VIDEODROME

By Jimmy Squarejaw
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Though not the most violent movie ever made I feel VIDEODROME is a significant movie regarding the idea of snuff films and how the phenomenon has crawled out of the gutter and into the eager minds of the 80’s.  David Cronenberg is one of my favorite writers and directors who has an impressive oeuvre of multi-layered horror movies that require multiple viewings and critical thinking-and I bet he has never muttered the words, “I’m going to make a horror movie” before shelling out a story.  VIDEODROME is now 30 thirty years old and Cronenberg saw people’s attraction to mindless, over the top violence being portrayed in popular culture. But VIDEODROME took all of the frills out of say Rambo, and instead presented violence and torture as simple, bleak, and unremarkable but it still has the power to captivate audiences.  Flash forward thirty years and think of the seething masses glued to a computer screen or television screen watching hours of torture porn, simulated snuff clips, fights on reality television, and real clips of people being tortured or killed on sites like rotten.com or mentalzero.com-Cronenberg seems revelatory in hindsight.

VIDEODROME follows the gradual mental breakdown of Max Renn, played confidently by the always snarky James Woods, brought on by violent hallucinations suffered after watching pirated clips of a show called Videodrome that Renn’s hacker buddy picked up on from a satellite feed.  The Videodrome clips are a no plot video segment of people being tortured and we come to learn was made to be a new kind of television experience that, according to it’s creator Professor Brian Oblivion, will eventually redefine and overtake the television experience.  Without going into a three page long synopsis about the plot, I’ll just say treachery is rife in VIDEODROME and after a few plot twists the level of paranoia grows to an unbearable feeling and crescendos nicely.  

The special effects, like in every Cronenberg movie made in the late 70’s and 80’s, are amazing and are crucial in conveying the character of Max Renn’s mental psychosis while the Videodrome inflicted tumor grows in his head.  The insane hallucinations of exploding tumor people, pulsating videotapes, growing televisions, a mutant tumor hand and a vagina slit in Max’s stomach that he feeds a gun to are all amazing to watch and without the special effects of Rick Baker, who knows how VIDEODROME would have ended up visually.  I also love the music to VIDEODROME.  It’s brooding, ominous, and creates a continual tense atmosphere that becomes a visceral character itself in the movie.  The music as well as the whole look of the movie is very 80’s but in the same regard it’s very timeless and is only inhibited by the technology used and shown on screen.  The duality of VIDEODROME is present in almost every aspect.    

There is so much to evaluate as a viewer of VIDEODROME. I could argue that Cronenberg took VIDEODROME to its limits with subject matter, but my desensitized mind also could say this could have been a whole hell of a lot darker but would that make it a better movie?  Like every Cronenberg movie I’ve watched I’m always left with a lot of questions and no sense of satisfaction even after multiple viewings  - and I love that about David Cronenberg’s flicks.   Though this is lighter fare for the Sunday Snuff viewer however the subjective response to it’s themes might be a step up for the regular Sunday Snuff viewer.

Blake and Jimmy’s Extreme-O-Gauge!

Violence/Gore: 3 out of 5, lots of good 80’s effects.

Rape: 0 out of 0, just tied up chicks getting whipped- no penetration.

Animal Death: 0 out of 0, ASPCA approved.

Necrophilia: 0 out of 0, 

Torture: 3 out of 5, not overt but that’s what makes the scenes powerful.

Overall Movie: 5 out of 5, watch this now.  

Massacre Video Release: Snuff 102-The Interview

Our good pal Louis over at Massacre Video is at it again.  With a track record consisting of re-releasing the shot on video gem 555, bringing Kiyotaka Tsurisaki’s documentaries Orozco the Embalmer and Junk Films stateside, and most notably re-releasing a VHS of Brent McCormick’s gore orgy The Abomination, we look forward to every announcement to say the least he has to offer.  Recently ol’ Louis took time out of his day to shoot me some information on his next release, Mariano Peralta’s Argentinean Horror flick Snuff 102 and answer some of my questions.

Sunday Snuff:

Before we get into Snuff 102 questions.  I was wondering why you didn’t do a multi edition for Abomination.  It seems like that would be a huge seller.

Massacre Video:

Well I would LOVE to give The Abomination a full treatment, but it is sadly not in the cards....the rights owner does not want to give up the DVD rights.

Sunday Snuff:

Well, they’ll eventually die and bequeath the rights to someone who needs money!  When did you first get introduced to Snuff 102 and what about it made you track down the releasing rights?

