Absurd sees George Eastman as Mikos Stenopolis, an insane maniac who is capable of regenerating dead cells, a trick which renders him almost indestructible. As Mikos terrorises a small community, a determined priest (Edmund Purdom) and local cop Sgt. Ben Engleman (Charles Borromel) attempt to track him down and deal him the only way they know how: by destroying his brain.
Despite its alternate moniker 'Anthropophagus 2', and the presence of the hulking George Eastman as a bloodthirsty monster, this film really has little in common with director Joe D'amato's other infamous nasty 'Anthropophagus', apart from the fact that it too earned itself a place on the official DPP list of films thanks to a whole heap of cheap and nasty gore.
If anything, Absurd (AKA Horrible) bears more similarities to (ie., it rips off) John Carpenter's classic 'Halloween' stealing liberally from that film's plot and emulating its characters: Nikos is D'amato's Michael Myers (he is even referred to by a child as 'The Bogeyman'); Purdom's priest is this film's Dr. Loomis; and nurse Emily (Annie Belle) is Laurie Strode. As if that wasn't enough, Absurd also borrows musical cues from Carpenter's menacing Halloween theme.
Of course, D'amato is nowhere near as adept at film-making as Carpenter, and fails to conjure up even a fraction of Halloween's atmosphere, scares and style; this means that, when the director isn't spilling entrails and splitting skulls, the film is extremely dull, with scenes unnecessarily drawn out to mind-numbing length. In fact, only the finalé—in which a blinded Eastman stumbles after a disabled girl—displays any kind of ingenuity or tension.
Despite its alternate moniker 'Anthropophagus 2', and the presence of the hulking George Eastman as a bloodthirsty monster, this film really has little in common with director Joe D'amato's other infamous nasty 'Anthropophagus', apart from the fact that it too earned itself a place on the official DPP list of films thanks to a whole heap of cheap and nasty gore.
If anything, Absurd (AKA Horrible) bears more similarities to (ie., it rips off) John Carpenter's classic 'Halloween' stealing liberally from that film's plot and emulating its characters: Nikos is D'amato's Michael Myers (he is even referred to by a child as 'The Bogeyman'); Purdom's priest is this film's Dr. Loomis; and nurse Emily (Annie Belle) is Laurie Strode. As if that wasn't enough, Absurd also borrows musical cues from Carpenter's menacing Halloween theme.
Of course, D'amato is nowhere near as adept at film-making as Carpenter, and fails to conjure up even a fraction of Halloween's atmosphere, scares and style; this means that, when the director isn't spilling entrails and splitting skulls, the film is extremely dull, with scenes unnecessarily drawn out to mind-numbing length. In fact, only the finalé—in which a blinded Eastman stumbles after a disabled girl—displays any kind of ingenuity or tension.