Reviews

I'm a huge fan of Camp Video, starting with Video Violence and Splatter Farm. So I know their type of movie, dumb and cheesy with some decent gore. So that's what I was expecting with this one. But, what I got was an insanely hardcore, intense crime thriller.

A heartbroken man goes on a vacation and records his trip when he's kidnapped by a gang and is forced to record their crimes. The character building is nothing like I've seen in any Camp Video and the brutality follows that of shock film greats like August Underground.

Slow, yet thrilling, this film delivers in gore and drama. The ending had me audibly gasping and shouting in disbelief. Any only complaint would be some of the characters were pretty loosely written, one of them mainly focusing on just killing people.

But, despite that it's a great movie.

Olaf Ittenbach has garnered a name in the horror community for his insanely violent films. Ranging from the Shot-on-Video anthology Burning Moon to the existential horror of No Reason, he's sure to give you a heavy amount of gore. And Premutos has also garnered a name in the horror community for being neck and neck with Peter Jackson's Braindead (aka Dead Alive) in amount of blood. While this film does not have an exact measured amount of blood that Braindead does, it still holds up to its name of being one of the bloodiest films made.

That has its downsides though. Its reliance on the gore pulls away from the lack of story. We never meet our main character, Matthias (played by Olaf himself) until about a quarter of the way through. And the exposition it gives up until that point has little to no plot significance.

But the soundtrack and the bloody carnage is enough to please any gorehound. The practical effects are really well done as well.

This film was the most dumb, boring, pointless thing I have ever watched. It is so incredibly dragged out with awful humor and the same tentacle sex scenes over and over. Stay away from this film if you want to keep your sanity.

For this movie I was worried going in because of the really bad reviews it has. But, I must say, this was one of the most fun and creative movies i've seen in a while. The Surgeon General is an amazing villain and the introduction of him with the fisheye lens is amazing. The comedy is great and not overbearing. The kills are incredible. All around this was a great movie.

In American Guinea Pig: Sacrifice Daniel is trying to reach enlightenment with the goddess Ishtar through ritualistic suicide. However, this one again falls flat much like Bouquet of Guts and Gore and Blood Shock.

It could have made itself much better by getting rid of the awful, awkward voiceovers that try to help add to the "plot". But even with them, there isn't much of a plot. No clear motive. And is just a gauntlet of pain and suffering. Experimental gore is not something I am new to, I have watched films like Fetus and Women's Flesh My Red Guts but even those had some kind of backstory to them.

The effects, however, are amazing. Almost too well done. I won't say much as to not spoil it but this film is the first one where my eyes were watering from watching his pain.

Hopefully the next round of AGP films can provide more in the writing spectrum and acting spectrum. I have faith in the directors, cast and crew involved.

Guinea Pig is one of my favorite underground horror franchises. So, naturally I was excited to watch Bouquet of Guts and Gore. And, I couldn't help but be disappointed. It offers not much more than shock value and gore

Guinea Pig: Flower of Flesh and Blood (the film out of the franchise this tries to recreate) had an artistic beauty to it thanks to horror manga legend Hideshi Hino. It showed the beauty of human life while also showing the horrors one is capable of. It's a gut wrenching, spine tingling, beautiful yet sickening art piece. This one, on the other hand, loses all of that artistic value. And boils it down to nothing more than mindless, over the top, unbelievable gore.

The "dialogue" of which there is not much of, is just characters shouting "out of tape!" and "oh yeah that's it" over and over. And even then the actors still manage to make it feel weird. Making it feel just cringeworthy and annoying.

This film is nothing more than a shock piece that, if you are in the mood for, can be good. But if you are expecting a good art piece à la Guinea Pig, you have been warned.

Female Prisoner #701: Scorpion sounds like it would be yet another sleazy exploitation movie which focuses on nothing but death and sex. But this is far from the truth.

It's a beautiful film about a prisoner seeking revenge. The colors used are amazing, the music is outstanding and the cinematography is stunning. The plot isn't too difficult to follow and is really well structured with a satisfying ending after scenes of humiliation and anxiety.

This film is easily one of the best films I have ever watched.

I was super excited to get my hands on 555, a movie that is so rare now that copies on ebay can go for $1,000. However, I knew to keep my expectations low just to play it safe. This movie has garnered an interesting reputation for which I wholeheartedly understand. The deaths are gritty and the concept is disturbing. The gore is amazingly done and I applaud those involved.

My true complaint comes down to the writing. For being a mystery movie about a sadistic killer who rapes his victims, not a ton of that is shown and is left to these long droning conversations about the killer. The detective characters are not too bad but they are not the best. They make up for it with the great comedy they play off.

Overall, not the best sleazy gory underground movie I've seen but it also for sure is not the worst. It has wonderful charm and is extremely fun at times.

Silent Night Deadly Night is only known through its bombed sequel which stars a lower than high school level actor. The original, however, is a wonderful example of a holiday slasher. It's not as good as Black Christmas (1974) that's for sure but it still has fun charm. This slasher has a nice flow, not too bad acting, gory deaths, and an incredibly disturbing beginning. You can see why there was controversy surrounding this film but if you put all of that in the backseat, you have a nice fun slasher.

It's not pretentious or thought provoking, just your average grindhouse sleaze slasher. And there are moments that make no sense, for instance the way they wrote the police is completely unorthodox and wacky. And a few scenes have odd logic. But really, it's a wonderful slasher and I encourage any fan of slashers and/or holiday horror to watch it.

