Ruptured Review: Warlords Of Atlantis

             WARLORDS OF ATLANTIS

Country of origin- U.S.A. 
Year of release- 1978
Director- Kevin Connor
Stars- Doug McClure, Peter Gilmore, Shane Rimmer 

The film opens with a dramatic scene of a gigantic meteor hurtling towards prehistoric earth from the dark recesses of space. This meteor strikes the ocean with incredible force, and despite this and the fact it is the size of a small moon, it causes very little destruction, in fact it may as well have been a small rock for all chaos it caused. There was no mega tsunamis, no earth shattering earthquakes, just a big pile of nothing. But because this is a low budget b-movie I will forgive them for a complete lack of understanding of basic geography. We then cut to a more recent period of time, although the film doesn’t exactly tell us when it is set, I can hazard a guess it is before the first-world war. We are then introduced to are hero’s, mainly the squared jawed engineer, Gregory played by are favourite dinosaur bashing badass Doug Maclure. He has built a specialist diving bell for Professor Charles Aitken played by the every reliable Peter Gilmore. The purpose of the diving bell is apparently to go down to look at some fish; I am calling bullshit on that one right now. Gregory and the Professor are accompanied by a small crew of sailors, one of which is John Razenberger (the postman in Cheers) and a predictably pessimistic Captain. All the scenes on the boat are very well shot, and were shot on location in the Mediterranean ocean which gives the film the feeling of a higher budget production.

Eventually the time comes for the Professor and Gregory to climb inside the diving bell and be dumped over the side of the boat. During the decent the bell comes under attack from a long necked sea monster, that quickly becomes a pain in the ass for are hero’s as the monster keeps sticking it’s head through the open base of the bell and harassing Gregory and the Professor. This scene quickly becomes hilarious, as it turns into almost a Loch ness version of whack the weasel. Eventually Gregory comes up with plan to deal with this soggy long necked sod. He decides to electrocute it…he decides to electrocute it wile under the ocean in a metal bell while standing in a pool of water that has been splashed onto the floor. Nobody ever said Gregory was smart. But unbelievably this plan works, and Gregory and the Professor are unharmed, unlike the sea monster who is now deader than the last traces of common sense left in the film.

Soon after this the Professor finds what he really came in search for, a huge cave entrance with a solid gold pillar standing in front of it. The Professor orders the pillar to be brought up to the ships deck, and within seconds of its appearance on the ship the crew start to plot its theft. I don’t know, what is the world coming to when you can not trust a group of swarthy cut throats with a huge amount of gold? Soon the contact line between the bell and the ship is cut by a member of the crew, leaving are hero’s stranded under the seas surface. But Justice is swiftly delivered to the crew in the form of a well timed giant octopus attack, the octopus drags the crew and the captain down to the cave that the pillar was found in front of. As Gregory and the Professor see the crew dragged passed the windows of the bell and into the cave, they too are seized by the octopus and dragged into the cave.

Eventually Gregory and the Professor wake up floating in the bell, on the surface of a pool water in a desert canyon. They get out to find the crew alive, as Gregory and the Professor are not aware of the crews treachery they decide to work to together. Suddenly a figure appears dressed like a low budget David Bowie clone, flanked by a group of masked guards that rise from the water armed with tridents. The Bowie clone tells them he is going to take them to the city of Troy, unable to refuse due to the guards, are hero’s and the crew agree. On the trek to Troy, the Professor discovers that they are in fact in the meteor that we saw crash at the beginning of the film, and that meteor was in fact the entire kingdom of Atlantis. After an encounter with a millipede/frog/fish monster they reach Troy, which isn’t all that it seems.