Massacre Video:

I first got introduced to Snuff 102 via the Toe Tag Inc. (then Toe Tag Pictures) web forum in 2007 when it came out.  There was tons of buzz about the film and I was on the "ooo lets find some shit" kick.  I ended up snagging a copy and really enjoyed the film, it was not just a shock film....overall I thought it was a solid horror film with some good extreme elements!

Pretty much the film kinda sat in the back of my mind and I didn't think of it much. One random night I started thinking about it and pulled out my copy to watch, then I knew it would fit well with the Massacre catalog. I contacted a friend, RaroVHS, whom is from Argentina and he helped me get into contact with the director!

Sunday Snuff:

Was the director forthcoming with the re-release?  Or was it a process?

Massacre Video:

He was pretty interested, we discussed a really nice release. There were a few minor set backs due to a little 18 year old with a pipedream fudging up the mix, but other than that...it has been smooth sailing!

Sunday Snuff: 

Last time I heard 18-year-old, pipe, and fudging all in one sentence I ended up getting kicked out of Mexico and I was down an epididymis, moving on. 

Since it was initially released, from what I understand, on DVDr what  special features will there be on the Massacre release?

Massacre Video:

The cut on Snuff 102 is going to be a tad different from the DVDr the director released. As many people know, the film has some copyrighted music and naturally that had to be changed. But as far as extras go, this is the first Massacre DVD that will be two discs! There are excellent interviews with the cast and director, an awesome “making of” feature that shows a more light hearted version of the cast as well as some nice FX shots!

Sunday Snuff:

When I was chatting with you a little while ago you were saying you had a preview of a release at a horror convention.  It ended up being 102, how'd that go over?

Massacre Video:

Haha, yeah I whipped up a little teaser trailer for a small local horror convention. The trailer played directly after the screening of some shitty comedic zombie film. After the zombie film, everyone stood up and cheered and all that jazz.  Then the trailer came on, I don't want to ruin what scene I previewed but it involved the pregnant character in the film. After the trailer ended....there was just silence and one single clap happened.  You could hear people muttering, "What the fuck was that?" Two people even got up and left during the short teaser. I would say it went over pretty well!!!!

Sunday Snuff:

As usual, there will be VHS release, any special layout or VHS color?

Massacre Video:

We will be limiting it to 100 copies and it will be based on old Argentinean tapes! We decided to go with a white VHS, such a clean color for such a filthy film.

Sunday Snuff:
I have a pretty good reputation for being an idiot, so why the hell is this movie called SNUFF 102?  Is it like a class title, I.E. Biology 101 or Algebra 104?

Massacre Video:

Essentially the killer in the film numbers his tapes when he is done! I don't really want to ruin any of the story for people who have not seen the film yet!

Sunday Snuff:

Ah, I can put that issue to bed finally.  When will this be on sale?

Massacre Video:

It will be on sale hopefully by the end of June, depends on the printers.  For updates go to www.massacrevideo.com and sign up for the newsletter.

Sunday Snuff:

Sounds good man, we’ll keep our eyes peeled and will be reviewing this flick in due time.  Thanks!

Interview by Jimmy Squarejaw

Hardcore

By Jimmy Squarejaw

I like to mix this site up with all kinds of forays into the madness of extreme cinema.  This particular movie we’ll file under that heading and the purpose of me discussing it is to shed a historical light of how the subject of Snuff has been used in cinema over the past few decades.  The most recent major motion picture flicks I can recall covering the subject of Snuff has been 8 MM, the Master’s of Horror episode CIGARETTE BURNS, and the terrible mundane mess known as SINISTER.  Back in 1979 Paul Schrader, who also penned Martin Scorsese’s TAXI DRIVER, released HARDCORE that exposed the seedy underbelly of the porn industry in the 70’s and even threw in a Snuff element to capitalize on the growing concern amongst society ever since the rumor began that the Manson Family had filmed their exploits.  HARDCORE was very tame by today’s standards, and in my opinion did not strike the same poignant chord as TAXI DRIVER but it did succeed in giving America a glimpse into an aspect of society that I’m sure not too many people knew about in the 70’s.  Hell, most of America were still figuring out you could move around to different positions in the sack.

