User Reviews

Joe D'Amato and George Eastman's follow-up to the notorious "The Grim Reaper" (Antropophagus) is sick, twisted and – oh yes – deliciously absurd! There's no real story and the amount of genuine chills is limited, but the gory murder sequences are sensational and they easily rank among the craziest stuff ever caught on film. Eastman once again portrays a Greek psycho-killer, though a different one than the fetus-munching monster in Antropophagus (love that title!), cheerfully butchering half the population of a small American town. Nikos isn't your ordinary madman, but a scientific guinea pig whose blood coagulates much faster and hence he instantly recovers from severe wounds, like gunshots or impalement. He's pursued by an unintelligible priest, a chain-smoking copper and his black assistant who isn't allowed to talk without permission. No wonder none of these blokes is capable of catching or even tracing Nikos and the body count increases immensely. Whenever George isn't barbarically killing someone using band saws, surgical devices or axes, "Absurd" is rather dull, slow-moving and borrowing story ideas as well as direct quotes from John Carpenter's landmark slasher Halloween. There's babysitters in peril, young kids spotting the bogeyman everywhere around the house and dangerous killers escaping from hospital beds. Still, if you're looking for really good horror cinema, just wait for the climax which is quite suspenseful and it makes the popular title "Absurd" all the more meaningful.

I just managed to sit through "Rosso Sangue" aka "Absurd" aka "Antropophagus II" aka "Horrible" (add to those about 10 other aka-titles -- surely this should already tell you we're not dealing with an excellent picture here).

So D'Amato delivers a straight-up horror movie this time. Is it any good? Barely. It is a relaxing film, though. Because between the handful moments of gore, you'll have plenty of time to doze off & catch a nap since there's hardly anything going on.

The mighty George Eastman wrote the script and I'm sure it must have read a little something like this when he handed it over to his buddy D'Amato: "I say nothing in this film, I'm indestructible and I kill everybody". Now you just figure out how to turn this into a movie, Joe.

And so did Joe, being the talented man that he is. Also, some distributors tried to market this as a sequel to D'Amato's "Antropophagus" aka "The Grim Reaper". But it's not. Just because Eastman looses his intestines again in this film, doesn't make it a sequel.

D'Amato pretty much turned it into a plain slasher flick. In a way, "Absurd" is like John Carpenter's "Halloween", only with Eastman's evil bearded face to scare you instead of a masked Michael Myers and without the likable Jamie Lee Curtis to root for. Eastman escapes a hospital, kills his way through a whole town, eventually ending up in some house to do some more killing. All this while a priest & a cop are on his trail, blabbering on about Eastman's character being some ultimate creature of evil. So, it's more or less the same movie. Plus, it's a lot worse too, of course. Still, as far as slashers go, there are also a lot worse out there.

Now I was under the impression that this was supposedly one of the goriest & most demented horror efforts ever to come out of Italy. Sadly, it's not all that exciting. There's a handful of gory scenes, yes (drill through the head, saw through the head, etc.) and they are amusing to watch, but nothing we haven't seen before. All the rest of the film, is just plain dullness I'm afraid. The climax features a blinded Eastman (his eyes stabbed out) versus a physically disabled teenage girl. You can imagine how exciting them two stumbling about in a darkened mansion turns out to be. The ending tries to be shocking, but it's basically just a happy end.

I remember once being impressed with "Beyond The Darkness" aka "Buio Omega". Maybe I should re-watch it to see if it still holds up well, because D'Amato is rapidly loosing some filmmaker credit with the stuff I've recently seen by him.

I first saw this in the mid 80s on a vhs. Revisited it recently on YouTube. The quality is fine n it is totally uncut. Eastman once again plays a killer but this time he ain't no cannibal but a product of scientific experiment gone wrong in which he turns into an invincible nutjob who can heal itself n somehow makes weird snorting voices towards the end. Compared to Anthropophagus, this film is fast paced with lots of gory kills. Comparison to Halloween is inevitable, acting n editing wise it is horrendous. The short hair blonde is cute but her death sequence is terrifying. The nurse's drill scene made me squirm.