A lot of complaints for this movie are the same, "it's too incoherent" "it's all shock value and no story". But I find that to be completely untrue. This film isn't afraid to show the nitty gritty of psychological torment. Unlike other splatters/slashers, this one is extremely grim.

A mentally disturbed man travels back to his childhood home on a killing spree, what follows are events of terror, anxiety, fear, and most of all: depravity. The psychosexual aspect of some films is really one I don't care for but this one is the exception. It punches deep into your mind and will leave you in knots after watching. This movie really is something to behold, for being one of the most infamous Video Nasties and for being in itself, nasty.

It's not a bad movie by a long shot but it's definitely not for the faint of heart. Even I, one who has seen some of the most mentally disturbed movies put out to the public, was left shocked from it. I truly think this is a work of art that should be celebrated in the horror community and not looked over as just another gritty slasher.

Give it a try, you'll be left asking the question "who is truly capable of doing such heinous stuff?" Because, at the end of the day, anyone is.

I jumped into Olaf Ittenbach's content with The Burning Moon and I was surprised with it. But, this one, oh boy this one is way bloodier, heavier, and intense. Scenes of brutal mutilation and insanity wrapped up in a mirror to another realm that shows us what insanity really is.

Olaf stars in this neat little gore feature and his acting is sublime for an independent horror from the late 80s. Not to mention making all of the gore effects himself and directing the movie. It truly shows what you can do if you put your mind and passion into it.

Argento is one of my favorite directors and giallo is one of my favorite genres. But this one just feels off. Long, tedious shots, a plot that takes a bit to grip, and no real character building. This truly is the beginning of Argento's decline. Don't get me wrong, there's some great kills and Claudio Simonetti delivers again with great music. But this one just feels left in the dust of what could have been more.

A giallo left with an unfinished feeling is one you don't want to experience. A giallo is supposed to be gripping and intense, and while this one is intense and had an amazing idea with the needles on the eyes, it just is not gripping enough. There's no real beginning and no real end to this one for me. And with that, I will say that I agree with others when they say this is the beginning of Argento's decline.

Olaf Ittenbach's Burning Moon is the perfect example of nihilism. This anthology movie is split into two shorts: Julia's Love and The Purity. Julia's Love shows how no one can be trusted and The Purity shows that jumping to conclusions can have awful, awful consequences. The meanings behind these stories are, of course, up to interpretation but it is no question that the second short, The Purity, has a deeper, nihilistic message. A cynical take on religion, this segment quickly ramps to horrific deaths and an end scene that will leave the viewer shocked.

The gore in this movie is nothing short of stomach churning and over the top. Any gorehound would be pleased. So I encourage you, if you're a fan of SOV horror and gory movies, to give this movie a shot.

This movie is an anomaly to me. It has some good gore but by god are some scenes slow as all hell. There's one scene in which a character is opening a door and it takes well over 10 seconds to reach and turn the doorknob. It would be another fun and charming sov movie put out by Intervision if it weren't for the dragging of scenes and cringy overacting.

Blowing through Intervision movies one by one and I got to this one. I saw bad reviews and was worried it was going to be another Things or Sledgehammer. I was wrong. This movie is misunderstood and is a great fun little scarecrow movie with surprisingly good actors and some freaky scenes. A great movie to watch on an autumn evening if you have the chance.

Things is something different, that's for sure. Released in 1989 this Shot on Video horror movie tells the tale of two friends who go to a cabin and "discover a womb of monstrous horror that demands graphic dismemberment". But I doubt anyone could have understood that if they went in blind.

Dialogue that makes no sense, random scenes that do not fit in with anything that's happening and not being able to see anything that's happening. The redeeming quality is the gore effects and the music aren't bad.

This movie makes for a great movie to watch with friends and crack jokes about but should not be taken as a serious movie at all.

I collect horror, ranging from the deranged bloodlust of Guinea Pig to the campy fun of Video Violence. I recently got my hands on a Camp Video VHS copy of this movie under the name "Nightmare House" the trailer seemed good and it was released under Troma as well so how could this go wrong? Well, to start, the acting is about what you expect for a movie from the late 60s, not great. The writing is flawed and makes the movie a snooze fest. An hour in and nothing happened. People do acid, guy in face paint chases a girl, random sex scene.

Though a few things that saves this movie for me, the acid jazz coupled with the cloudiness of the vhs copy I own really makes it feel like a fever dream. The last half of the movie isn't awful. It feels like the first hour of the movie is a completely different script thrown in to tie the whole "Nightmare House" part in at the end. It feels like an unfinished Herschell Gordon Lewis movie.

Ice Cream Man (1995) is an interesting movie to me. Featuring Clint Howard, Ron Howard's younger brother, this horror comedy centers around a group of kids getting to the bottom of the mystery of their missing friend and a suspicious ice cream man. The fact this movie was intended to be PG13 really explains a lot of themes in it, such as the kids being protagonists, the music, the cheesy after school special feel. It's almost as if it was intended to be a Goosebumps episode but ended up being a full fledged horror movie.

Now the movie does have its flaws and moments that make no sense but. Some characters are written bad, some acting is bad. But don't let that take away from the joy and the horror that is Ice Cream Man.