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.                                                                             

  

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