Archive for WITD

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Weekends In The Dark: Going Through Changes [NSFW/NSFL]

by on October 17, 2014 at 8:55 am
Posted In: Homepage, Jon, Movies, Videos, WITD

Thanatomorphose [2012] likely got walked out on more than any other film released that year, and while I really want to say that that is a damn shame, I completely understand. It’s a damn shame though. This film is so ruthlessly dedicated to its gruesome premise that it is really quite awe inspiring. The concept is succinct: adrift in love and in life, an unhappy woman decomposes. Stated so plainly, we see an elegant simplicity to a sorrowful tale. On the screen, however, elegance couldn’t possibly be farther from the case, as we learn just how awful decomposition can be.

How awful? Real awful. The film is extraordinarily intimate for so hideous a subject, and one of its great strengths is the absurd detail of the makeup effects. What is essentially 20 minutes of exposition and then 90 minutes of a lone woman rotting wouldn’t work for a second if the special effects left anything to be desired, and with only one or two exceptions the makeup and special effects succeed in carrying this visual horrorshow.

Other reviews have called Kayden Rose particularly brave for taking the lead role, and I have to agree. She spends probably 90% of her screen time nude, the makeup must have taken hours every day to put on, and the whole film is a painful, visual struggle with literal decomposition. There are scenes with live maggots. Her acting is a bright spot among the generally questionable supporting cast. The nature of the film required her to carry, and she does so admirably.

Success in the visual horrorshow regard would be construed as failure to the sensitive viewer, and as usual, I urge gentle readers to venture elsewhere. This film is really about the decomposition of a living human being, and we’re going to see it. In detail. Let us do so.

Thanatomorphose

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Weekends In The Dark: Chain Of Fools

by on October 3, 2014 at 8:00 am
Posted In: Homepage, Jon, Movies, WITD
Here's Martin!

Here’s Martin!

Human Centipede 2 (2011) exceeds its predecessor in every way. While some film series may kick it up a notch when getting to the sequel, Human Centipede doesn’t knock it out of the park, it ejects it into the stratosphere. I repeated myself, not to entertain, but to warn. We’re going to take a good long look here at a movie which is vastly more horrific than a film about a doctor who surgically joins three human beings mouth-to-anus into a human centipede. Human Centipede 2 succeeds on so many levels, it boggles my mind that it didn’t get more attention than it did when it released.

Human Centipede (the first) was met with mixed reviews. Marketed as “100% medically accurate” and “the most horrific film ever made” it never quite lived up to the reputation. The film had a clinical starkness to its presentation, and while it didn’t waste any time getting to the point of sewing three people together, mouth to anus, it never really indulged in the absolute grotesqueness of the scenario. Consequently, the film felt somewhat unsatisfying. Was there a crazy German doctor who got off on sewing people together? Yep. Did he do it? Yep. There it is. The movie did make waves, won a few festival awards, and generally offended anyone who thought too long about it.

 

But: Tom Six knows what he’s doing. This film savors atrocity so urgently I can’t really say any more without giving the warning. If you are a sensitive person you do not want to keep reading. Go anywhere else.

 

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Weekends In The Dark: When Is Dying Worth It? [NSFW/NSFL]

by on September 18, 2014 at 8:00 am
Posted In: Homepage, Jon, Movies, WITD

What is this and why should you care?  There aren’t a lot of films which can give pause to a modern, desensitized internet veteran.  This is where we look at those films.

She thinks it's finally over. It is not.

She thinks it’s finally over. It is not.

Martyrs is a gem in the crown of the New French Extremity movement, a collection of post-2000 France French films characterized by dizzying heights (read: depths) to the emotional, physical and spiritual assaults to which their protagonists are subjected.  The audience too.  Another characteristic of this movement is an abundance of female characters, and Martyrs is no exception.  The protagonists and villains are almost (with one small exception) all female.  Will it soften the impact of the relentless, stupefying cruelty to which the hero of this film is subjected to know that its source is a woman, just like her?  It will not.  The abuse is in no way softenable.

Martyrs, perhaps more than any film I’ve looked at under the WitD banner has touched me.  Probably inspired by the famous ‘ear’ scene from Pulp Fiction, many years ago I once declared that the scariest thing I could imagine happening to me would be being captured by some agent and then informed that I was to be tortured for no other reason than the entertainment of my captor; I would be powerless in any capacity to make it stop.  Pascal Laugier, decided to get right on that, and in Martyrs there is a full 35 minutes of the film dedicated to an extended, savage, blistering torture sequence.

Martyrs, takes a circuitous route to get there.  The first act feels a little like a Japanese ghost story type setup with a home invasion twist.  The second has a bit of a detective story/mystery feel to it, before plunging into the brutal, torturous aforementioned third.  These twists will keep you guessing just what you’ve gotten yourself into.

But is this entertaining?  Why would anyone subject themselves to this film?  Actually, it is, and there’s a George Mallory quote that belongs here.  We’re going to get into details and I urge those sensitive readers to abandon this pursuit here.