HARDCORE opens in snowy Grand Rapids, Michigan around Christmas.  We meet Jake Van Dorn, played by George C. Scott, and get a glimpse into beautiful American living complete with singing, church, and other shit that looks like it fell out of a Norman Rockwell painting.  Mr. Van Dorn, a widower, sends his daughter Kristen off on a church field trip to California and all seems right in the world.  Eventually Mr. Van Dorn is contacted by the church folks to let him know that his daughter went missing so he heads down to California to get to the bottom of this tomfoolery. The story goes, Kristen and her friend were at a theme park hanging out with some bithin’ California studs and they all just took off leaving her more attractive friend alone.  The good news is there were no signs of fowl play like blood, semen piles, or heaping mounds of uterus stew sprayed across the theme park so the cops offer the advice to contact a private investigator.  That is after the cops play the “hey pal we got real problems and look at all these missing chicks already” card.  Fuckin’ cops.   

Mr. Van Dorn hires Private Investigator Andy Mast, played by Peter “Young Frankenstein” Boyle, for $750 a week.  Back in 1979 that equates to about $250,000 a week for any economics fans out there keeping tabs.  Mast is the A-typical private investigator and naturally Mr. Van Dorn, the devout middle class American from the mid-west, and him do not get along from the get go.  Amazingly enough, and I’m still scratching my head over this, Mast turns up in Grand Rapids with an 8 MM film and insists Mr. Van Dorn meets him at an adult theater to discuss the details.   Mr. Van Dorn shows up and sits through a film where his very skinny and unattractive daughter gets double teamed by two eager, skinny, white dudes-one of which looks like Edgar Winter if he wasn’t an albino.  Oh California, taking in our ugly soulless masses and providing jobs for them.  Mast all but says there is no way of tracking this kind of movie to anyone because next week it’ll have a new name and the week after that it’ll have a new name etc etc.  I don’t know much about anything, but I figure if you go back to where he got the film and do some type of detecting that might at least be a start?  And how did he just find this film in a slew of 1000’s of films anyway?   

After getting the run around from Mast and the police department Mr. Van Dorn heads to California to start trying to get info himself from porn shop workers (with a cameo by the awesome Tracey Walter), strip clubs, and a type of business called Conversation or Rap Parlors but all roads lead to dead ends. The next best thing is to pose as a porn producer and put ads in the weekly newspapers looking for porn actors.  Sure, a devout Christian who lives in Michigan, works in sales and has absolutely no exposure to the porn industry is going to pose as a porn producer.  Moving on……

Amazingly this does churn out some leads and with the help of a jerk off booth stripper he meets in a jerk off booth, Mr. Van Dorn goes to San Diego on the lead Kristin might be doing some Chupadas in Mexico but find nothing.  Next the unlikely duo gets a tip Kristin might be hanging out with known Snuff connoisseur Ratan, Satan with an R-get it?  Ratan evidently lives in San Francisco, where the Church of Satan was founded-get it?  So booth hooker and Mr. Van Dorn head up, but all of the sudden booth hooker has an issue with divulging the location of Ratan so Mr. Van Dorn beats it out of her!  Yes finally some goddamn action!  Private Investigator Andy Mast pops back into the story and he and Mr. Van Dorn track Ratan for a not very thrilling conclusion.  And may I just say, Kristin is a fucking idiot and has a terrible bullshit excuse about this whole scenario.  Further more the dialogue written for this scene is unbelievably bad but that’s why I’m not paid the big bucks folks.

HARDCORE has an interesting premise, great actors, and gritty cinematography.  But the movie as a whole just failed to hold my interest.  I never had a sense of dread, I never gave a shit about any of the characters, the story just dragged and dragged, and the only intriguing part of the movie was the backstage pass we get as an audience to California’s porn culture in the 70’s.  

Blake and Jimmy’s Extreme-O-Gauge!

Realistic Gore: 0 out of 0, even the snuff scene was blocked.

Rape: 0 out of 0, all parties were consentual.

Animal Death: 0 out of 0

Necrophilia: 0 out of 0

Torture: 0 out of 0

Overall Movie: 2 out of 5, this was boring folks 

P.S. This is Tracey Walter

The Butcher

By Jimmy Squarejaw

When you have Mr. Kim Jong-il living just to the north of you, you would think that might make people of South Korea a little edgy.  I would also like to assume having idiots go up to the Armistice Line to float balloons with Gideon Bibles tied to them over to North Korea would also put the regular people on edge.  Y’know one thing I’ve learned over time is the best way to deal with your resentment for assholes in and around your country is to make exploitation films focusing on completely insane violence and torture.  And that friends is how we arrive at the South Korean pseudo-snuff film, THE BUTCHER.