As is the case with many low-budget horror films released numerous times with different cuts and ratings in various different continents, Joe D'Amato's Absurd is known under a wealth of alternative titles. Also known as Horrible, Rosso Sangue and Monster Hunter, the film was labelled as too gruesome for British audiences in the 1980's and found itself on the dreaded Video Nasty List. The most bizarre title to make its way onto its VHS cover is Anthropophagus 2, although the film has little in common with D/Amato's Anthropopogus: The Grim Reaper apart from the lead casting of George Eastman as yet another impossibly strong man-mountain with a fondness for gruesome murder.

The film begins with Mikos (Eastman), a beast of a man with an unnaturally fast healing factor, fleeing a priest. As he tries to escape by scaling a fence, Mikos is impaled on the railing spikes which disembowel him. It is while at the hospital that the doctors discover his amazing ability to heal, but he is soon on the loose after murdering a nurse. The madman is eventually hit by a car driven by Mr. Bennett (Ian Danby), who flees the scene and returns to his wife, son, and bed-ridden daughter Katia (Katya Berger). The family soon finds themselves under attack from Mikos, while police officer Sgt. Engleman (Charles Borromel) and the priest (Edmund Purdom) attempt to hunt down the rampaging savage.

Apart from a couple of entertainingly gory murders (a buzzsaw to the temple and a head in the oven are particular 'highlights'), Absurd suffers from some serious pacing issues. As the story bobbles around between the various characters having inane conversations, the film becomes incredibly boring and short of action. It's debatable as to whether Anthropophagus (1980) or Absurd takes the prize for the most tedious 90 minutes, but I feel that Absurd just edges it. Although Eastman does little more than stumble around with a crazy look in his eyes, he certainly has a presence, but here he is given a disappointingly short amount of screen time. By the time the climax finally arrives, it plods on and on as Katia is forced to learn to walk again to escape the bogeyman, which does not make for exciting viewing. Absurd, indeed.

Absurd - 1981 ( This Film Rates a C ) A man with an unusual cerebral mass has the power to regenerate dead cells. He is virtually immortal, insane and a "blood thirsty beast". Of course there is that one and only secret way to stop him. The gore and effects are fake looking but several of the kills are brutal and intense. The script is poor, the transition between scenes is poor, highlighted with terrible and unconvincing acting through out the entire film. The officer in this film has a cigarette in every sequence he is in, hell, everyone in this film smokes. The soundtrack has some really spectacular moments, a good example is at the 44:16 mark. Sadly the scare tactic during this scene completely deflated with the randomness of the bearded guy. There are several other scare tactics that were hokey and just didn't work. Overall there is enough "absurd" to keep this fairly entertaining, but ultimately it cannot overcome its consistent failings.

MONSTER HUNTER is the HALLOWEEN-esque 'sequel' to 1981's insomniac's dream ANTHROPOPHAGOUS. This time around D'Amato brings to us a sense of pace, making Monster Hunter much more enjoyable. The added gore (including an ultra-torturous scene involving an oven) and cool electronic music score is a nice bonus (I caught some music from PIECES in here as well...cool). The story (or lack thereof) brings back George Eastman as our favorite cannibal, this time not on a Greek island, but somewhere in the US being hunted by a priest (of all people). During this, he somehow manages to spill his guts (again, but does not eat them) on an iron fence outside a house. Eastman is taken to a nearby hospital. There, he recovers, kills the doctor (gorily too I might say), hacks up a few others and then returns to the house where he had his 'accident', and proceeds to stalk the babysitter and kids residing there. A bit boring at times (aren't all these italo-gore flix?) but Eastman's presence is over powering and the end involving a 'vegetable' overcoming her disabilities to face the beast is fairly ironic.

'Absurd' is Joe D'Amato's follow-up to the notorious 'Antropophagus' and it often referred to as its sequel. However, apart from the same director and having the looming George Eastman once again wandering around killing people, there is very little similarity save the fact they are both poor films…with 'Absurd' definitely trumping its predecessor in the low quality stakes. Gone is the setting on a remote and eerily empty Greek island which characterised 'Antropohagus ', instead supplanting the (so-called) action to a small American town. In doing this, 'Absurd' is clearly going for a 'Halloween' nightmare-in-suburbia vibe…but in lacking any of the character development, script, or technical craft of Carpenter's flick, 'Absurd' flails about limply with a lame premise, zero suspense, and only manages to glimpse redemption (albeit unattained) with the make-up effects on the kills…which is no doubt why is got on the DPP's list of Video Nasties.

