Irreversible

IRREVERSIBLE

By Blake Redding

WARNING

All movies reviewed for SUNDAY SNUFF contain graphic depictions that may include rape, live animals being murdered, and extreme gore.  None of the writers condone such acts we just watch this shit. 

Two men are hell bent on revenge after a horrible sexual assault on the woman they love. They must engulf themselves in the seedy down town nightlife consists of gay nightclubs and drug induced orgies. Sounds pretty straight forward, right? Well, this movie plays out in reverse!

The first time I saw IRREVERSIBLE was almost ten years ago. It was the talk of the town as the most graphic movie ever, so of course I had to see it. While watching the movie I only had a couple of things on my mind, graphic blood and gore. Well, I was disappointed and dismissed the movie completely but doing that I unfortunately missed the entire point.

I re-watched IRREVERSIBLE with a completely different mindset and a new set of eyes. What I watched this time around was a very powerful, moving, unsettling, unrelenting, and well acted film. The movie absolutely has a few very graphic scenes, but they all serve the story and immerse the viewer deeper into the characters. Like I mentioned before, the film begins at the end of the story and works its way backwards to the beginning. This is a very powerful tool because you already know the horrible things that are going to happen to this woman. So when you see how loving she is with her boyfriend, and how beautiful and pure she is, it really messes with your emotions as a viewer.

Ok, with the emotional stuff out of the way, this wouldn’t be Sunday Snuff without diving into the nasty business! About ten minutes into the movie, our revenge seeking duo find a man that they believe is their rape culprit. After a short fight ensues, the dude is laid out on his back and repeatedly struck in the face with a fire extinguisher.  This is one continuous close up shot. Every time the extinguisher is raised back up, we see the man’s face caving farther and farther in. He convulses and twitches as his skull and brain are turned into bloody mush. This all looks incredibly real as well. Mixing practical and CGI effects, it will have you cringing.  Then we get to the rape and assault. I will warn you, this is VERY graphic. Read at your own risk! A beautiful woman is walking in a tunnel where a man and woman are fighting.  She attempts to walk around them but is stopped by the man. The other woman runs away. Now the man has a knife to her neck and is verbally abusing, calling her a ‘rich cunt’ among some other choice words. It is pretty evident the man is strung out on drugs which makes him that much more dangerous. He eventually forces her to the ground for an eleven-minute scene of forced sodomy (yeah I timed it.) This is also one continuous shot. There are no cut away shots to hide the atrocity that is happing to this woman. During the entire rape, the man continues to mock her and verbally bombard her with hateful comments. As if the rape is not enough, the man continues to channel his rage onto her by continuously punching her in the face. He finishes off by slamming her face into the concrete a few times. This does not kill her, however; it leaves her horribly disfigured and unrecognizable. He then just walks away, leaving her bruised and broken in the tunnel. It is horrible.

IRREVERSIBLE focuses on raw human emotions: Love, revenge, violence, and sexual deviancy. It is not the easiest movie to sit through, but once you watch it, you will immediately want to watch it again. Because once you see the end (which is actually the beginning,) It makes the first half hour (the actual end of the movie) make complete sense and will make you root for these guys even more.

Blake and Jimmy’s Extreme-O-Gauge!

Rape: 5 out of 5, the single most graphic rape scene I’ve seen.

Realistic Gore:  4 out of 5, intense and brutal.

Animal Death: 0 out of 0, unless you count my spirit animal who cried this whole fucking movie!

Torture: 3 out of 5, not conventional sadistic torture but an 11-minute rape I assume would be torture enough.

Necrophilia: 0 out of 0

Overall Movie: 5 out of 5, it's one hell of a movie and Gaspar Noe really has made a name for himself!