THE BUTCHER begins in the midst of a kidnapping situation.  Four people are tied up in a corner room of an abandoned chicken farm and are not too thrilled about the heavy cameras taped to the tops of their heads-amongst other unpleasantries.  The movie from here on out rotates between seeing footage from the cameras the captors have and the cameras the captives have taped to their heads.  We get to know the personalities to two of the captors as they mill around anxiously, taunting the captives and exchanging a few common complaints of the job while they wait for “the director.” They have gripes similar to county employees in the United States, “it’s too hot and we need a fan” and “this building smells like shit and we need a new one.”  The Director finally arrives and quickly hops to it, which is great because this movie was starting to lag ass!

The captives get names assigned to them based from their social merit and place in the Director’s film.  Evidently these guys are writers for the idiotic show, Big Bang Theory, because they came up with the clever topical monikers, Fat Fuck, Skin and Bones, and the husband and wife team who they call “hey asshole” and “whore.”  If I had a dollar every time I wanted to call husband and wife teams Hey Asshole and Whore while walking around Best Buy I’d have $24!  As the Director and his assistant starts to prep the captured folks, the husband gets free and runs like hell out of the room screaming…..and by screaming I mean wailing like he was giving birth to a WWF wrestler out of his asshole sideways. Naturally the evil captors get him and drag him into view of “Fat Fuck” about to be brutally murdered by a gigantic Korean in a pig mask and butcher’s apron.  This scene serves as a precursor to the carnage that comes at the hand of a plagiarized South Korean version of Leather Face mixed with the pig mask wearing Farmer Vincent from MOTEL HELL.

The married couple gets brought into the kill room, which could also double as a set for one of the stuff your fat fuckin’ mouth shows on the Food Network.  Everything is covered in thick plastic, there are two chairs facing each other and there is gore and blood everywhere.  Take a clue Guy Fieri!  So the Director starts taunting the husband and does the classic flip a coin to determine if you die quickly gag. The result is if the husband can handle ten minutes at the hand of Pig Headed Korean, both he and his wife can be set free.  Out of all the movies I’ve seen with this similar situation I really thought this time the husband would make it.  Just seemed reasonable.  But no, the husband pusses out and begs Pig Man to stop.  The Director gives the weeping husband one more chance to get free; if he thinks of a creative way for his wife to be killed the Director would let the husband go.  Just like all the classic love stories the husband goes, “fuck yes I want to save my own life and not my bitch wife’s,” and the husband starts lobbing out ideas finally settling with cut her guts out and feed them to her to then remove the bite sized morsel from her open stomach to re-feed her.  The nightmare ensues and the fate of the couple will have to be found out when you watch THE BUTCHER.

The grim atmosphere to THE BUTCHER was the best part of this movie.  It takes place in a dilapidated chicken farm that looks like where 90% of the heroin influenced songs of the mid-90’s were probably written.  The filmmakers did a great job creating a feeling of isolation and hopelessness by showing not one of the evil captors cared when everyone is screaming and chainsaws are blazing. I figure this chicken farm was probably in the middle of nowhere or somewhere that doesn’t mind the noise of people being dismantled.  There isn’t any silver lining or redeeming quality to the film either being reminiscent to FLOWERS OF FLESH & BLOOD in that there is no plot other than people being tortured but the realism of FOF&B is lost on some dramatic dialog and the presence of the Pig Headed Killer in THE BUTCHER.  The only glimpse to any details to the killer’s identity or background is a phone call with one of the Director’s associates in the beginning of the movie where he talks to his Mom about her misplacing her bible somewhere. N’yuk n’yuk n’yuk.  I didn’t think anything was necessarily clever, there are no real plot twists and the main “star” to the snuff film, the Pig Headed Killer, is a blatant rip off as I previously stated.  It was worth a watch, but that’s about it.  To be fair, I'm sure the impact of this movie is lost on someone from America who has seen a lot of this kind of crap though.

Blake and Jimmy’s Extreme-O-Gauge!

Realistic Gore: 3 out of 5, not a lot of gore surprisingly but a few fun little scene.

Rape: 0 out of 0, it was threatened but never delivered.

Animal Death: 0 out of 0

Necrophilia: 0 out of 0

Torture: 4 out of 5, torture is the main focus of the flick.

Overall Movie: 3 out of 5, worth a watch but not groundbreaking by any means.

August Underground's PENANCE

By Jimmy Squarejaw
The honeymoon is just beginning for these two lovebirds.  After the batshit insanity of MORDUM, the AUGUST UNDERGROUND trilogy rounds itself out with a touching look at the budding relationship between the main killer, Fred Vogel, and his new squeeze.  But just like in real life they start to drive each other insane and the love story told in PENANCE quickly gets a little wacky.