The plot (as some would have it) is that Eastman has undergone a scientific procedure which has enabled his body to regenerate itself quickly (a la Wolverine) and consequently can only be killed with a shot to the head. Oh, and he's insane. As such, a killing spree ensues and the Priest-cum-scientist who "created" him hooks up with the town Sheriff to hunt him down. The showdown takes place in a house with a girl (for some reason) recovering from a spinal operation, her nurse, and a really annoying kid. I've always found a house to be a great setting for a suspenseful horror movie (e.g. 'Last House on the Left' (1972), 'Black Christmas' (1974), 'Halloween' (1978)) but the pacing of 'Absurd' is so slow and the acting so bad on all counts that none of the suspense and tension which is so abundantly present in these other movies even threatens to show its head…let alone eviscerate you.

Okay, putting on my positive cap: some of the kills are pretty cool e.g. the buzzsaw-in-the-head scene as well as the oven scene, and the soundtrack has its moments…but even in a 90 minute film with competent acting and a decent story this wouldn't cut it, let alone a movie as deplorable as this. The film is quite hard to come by as it hasn't been reissued in the UK, which maybe adds a mystique to it but, as far as video nasties go, it's clear that boredom more than moral outrage is the reason why.

This cult film is both the follow-up to Joe D'Amato's notorious shocker 'Antropophagus', and one of the nastier films on the DPP 'Video Nasty' list. Those two facts alone will give many fans of cult horror reason enough to see it, and I'm pleased to say that the rest of the film isn't bad either; and while it's not quite as great as D'Amato's earlier film, Absurd plays out well as an overly gory slasher flick. Of course, you can't expect things like great acting and a plausible story line going into a film like this, and rather unsurprisingly; this film has neither. However, what it does have is a great gritty atmosphere, which is bathed in a scintillating soundtrack that succeeds in making the thrill scenes more exciting. The plot is silly in the extreme, but is somehow easy to buy as we follow a priest who travels to a small town on the trail of a supposed monster, who is currently lying on a hospital bed. The doctors are baffled to learn that his blood clots far faster than normal and this somehow makes him immortal. It's not long before the monster awakes and, naturally, goes on a killing spree.

George Eastman takes the lead role again and just as it did in Antropophagus; his imposing presence provides the film's main standout, despite him basically marauding around rather than actually acting. Obviously, the most important thing about this film for many will be the gore; and overall I'd say it just about tops Antropophagus. It was only two scenes that made the earlier film such a notorious shocker, and while there aren't a great number of highly nasty scenes here; they're more common and the film is more violent on the whole. Sequences involving a drill, a table saw and a severed head are among the best scenes in the movie. Director Joe D'Amato receives a lot of criticism, and while some of it is deserved; it has to be said that he has elevated this film over and above what you would expect of a grisly slasher. The atmosphere is superb, while the locations are well used and selected - and best of all, the director clearly knows how to build suspense; as the last twenty minutes of this film are truly gripping...and that's not bad at all considering that the characters are impossible to care for. Overall, anyone seeing this film will know not to expect great things - but its well worth seeing for the Video Nasty fan, and overall I'd say it's almost on par with the first film.

It is uncertain if Absurd actually is a sequel to Anthropophagus the beast. Many sites will say 'supposed' sequel because there are so many different counters. In Anthropophagus the beast, the Antropophagus beast is is a monster, it does not look like a normal person but in absurd he is just a normal man. Also the Anthropophagus beast is a cannibal but in absurd the killer just seems to murder his victims. Also he was left dead on a Greek island and he turns up in Absurd suddenly in normal clothes and in the U.S. There is no recalls whatsoever from the first movie the priest who is chasing him just says he is a killing machine. The killer in Absurd looks a bit like the beast from Anthropophagus due to the moustache but that is it! Another similarity is it is made by the same directer from Antropophagus the beast. Anaway the story.....