 
To say that this film was very easy to watch is an understatement; it has likeable characters, fun monster effects and a ton of charm. I only have one problem with the film, and it is the pacing. It really is all over the place, at times it will take ten minutes to do something that could have been done in two. And sometimes they rush trough something that I would like to see more of in a matter of seconds. This is probably due to budget constraints, and I can forgive them for that, but it does effect the overall watchablity of the film. So all things considered I am going to give this one 6.5/10. I think if you enjoyed some of the directors other films like At Earths Core, and The People That Time Forgot you will get a lot of enjoyment out this one.                                            

Ruptured Review: Code Red

                        
                          CODE RED


Country of origin- U.S.A. 
Year of release- 2013
Director-  Valeri Milev
Cast-  Ralitsa Paskaleva, Paul Logan, Velizar Binev 

 Any film that has gasmask wearing Germans killing seven kinds of shit out of Nazi  zombies, and a transvestite midget stripper, must be seen to be believed.

The film begins with some footage of the battle of Stalingrad, with a dodgy voice over telling us how horrible it was. Because nobody knew that apparently. We then cut to a very nicely shot gruesome battle sequence of a German solider carrying a wounded comrade back to there outpost. It looks as though the Russians are about to take the German position, as it is only held by about five men. This scene is the best thing in the whole film, it is brilliant! It only go's on for about twelve minutes, but it completely blew me away. The visual style of the scene at times reminded me of Neveldine & Taylor (The Crank films), it had a great variety of shots including; POV, and dazzling panoramic shots that really put a smile on my face. This scene has not only the best cinematography in the film, it also has the best action and gore, all of which is practical. We see a solider thrust a rifle with a bayonet attached, into the middle of  a guys face, as if it were a spear. If that doesn't make you want to see this film, then I don't know what will. At one point in the carnage a bomber fly's overhead, dropping a barrel attached to a parachute, this gracefully floats down. Then explodes! Spewing out a thick gas which slowly creeps into the German outpost reanimating the Nazi and Soviet dead as it go's, leaving a lone German solider to fight off the flesh hungry horde. 

We then cut to the present day, where a block of wood, I mean are hero John, Is being briefed on a secret mission he is about to undertake in Bulgaria. The U.S government thinks some of the afore mentioned zombie gas, is still around, and that it is being kept in a weapons storage facility jointly run by the U.S army, and the Bulgarian army.
John must go there and follow up on a complaint made by a U.S army Doctor who was fired for attempting to expose a possible security breach. Sounds boring doesn't it, well that's because it is. the middle act of this film is duller than a fifty year old pen knife. I spent the whole time waiting for the inevitable outbreak scene where the dead would rise and people wound run around doing things about it. And once that begins the film changes gear completely. The strange thing about this gas, is that it doesn't just reanimate the dead, it turns the living into boil covered flesh hungry maniacs that sprint about faster than a horse with a mustard enema. I am not really a big fan of the "fast" zombie/infected style, but it really didn't bother me here, it was done very well and at one point there was some actual tension, which was a nice surprise.

The film had some interesting points that provided a great deal of entertainment, but it also had some moments that made me want to bang my head off the wall in irritation. The first main issue you notice about the film is the acting, if you can call it that, too call it wooden is an insult to the forestry commission. The worst of it most definitely came from are hero John, at times instead of battle hardened, he just looked constipated. But putting that aside, the next issue with the film is the biggest and the most awful, and it is the end. Calling it "the end" implies that it concludes the story and allows us to get up to have a piss. This film shows a photo slideshow of the final moments of the films climax, I am not joking, the film ends the story with a photo slideshow of stuff I would I have liked to have seen in the actual film! Did they run out of money? Did they just give on life? Who knows.

Although this film is at times a bit dull and a bit irritating, I still enjoyed watching it. It looks very nicely made for a low budget zombie/infected film, and that is pretty rare now. I was repeatedly reminded of films like 28 Days Later, Nightmare City and the Crazies while watching it, but that's not a bad thing, as I love those films. So I am going to give this film 5.5/10. It has plenty of blood gore and silliness to keep you entertained, but it is not without problems.