Martyrs
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Weekends In The Dark: Begotten’s Been Got [NSFW]

by on September 5, 2014 at 2:07 am
Posted In: Homepage, Jon, Movies, WITD

“Like a flame burning away the darkness
Life is flesh on bone convulsing above the ground.”

What is this and why should you care?  There aren’t a lot of films which can impact the desensitized, cynical soul of an internet veteran.  This is where we look at those things.

Begotten is a much lauded experimental horror film from the 1990s, a labor of love by director E Elias Mehinge.  This is the part of the review where the quote “one of the 10 most important films of the modern times” by Susan Sontag is trotted out.  Does the film live up to the reputation?  On some levels, it does.  A man graphically disembowels himself, a woman masturbates his half living corpse to climax and then impregnates herself with the issue, a man-child is repeatedly, savagely beaten.  And more!  The haunting, grimy film style (reportedly 10 hours of post production work for each minute of film) will stay with you, but as a cohesive whole the film largely fails to captivate, with moments of brilliance sandwiched by minutes of tedium.

There isn’t a single spoken word throughout, not even a named character until the cast card at the end reveals the characters and gives the audience a chance to try and fit meaning to the 115 minute trial they’ve just endured.  Is it worth it?  Can the astute viewer extract enough meaning, or the patient viewer entertainment to make the experience worthwhile?

Are you there, God, it's me, straight razor.

Are you there, God? it’s me, straight razor.

Probably not.  But let’s go deeper and see what we can get.

Before we delve into the plot, a bird’s eye view of the experience:  there isn’t a scene that doesn’t feature droning repetitive sounds and droning repetitive motion.  Most of the shots are too close to make out exactly what’s going on, and with the overexposed black and white color, it’s too easy to lose track of what we’re watching.  The acts of this film, there are 4, are each over twenty minutes long, and when losing oneself in the repeating sounds, the repeating images, it is easy to lose a sense of time.  How long have I been watching a man epileptically thrusting a straight razor into his own stomach?  One might ask oneself.  How long have these men been gang raping this woman?

 

This is the film at its best, forcing the viewer to struggle with his own experience.  But we’re ahead of ourselves.  Gentle readers, I suggest you read elsewhere.  There will be graphic depictions of the horrors mentioned above.  For the rest of us: deep breath, here we go.

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Weekends In The Dark: Are You Hungary? [NSFW][NSFL]

by on February 21, 2012 at 5:09 pm
Posted In: Jon, Movies, WITD

What is this and why should you care?  There aren’t a lot of films which can pierce the desensitized, cynical soul of an internet veteran.  This is where we look at those things.

In 2006, director Gyorgy Palfi released a film which is said to be a metaphorical retelling of the post World War 2 history of Hungary.  Hungary’s had some pretty dark times in the 20th century, from joining the Axis in World War 2, 50ish years of communism after the end of the war, a couple of violent revolutions and finally desperate poverty as a result of absurd socio-economic planning through the 90s.  Things are looking up for Hungary after joining the EU in 2004, but like many Eastern European countries if you’re looking for generations of men and women hardened by povery, violence and chaos you’re looking in the right direction.

In short, the perfect stage for artistic, metaphorical film!  We’re going to dive in, but I must caution gentle readers that the film is sexual, graphic, violent, masochistic and absurd.  If the idea of seeing graphic dissections, projectile vomiting, and sex with dissected corpses at all distresses you I urge you to not continue reading.  Perhaps a visit to reddit.com/r/aww would help?

Yes.  Yes it would.  For the rest of us…

 

 

 

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Weekends In The Dark: The Worst Thing Ever [NSFW][NSFL]

by on December 4, 2011 at 8:00 pm
Posted In: Jon, Movies, WITD

What is this and why should you care?  This is where we take a look at the worst thing ever.  Plenty of people like watching challenging movies, maybe horror films that are scary or art pieces that change how we think about the world.  Maybe your friends have told you about how crazy Haute Tension is or how much sex there is in Caligula or maybe even how hard it is to watch Anticristo.  Well now, there exists a film that merges the very worst of so many genres into some mecha-voltron assemblage that is so much better (worse) than the sum of it’s parts.

See, once upon a time there was an author who enjoyed delving into the darkest recesses of the human condition, and whilst imprisoned in the Bastille for poisoning prostitutes with spanish fly and for sodomy with a manservant he wrote his opus, The 120 Days of Sodom.  He was so proud of his work that he “wept tears of blood” when he feared it lost.  The book was supposed to be an unforgettable descent into the darkest depths of depravity.  The man was called the Marquis de Sade, and is the reason we have the word sadistic, so, y’know, mission accomplished there, buddy.

Naturally, in the ’70s some people decided this book needed to be turned into a movie, and naturally these people were Italian.

What follows is a quick look at just how crazy this all is.  Gentle readers should beware of NSFW language, and NSFL imagery taken from the film.  I cannot stress enough just how graphic this is going to get, so unless you’re considered an adult wherever you are and you happen to be willing to see absolutely horrific imagery, please don’t keep reading.

 

 

 

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