The killer (it MITE be the Anthropophagus beast) is injured on a fence at a family home while trying to brake in. He is taken to the hospital where the doctor operating on him is shocked at his ability to recreate dead cells and dead tissue. A police officer (forgot his name) finds a Greek man who is walking out in the middle of the night in the middle of the road. Later on the policeman is at the hospital and finds the Greek man there. The officer puts the two together and starts asking questions (as the killer also comes from Greece, another similarity from Anthropophagus) about who he is and what he is trying to do. It turns out he is a priest and is here to stop the killer. Meanwhile, the killer awakens, kills a nurse by drilling a whole slowly through her brain, and then pops off for a killing spree. In the meantime people are cooked, heads chopped off, hacksaws through skulls and people are strangled and beaten. This movie would easily make an uncut 18 certificate (appealing to UK readers who films like this are always cut or banned) and is on the list of infamous Video Naties. It has never been re-issued but was released on VHS with an X certificate and is now extremely hard to get hold of.

Read more of my reviews on other horrors and video nasties!!!

Luigi Montefiori aka George Eastman is definitely one of the scariest movie villains I've ever seen. His sheer size alone just makes him creepy. He obviously doesn't mind being violent; it seems to come naturally to him. If you've ever seen Bava's "Rabid Dogs," you should know what I mean. His role in "Rosso Sangue" is no exception. He delivers the goods here.

Transformed into an unstoppable machine by an experiment gone awry, the bad guy makes his way through the countryside in search of his next victim. His next victim is basically anyone who gets in his way. He eventually lands at the home of a family and stalks them down.

For the gorehounds, there will be a lot to love here. The scene with the band saw was sweet. For the lovers of Italian shock, there will be little we haven't seen before, but it is still worth a viewing.

Ultimiately, this one could have been as triumphant as "Buio Omega" if there had been a few added killings. There are really only a handful. I wish there had been twice as many. I would have given this one at least a nine.

Aficionados of Italian horror soundtracks will recognize a few of the tunes from other flicks.

Worthy of a viewing for fans of D'Amato. Also recommend, if you like this one: "Tenebre," "Anthropophagus: The Grim Reaper," and of course "Beyond the Darkness." 7 out of 10, kids.

A monster (read - Homicidal Man) with regenerative powers that are 'absurd' - IE stab him and it won't stop him, you have to completely mash his brain to do that - goes on a minor rampage in a small American town.

This film almost sent me to sleep at times. I don't believe that Joe D'Amato was much of a director, just prolific. When he does make films I like (EG - Buio Omega, Anthrophagus), I'm tempted to thank mostly his persistence with exploitatively gory subject matter. For every half-decent film he's made, he's also made two more that sucked, and that isn't a good batting average. There's not even much consensus on his good films. I'm a fan of Anthropophagus, but I know for a fact that it bores a lot of people, and I can understand why. In any case, Absurd is just too obnoxiously stupid and uneven to earn much of a place in my heart, no matter how blitzkriegy its violence.

D'Amato seems to have had no overview of his films before piecing them together. In Absurd, soporific longeurs are broken up by overblown murder set-pieces. The killings are undoubtedly nasty (bandsaw through the head, axe in the head, head in the oven, etc.) but the director offers so little explanation as to why/how these killings occur that the film doesn't feel horrifying, just ridiculous. George Eastman is competently creepy as the monster, but we know almost nothing about his character, and he goes out of his way to kill each victim in the gruesomest way he can, no matter how impractical that course of action might be. My main reaction to this approach was laughter. Every now and then I caught myself liking the film's brutality, but so often it's just boring, stupid or silly, limply structured - annoying.

The film may end up being memorable for not very good reasons, but the reality is that it's pretty crap.

A priest is pursuing a madman who,the victim of a genetic experiment,has become a homicidal killer with blood that coagulates very quickly,making him virtually indestructible.The killer goes on the rampage in a small town.This ultra-gory sequel to Joe D'Amato's "Antropophagus" is very slow and boring at times but has also some creepy moments plus plenty of very strong violence and gore.The bandsaw killing is ten times nastier than the similar drill scene in Lucio Fulci's "City of the Living Dead".The gore flows freely resulting in a film that is simultaneously repellent and extremely funny.Highly recommended.