Ruptured Rant: Chill

                             
                              CHILL
Country of origin- U.S.A
Year of release- 2007
Director- Serge Rodnunsky    
Cast- Thomas Calabro, Ashley Laurence,

I approached this film with some optimism, hoping it would be fun and something a little different. How wrong can one man be. The plot of this film is extremely convoluted, and at times I struggled to even understand what some of the characters where even supposed to be doing. The film centres around a struggling writer called Sam, and his quest to constantly wear a beany hat, even though its summer! At the start of the film we see him attempting to secure a job at a slightly down at heel deli, that appears to be run by the rudest woman I have ever seen. The rude woman says she will have to check with the actual owner whether or not Sam has got the job. Little does Sam know, the owner of the deli is in fact a totally insane undead doctor, with a Frankenstien's monster like creation at his command. Oh, and did I forgot to mention that this undead doctor of evil, kidnaps people and then steals patches of there skin to replace his own. Well he does. This may sound like its a; low budget, B-quality, enjoyable trash fest. But its not, it is in fact a zero budget, Z-quality, heap of trash, that nobody in their right mind would enjoy. 

Once the film establishes the main plot, (if you can call it a plot) it then sets about trying to rape are brain cells with a bucket full of pointless sub plots, that add about as much to the film, as getting a roll of barbed wire inserted into your anus would add to your ability to sit down. The stupid sub plots include; a detective stalking a woman he had a one night stand with, a pimp looking for a missing prostitute, and a mind numbingly dull romance.

This film won the Worldfest International Festival award for best special make up effects. But this award must have been free with a box of corn flakes, because the effects in this film are dreadful. Alongside some poor practical effects, that are in no way worthy of an award, there is one scene containing possibly the worst digital effect I have ever seen. The effect was so jaw droppingly awful, I actually rewound the film just to make sure I hadn't had some kind of mini aneurysm! 

Serge Rodnunsky, the director of this pitiful sack of mess, is not new to the world of film making. He is in fact an experienced director, with over 40 films under his directorial belt, so why is this film so damn amateurish? I think the answer to that question is clear, just because you have experience, does not mean you have talent, and crucially that's what this film lacked on every front, talent.              
  

Ruptured Review: Mermaid In A Manhole

          MERMAID IN A MANHOLE 

Country of origin- Japan
Year of release- 1988
Director- Hideshi Hino   
Cast- Shigeru Saiki, Mari Somei, Masami Hisamoto, Go Riju, Tsuyoshi Toshishige,


Warning, this review contains graphic descriptions for truly disgusting imagery. Oh, and some spoilers.

If you are familiar with the infamous Guinea Pig films, you basically know what to expect from this one, a thin plot and a ton of gore, goo and splatter. Plenty of people will tell you that this isn't the nastiest edition in the Guinea Pig series, but I would argue against that. This film may not achieve the levels of gore seen in Flowers of Flesh and Blood, or the levels of gleeful sadism in Devils Experiment. But this film, in my opinion is the most disgusting entry into the series.

The film opens with some rather miserable shots of random objects floating in a sewer. We then see a still twitching fetus floating in the water, the fact that this film has dead/dying babies in a sewer within the first three minutes, should give you an idea of the tone of the film. We then see a figure walking through the sewers towards the fetus, the film then cuts to an artist painting a picture of the fetus. The artist is clearly struggling with some kind of mental anguish, this is then confirmed as a little later on he exits his apartment and bumps into his neighbours, who behind his back discuss his wife leaving him. We then see him go down a manhole back into the sewers, where he finds a decomposing cat which he thinks is a childhood friend, because who hasn't made that mistake? The artist then hears a splashing sound behind him, he go's to investigate and surprise surprise he finds a mermaid. I bet none of you could see that one coming. The artist begins to talk to the mermaid, and then realises that he has seen her before. It turns out that this sewer was once a river, and the artist used to play there as a child. This is a very interesting scene, because it is clearly commenting on the increasing industrialisation of Japan. The artist then notices an infected wound on the waist of the mermaid, who is clearly unwell.

