits with an axe, and eats a childes intestines in front of there mother. I can definitely say this is by far and away one of the strangest films I have seen in a long time, it certainly will not be for everyone, but if you’re up to the challenge you need to experience the distressing majesty of Ogroff The Mad Mutilator. I will not be giving this one an out-of-ten rating, as I feel it would be doing it a disservice, instead I would just like to stand back and admire its pure madness.                                                                             

  

                                           Buy the film here

                         

Ruptured Review: The Hills Run Red

Country of origin- U.S.A
Year of release- 2009
Director- Dave Parker           
Stars- Sophie Monk, Tad Hilgenbrink, William Sadler 


 

I didn’t originally plan to review this film, but after seeing its opening credit sequence in which a small child cuts their own face off with a pair of scissors, I thought it was ideal for a review. The films surprisingly well crafted plot centres around a film obsessed college student who is attempting to find an obscure 80’s slasher film. So far I find the plot very relatable. The film he is looking for is called ‘The Hills Run Red’ when it was released it shocked and appalled everyone who watched it and was quickly buried and forgotten. The student looking for the film (Tyler) is so obsessed with finding the film he tracks down the director’s daughter. Who tells him that she can take him to the house where her father lived and worked from. Tyler eagerly agrees to go to the house and brings his friend and girlfriend along to film the whole thing as some sort of documentary project. But as the group begin to trek through the wood to the house they begin to see and hear strange things, and begin to realize that one cast member of the original film is still alive. The original films killer ‘Baby face’ begins to stalk his prey in an attempt to make his own film.  

 

I honestly went into this one with low expectations; both the poster and the trailer made the film seem like a very standard cookie cutter modern slasher with no personality or charm. But I was pleasantly surprised to find that this film had its own little quirks and charm that made it very enjoyable to watch. From its fond homage’s to slashers gone by with its flash backs to the original film, to its at times almost self aware story which actually delivers some enjoyable twists that keep the story from becoming stagnant it was fun. I was also pleased to see the use of CGI had been kept to a minimum to make way for some fun practical effects. The film also offers some surprisingly unsettling, even disturbing scenes of torture and abuse that took me a little surprise.

 

However the film does have a few flaws, the first being the often poor acting; it could have definitely been worse but it was in no way good. My second problem with the film is something I have talked about before, and that is ‘torture porn’. The last 10 minutes of the film contains a great deal of what I would describe as tortureploitation i.e ‘torture porn’. This completely killed the pace the film had built up and caused the film conclusion to be not only unsatisfying but a little annoying. However overall the film was very good fun with penalty to keep you entertained. I give this one a 6.5/10 it is well worth a look.                                                                     

  

 





                                
                    

 

Ruptured Review: Lucker The Necrophagous

Country of origin- Belgium
Year of release- 1986
Director- Johan Vandewoestijne           
Stars- Nick Van Suyt, Helga Vandevelde, Let Jotts    

 

The film begins with deranged serial killer and necrophiliac John Lucker escaping from a private hospital after being transferred there from an asylum after an apparent suicide attempt. Lucker manages to escape by brutally murdering a nurse with a screwdriver, and steeling the nurses girlfriends car, with the girlfriend still inside. After Lucker murders the woman in the car by repeatedly smashing her head off the dashboard, he has sex with her corpse. We are them treated to the sight of the car rocking back and fourth in what can only be described as a piece of black humoured genius. After this we discover that one of Lucker’s victims from his first rampage managed to survive, and has just been released from hospital after a one year stay. You may be thinking at this point ‘how will Lucker be able to track her down now she isn’t in the hospital?’ Well this little problem is quickly solved by a news report that Lucker hears that feels the need to give away her address! They actually give away her address after reporting that her attempted killer is on the loose, and I thought journalism in this country was bad.

Soon after this the film delivers it’s most revolting scene, as Lucker begins to molest and rape the month old corpse of a prostitute who he killed earlier in the film. This scene is not only graphic and drawn out, but its genuinely disgusting to see Lucker licking slime from his hands after fondling the maggot ridden corpse. I would go so far as to say that the scenes of necrophilia in this film are easily as unpleasant as any of the scenes in either Nekromantik 1 or 2. After this scene the film does begin to become dull and little annoying as it seems to increasingly rely on dubbed on screaming instead of dialog or gore. This goes on until the film eventually fizzles out with a very unsatisfying ending.

Overall I liked this film, despite its many problems such as; terrible cinematography, bad dubbing and a plethora of annoying and pointless characters it was enjoyable. It is one of the few films that I felt I needed to have a shower after watching because of just how repulsive and grimy it was. While watching this one I was repeatedly reminded of films such as The New York Ripper and the previously mentioned Nekromanitk films, all of which I of course recommend. If this film sounds like it’s for you I recommend it, it zips along at only 68 minutes and is as sleazy and grimy as a back allay pimp at 3am. I’m going to give this one 6.5/10, despite its faults I found it pretty enjoyable.