Joe D'Amato's "Rosso Sangue" aka. "Absurd" of 1981 is sometimes named a sequel to D'Amato's shocking highlight "Antropophagus" of 1980. This is not really true, as while both films star George Eastman as the vicious villain, and both films are extremely gory, the story lines have nothing at all to do with each other. I loved "Antropophagus", which is not only tremendously gory, shocking and disturbing, but also scary as hell. I also enjoyed "Rosso Sangue", but it is not nearly a great as its aforementioned predecessor. The film is, once again extremely gory, and exploitation-icon George Eastman is once again predestined for the role, but the film is not nearly as scary as "Antropophagus", and neither is it anywhere near as shocking. A small town is infested by a genetically mutated man (Eastman), who has the urge to brutally murder everybody he sees, as a result of a nuclear experiment gone wrong. Not only does he have the urge to murder, however, his mutations also made him very strong and immune to injuries... The film's main qualities are the great score, the extreme gore, and George Eastman. The huge Eastman really is one intimidating fellow, who always fits in his mostly sardonic roles. His greatest moments were Mario Bava's 1974 masterpiece "Cani Arrabiati" ("Rabid Dogs"), and "Antropophagus", but Eastman truly is an enrichment to any of the films he starred in, and "Absurd" is no exception. While he is not quite as scary-looking as in "Antropophagus" here, Eastman single-handedly carries the film with his maniacal performance. The other performances are quite forgettable, but this is not really of any importance. Overall, this is not nearly as great as "Antropophagus", but it is definitely a film that any fan of the very brutal kind of Horror/Exploitataion should enjoy. Recommended to my fellow Italian Horror buffs.

A killer with the ability of regeneration and priest hunting him down. A decent idea for a decent movie, right? Well, not if you ask D'Amato. See, this is an Italian movie made for Americans and it's so obviously European (in a bad way) it hurts. There are no memorable characters, in fact, there is no good acting at all and the big parts of movie feel bad, generic and bland. What's even worse, at one point kids get left with a babysitter and talk about boogeyman starts. And at that point I'm checking the year movie came out and with "Halloween" released three years before and second released in 1981. I start repeating in my head:"Don't do it D'Amato, don't do it D'Amato!" But it seems my time traveling telepathy doesn't work and he does just that. An Italian Halloween! Yeah... It doesn't work. Murders are gory but sloppy, film is obviously filmed in Europe (people eating spaghetti while watching an american football game, I mean, cmon D'Amato!) and the acting/dubbing made me cringe a lot. All in all, "Absurd" is a boring and tiresome movie which I cannot even recommend to the fans of the genre. It's not so bad it's unwatchable and it's ending scenes are somewhat interesting, but it's not really good enough to warrant watching. Avoid if you can. 5/10!

While I've seen over a dozen of Joe D'Amato's films, this was my first foray into his horror films (unless you count Emanuelle and the Last Cannibals, and his Caribbean Horror/Porns, which I have seen.)

For the first half of the movie I wasn't that impressed. But, the second half was relentless, suspenseful, brutal and agonizing. I've seen hundreds of horror/gore/splatter/slasher films, but the infamous 'oven scene' (which I won't spoil) had me literally covering my mouth to keep from making too much noise.

The rampage of the second act works well because the horror comes from the THOUGHT of what is happening, rather than the more visceral deaths of the first half. There is blood and gore, to be sure, but Joe D'Amato shows a modicum of restraint, letting the suspense build in a way it was unable to in the first act.

So, if you decide to give this film a try, and I hope you will, stick with it. Not only does the film really get going in the second half, the final shot of the film has to be one of the most unexpected, shocking and unexpected moments I've ever seen.

Absurd/Rosso Sangue ("Red Blood" in Italian} both absurdly generic titles for this exploitive outing in which yet another scientific experiment goes wrong and another psycho maniac escapes to kill all the usual victims, climaxing with a confrontation with a particularly vulnerable invalid. There's a scientist/priest on his tail to exorcise the monster and thereby neutralize it. Better funded than most slashers, the film features a few novel executions, particularly a protracted oven burning which is really the reason to recommend this, if you're looking for new and different ways to torture somebody. Unfortunately the final confrontation is poorly filmed and a let-down At least the invalid overcomes the odds, of course, and receives the ultimate reward for the effort.