The artist decides to bring her back to his apartment to treat her wound. WE are then treated to a pretty surreal scene of the mermaid sitting up in a bath tube while the artist paints a portrait of her. We then see that her wound has developed large pustules in and around it, suddenly they seem to rupture. Blood  gushes everywhere while the mermaid screams and the artist desperately tries to stop the bleeding. Eventually the bleeding stops, and the mermaid passes out. Soon after this we see that the pustules have become much worse, they have spread up her chest almost to her neck. She begs the artist the to cut them open, which he then does with truly revolting results. As the artist slices open one of the pustules, the mermaid screams and leans out over the edge of the bath to allow her pustule to drain into jar that has been placed there by the artist. This process is repeated again and again, we also see long worms, and maggots slithering out of the open pustules and even more disgustingly being pulled out by the artist. I have an extremely strong stomach, but this scene was enough to make me loose my appetite. We then see the artist painting another portrait of the now half dead mermaid, but this time instead of using paint he is using the fluid from the mermaids pustules, waste not want not. We can now see that the rancid pustules have spread to half of her face, but the artist continues to paint her. Suddenly the mermaid leans over the side of the bath and vomits maggot filled blood, then her left eye pops out of her head while puss and blood spurt hose like from her body. She than dies. The artist, in an extreme state of shock, picks up a clever and dismembers the mermaids corpse, and eventually pulls from her stomach, a dead fetus. The film then continues on to reveal a pretty predictable twist ending, but I am not going to give that away.

I came away from the film felling a little depressed, but that didn't in any way   
stop me from thoroughly enjoying it. The best aspect of the film was definitely the effects, they where practical and unpleasant. Despite what you may be thinking, this film did have an actual message that it was trying to put across. The film was a lament for a pre over-industrialised Japan, and a protest against the ever increasing putrefaction of natural beauty by humans. I am going to give this film  8/10, I really enjoyed it, and some of the effects where nasty enough to shock me a little bit, and that never happens.                 

         
                                                                                      

Ruptured Review: The Act Of Seeing With One's Own Eyes

THE ACT OF SEEING WITH ONE'S OWN EYES


Country of origin- U.S.A
Year of release- 1971
Director- Stan Brakhage


The Act Of Seeing With One's Own Eyes is a 32 minute long silent experimental documentary film, that was filmed in a Pittsburgh morgue and shows real autopsies performed on actual human cadavers. Some of you might be thinking this is just another cheap nasty shockumentarie or a mondo film, well it's not, it is in fact an intelligent art film that is attempting to examine the subject of human mortality, and in my opinion it succeeds. The first thing you notice about the film is its complete lack of music and sound, which gives the film a surreal and at times almost ethereal feel. The complete lack of any kind of audio really allows you to focus on what is happening on screen. At first we see the pathologists simply examining bodies, and taking measurements of the joints. Once these examinations have been made the autopsies begin. This is by no means the first footage of autopsies I have seen, but this is the first I have seen without any kind of narration or music, which gives you a real sense of claustrophobia while watching it.  As you watch the human body being deconstructed like some sort of complex machine, you develop a sense of just how short life really is. Up until very recently these where; walking, talking, breathing, thinking people, and now they are just meat and are being treated as such. 


I came away from the film with a positive feeling, I know that sounds strange but I really did. The film shows you that death is inevitable, and that we should be aware of just how fragile are body's are, because in the end, we are just meat. I know that doesn't sound like the kind of thing to be positive about but I was, the film gave me a sense of we should enjoy the life we have, while we can, because it could all end tomorrow. I am going to give this film 8/10, it really achieved what it set out to do. I don't recommend this film for people who are disgusted by the site of real human gore, but if you can cope with the site of real human death and are interested in the subject of mortality, then I encourage you to watch this film.