Amazingly enough it would seem that I had never seen this film before. It was banned for a period, then only available in a heavily cut version but my aversion to it was probably more to do with the earlier, Antropophadus. This film also starred the indefatigable, George Eastman (actually Italian despite the anglicised name and seeming of Greek extraction) and apparently involved far too many instances of tumbling entrails and cannibalism than I ever fancied. But maybe I should think again for this is really not at all bad. Eastman is the impressive presence as ever but Edmund Purdom (he of the golden voice and many a voiceover and English dub for gialli) is also impressive, though here, ironically, he delivers his lines with a Greek accent. The pounding score is initially off putting and the film seems slow to get going but there are some fine visceral and brutal scenes with good photography and suspenseful set-ups. The climax is sensational and we have three very good and extremely suspenseful scenes going on at the same time while that score ponds even more heavily.

Horrible is a film that was part of a large collection of films banned by the British Board of Film Censors in the 1980's. I've seen many of these "nasty" features just to see what all the fuss was about; to be frank, they weren't as brutal as you'd expect. Naturally, this was 25 years ago so the cinematic standard of what was conceived as vile has changed dramatically in recent times. Nevertheless, The UK's Video Recordings Act of 1984 was a notable era in horror; some titles on the list are still banned today while others have been lifted years ago. After I finish my review I'll mention some of the films I've seen from the "Video Nasty" collection.

Horrible is an effort made by Joe D'Amato. A shameful effort indeed, among a long list of shameful attempts in general. Yes, unfortunately he brought you Antropophagus: another bottom-dwelling disgrace. D'Amato is just slightly a step above the status of a porn director. This is why myself and many others refer to Italian horror cinema during the 70's and 80's as "schlocky"; virtually every facet and production value is so pitifully executed that is requires your utmost devotion to be fully appreciated. Luckily Horrible is not a porn-hybrid so I'll be able to spare you the misery of hearing about it.

The plot tells the story of a large, superhuman male who escapes from a medical facility after an experiment goes "horribly" wrong. A priest/scientist works with the police and with their combined efforts they attempt to apprehend the murderous fiend. Yep...that's about it. The same large villain who's featured in Anthropophagus is also the main attraction here. As usual, the dubbing is inconsistent, and at times, sounds like it was recorded in someone's garage. Even the film stock will change quality without a moment's notice...all typical factors to reaffirm my feelings of detestment. D'Amato is without a doubt the WORST Italian horror director I've seen. Of all the times I've discussed how inconsistent Fulci or Argento can be or even how terrible I think Bava is at times, they simply don't match up to the worthlessness of D'Amato's nonexistent directorial skill-set.

What's left to say? It's particularly painful to sit through 90 minutes of this. Some of you may wonder, "Hey, why even sit through it at all? You don't have to!" Yes...but it's all part of my mission and if there wasn't at least one person on the planet that could report back the results of movies like this who else would? Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go and fetch my mail...if I'm not back in 5 minutes, assume D'Amato supporters snatched me up and threw me into a white van.

Big George "New Barbarians, Baba Yaga, 2019: After the Fall of New York, Bronx Warriors 1 etc" Eastman is back, and this time, he's got his arse in his hands, quite literally! This time he's running through some town in America, pursued by Mister Edmund "I was great in Ator, Pieces, and also 2019: After the Fall of New York" Purdom "and I also directed and starred in Don't Open Till Christmas". George doesn't come out of this clash of b-movie icons well, turning up at someone's house with his guts in his hands. Next thing you know he's in hospital confusing surgeons while healing up at a rapid rate.

A local cop gets involved, finding Purdom wandering about, and gets the low down: Big George is an almost indestructible killing machine in an experiment gone wrong, and Purdom is the priest/scientist sent to kill him. Only a blow to the head will suffice, which will prove difficult as by the time they all figure out what's happening George has already killed a nurse and is heading for the house he was found wounded in (perhaps he'd left some of his guts there, or something).

In this house is a small, tantrum having kid, and crippled teenager, a babysitter, and a husband and wife who depart before George turns up, although the husband did do a hit and run on George earlier in the film (while George is in the process of killing actor/director Michelle Soavi!). Also, there's a nurse that turns up later, wondering why the babysitter's missing.

This kind of follow up from Anthropophagus (the only link seeming being the Greek origin of the monsters) is as slow as the first film, but somehow not as satisfying. It's very gory, however, with people being drilled and sawed in the head, pickaxed in the head, chopped in the head and having their heads cooked in ovens. There's a lot of dull spots, however, like watching folks eating spaghetti, watching football and a lot of wandering about. I get a Halloween vibe from this one.

Once again, Big George "I bummed Giancarlo Perle in the New Barbarians" comes across as quite a menacing character, but there's pacing problems all over this film. I'll say this though: Joe D'Amato is compared to Jess Franco as they both do a lot of skin flicks, but Joe is far more competent as a director.

I know ROSSO SANGUE by its English title ABSURD and I don`t think I`ve ever seen a film with a more appropriate title . A priest kills a man he is chasing then the man comes back to life and starts killing people . And when I say kills them I don`t mean he shoots them dead or anything boring like that I mean he really mutilates them by splitting their heads open etc . This is one sick stupid movie where eyes are poked out and heads chopped off. If you`re into Italian gore movies or video nasties then you might like it. If like me you admire films with a coherant script ( I don`t even know why the killer ran about killing those people ) good acting etc then you won`t want to watch this

Here is the sequel to Anthropophagous and guess what, this one also made the video nasty list too. In fairness, this is practically a sequel in name only, with the intimidating actor George Eastman reprising his role as the central psychopath but this time he is not a rotting monster but simply gorgeous George sans make-up. He isn't even a cannibal now, just a bad, bad tattie whose cells can regenerate - somehow - making him an almost unkillable killing machine. Anyway, it all boils down to Eastman going around murdering members of the cast in very violent ways. This is one of a number of Italian movies which tried to pass themselves off as American back in the early 80's to try and increase their marketability - to this end it includes a scene where a family watches the Superbowl, while dressed in suits and eating bowls of pasta. Overall, this one lacks the slow building dread of the first film but it is probably a bit better paced and has more than its fair share of gory and violent excess. It has to also be said that despite being a bit of pure exploitation, similar to its sister film it still has some great suspense and by the end of it I had to admit that this was another surprisingly good effort.

Unsettling , sensationalistic and loathing Joe D'Amato picture with plenty of blood , gore and guts . Antropophagus II or Absurd or Rosso sangue (1981) is a sordid and scary explotaition movie that packs inexplicable disturbing occurrences , shocks, thrills , suspense , chills , hair-rising events and extremely gory final . Stars Mikos Stenopolis (George Eastman) , is a nutty man escaped from a hospital and undertaking a criminal spree . Along the way a priest-doctor (Edmund Purdom) hunting the man who has recently escaped from a medical lab, reaches a small town where the mutant continues his cannibalist massacre . He's. ...He's coming for you .Brutal ...Shocking! ...Violent! ...Savage! ...Not for the squeamish! .A Classic Gore Fest! Pray you survive the hunt. They rip out your fear and feed on it ! . Death awaits those who trespass in the realm of the living dead . It's not fear that tears you apart...it's him!

This scary and disagreeable movie is filled with some genuine fright , horror and doom. A sinister and unsettling flick that goes on growing more and more and developing little by little until the really gory finale . Thunderously overwhrought pile of Grand Guignol horror and displaying a lot of slaughter , mayhem , sickening images, stabbing , beheading and anything else . It is one of the nastiest , sleaziest and most brutal gore flicks ever produced in Italy . Including several women suffering grim , terrible and gory comeuppances and leaving nothing to the imagination . The plot is well known , plain and simple : a man has extraordinary amazing powers in Michael Myers and Jason style and making his angry could prove to be deadly with cannibalistic wishes . A familiar -but dull at times- script full of shocks, screams and surprises by writer/producer/actor Luigi Montefiori or George Eastman , giving a remarkable presence as the giant ghastly-looking dead man with supernatural regenerative abilities carrying out a killing spree , as he enhanced everything he was in and especially this role as a disfigured cannibalistic serial killer . Passable special effects , with special mention for the scenes of the girl burning in the oven . It's a better sequel to ¨Antrophofagus I¨dealing with a group of American students (Tisa Farrow , Saverio Vallone , Serena Grandi , Zora Kerova , among others) vacationing on a Greek island and with some really disturbing scenes of the pregnant woman comes up and as she's being strangled by the killer and her fetus is ripped out of her , here Tisa Farrow learns of the twisted cannibalistic murderer who methodically kills tourists and locals at the creepy island. This ¨Absurd¨resulting to be an exercise in pure depravity and regularly made by Aristide Massaccesi , now referring to himself as Joe D'Amato, he entered the "gore" genere films with Buio Omega (1979), which remains his most successful horror film, shot in four weeks on a low budget , while this ¨Absurd¨ was entirely filmed at Fiano Romano, Rome, Lazio, Italy and which had a thrilling and stinging music soundtrack by Carlo Maria Cordio . This Antrophofagus II (1981) was less successful than the previous one, ¨Gomia¨, but it's better made than Antrophofagus I (1980) . The film is well starred by Lui Montefiori the star of Antrophofagus and other gore genre flicks , being accompanied by other familiar faces who played in several Italian B-films , such as : Annie Belle , Charles Borromel , Katya Berger , Michele Soavi ,Ted Rusoff and Edmund Purdom.

The motion picture was middilngly directed by hack director Joe D'Amato or Aristide Massaccessi . This artisan was a prolific cameraman/writer/producer/director who made all kinds of genres . His first directing work was in 1972's low-budget Scansati... a Trinità arriva Eldorado (1972), co-directed by Diego Spataro, under the pseudonym Dick Spitfire, but it was a commercial failure. As he directed hardcore , soft-core, erotic films starring Laura Gemser, such as Emmanuel and francois (1975), Emanuelle and the Last Cannibals (1977), Emanuelle in América (1977), Emanuelle and the White Slave Trade (1978), Erotic Nights of the Living dead , L'alcova (1985) . Gialli and Terror movies : Gomia or that he directed as "Peter Newton", Hitcher in the dark , Death Smiles on a Murderer , Buio Omega . Scifi and Sword-witchery : Ator , Ator l'invincibile, Ator 3 , 2020 Texas Rangers , Bronx Endgame, and many others . Rating : 4.5/10 . Average terror movie , it isn't apt for squeamish.

Fiercely independent genre film-maker, prolific purveyor of salacious sinema, and hugely gifted DP, the majestically macabre movie maestro Joe D'Amato demonstratively increased his lurid legend with his head-drillingly demented, bestially bonkers, eye-ball poppingly grisly 80s splatter-fest 'Absurd' (1981) an excessively horrific home invasion chunk-blower entirely worthy of its tabloid-endowed 'Video Nasty' appellation! This non-stop blood-spattered barrage of lividly Limb-lopping, face-frying celluloid shock-tactics stars that retrograde alpha slayer without peer George Eastman! This towering titan of tibia-trashing terror, the sultry sultan of celluloid savagery shines brightly as the skull-sawingly sinister icon of emotive evisceration in D'Amato's gut-swilling, grindhouse favourite! Watching the uncommonly unhinged, magisterially maniacal, murderously-muscular, apocalyptically angry anthropoid deliriously dispatching his hopelessly overwrought victims with such audaciously gruesome industry is always a sublimely sanguinary sensation for any who share my junk-movie jaded, gore-adoring sensibilities!

The recent, and beauteously restored 88 Films Blu-ray edition is an exhilaratingly eerie, exquisitely edifying event of great B-movie magnitude, this bravura Blu-ray Bobby Dazzler also includes the entirely splendid 'Video Nasties' gore-glossary for some additionally piquant information, should any splatter mad hatters be remotely interested in such scurrilously sadistic, luridly printed edification! 'Absurd' is an insanely entertaining, tyrannically tasteless, fiendishly ferocious, boisterously body bag stuffing 80s Italian horror masterpiece!! In the kingdom of the B-Movie blind, George Eastman is king!!!' (I'm not exactly sure what the latter means, mayte, but I just love the big-chested lug!)

Absurd indeed. An insanely strong psycho breaks into a house and terrorizes a babysitter and the children she's watching as a doctor tries to stop him. Sound familiar? Yes, it's pretty much Halloween, but Italian and with a ton of extra gore and none of the scares or suspense. Thankfully, there's enough enthusiastic blood splatter to keep ones interest throughout, but don't go in expecting anything too deep or meaningful.

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.