The beginning of PENANCE is a collage of the good times between these two lunatics.  Just like all idiots in love, they are walking around and showing signs adornment to one in other in the likes of squeezing ketchup on the street, trying on wigs, making silly faces, and providing illustrious comments as they walk around whatever town they happen to be in.  For me this shit is nauseating and I’m sure it would annoy anyone walking near them.  The occasional torturous murder is thrown into the early part of the movie just to let us know that yes they are still psychotic killers.  Eventually during the disembowelment of a poor soul we get our first hint that not everything is well in murderland when Fred gets a little pissed when his ol’ lady is poking a little fun at him.  It’s as if he took a note from my life when he quickly responds, “SHUT YOUR FUCKING FACE.”  Unlike my life however, the scenario doesn’t escalate to his girlfriend calling the police and her fuckin’ mother to cry about me.  Whatever. 

The killer duo end up at a party complete with drugs, booze, good friends, and a shit load of aquariums-one of which contains a lil’ alligator.  Taking a cue from real idiots in love that have no relationship future, the duo sneak off to get it on in a skuzzy looking bathroom but another clue that not all is well comes to light; all of the sudden big Mr. Killer is having a hard time getting it up and in.  They make pills for that and back out in the living room the group of partiers feed a gigantic rat to the alligator and that bummed me out quite a bit. 

My favorite scene of PENANCE, and possibly the whole series comes next.  It’s now Christmas time and the killers linger around a decorated house peeking in the windows and giggling. Soon Fred knocks on the door and flips quickly around to hide his masked face.  The paternal head of the household answers and gets promptly fucked in the skull by, the now trademark method of death in the AUGUST UNDERGROUND series, a hammer.  After he hits the ground like he just got smashed in the fucking face with a hammer the lovebirds get the wife and kill her too, leading to the male killer disrobing the now deceased wife and he rapes her.  An interesting plot point to me that his girlfriend is totally fine and gets turned on by watching her man kill and rape chicks, but alas Fred again cannot maintain an erection and flips out a little.  After the complete insanity and over-the-top scenes in MORDUM, this scene brings the series back to a grim reality setup in the first AUGUST UNDERGROUND that is truly dark!  To make it worse a damn kid comes running down the steps to see what all the commotion is only to be killed next to her dead, nude, and raped Mother.  She must have made the good girl list this year because she is on her way up to Jesus, but at least in heaven the kid doesn’t have to deal with re-runs of Rudolph and Jingle All the Way anymore.

The two killers start disintegrating as functional people that was alluded to earlier in the movie.  They both start looking beat to hell, screaming at each other and Fred turns to the bottle pretty hard in some scenes.  Finally the girlfriend gets pissed at the fact that her man was molesting a tied up chick and kills her out of jealousy.  Chicks are all the same aren’t they?!?  As always I don’t like to give away the ending or all of the scenes so people can still be surprised if they watch it.  But I will say, as with the other two movies in the AUGUST UNDERGROUND trilogy, PENACE is awesome.  It’s a great watch, interesting scenes that work well as a composition shot on video, and the story of the two killers trying to maintain a relationship is a great route for the series to take without fucking up the ingredients that made the previous two great.  I didn’t talk too much about the fucking brutality of this film nor do I want to go back and write anymore so I assure you it is intense and will not disappoint.

Blake and Jimmy’s Extreme-O-Gauge!

Realistic Gore: 5 out of 5, nutso gore scenes!

Rape: 5 out of 5, they cover the dead, the living AND spousal rape. 

Animal Death: 3 out of 5, the rat bummed me out! 

Necrophilia: 3 out of 5, a few of the ladies were dead but at least not decomposed.

Torture: 5 out of 5, pretty intense scenes on this one.

Overall Movie: 5 out of 5, the trilogy is classic.  Please get it.

Tumbling Doll of Flesh

By Jimmy Squarejaw

Now let us take you on an incredible journey, across the Pacific Ocean to Japan, the land of the rising sun.  After watching this movie I think I’ll be calling it the land of the rising FUN because TUMBLING DOLL OF FLESH was just a fun lil’ flick written and directed by kookster Tamakichi Anaru.  So pop open a bag of Cheetos, crack a 2-liter of Mountain Dew, and take this one in.

TUMBLING DOLL OF FLESH, or Niku Daruma in Kanji, is about a couple young ambitious filmmakers wanting to make a new porno.  They find their stars in the likes of a dog faced lady named Kana and a man named Kiku who wears really big white underwear.  They both get interviewed on camera in a "get to know you" fun little session before they’re whisked away to a porn set that looks like an attic apartment I used to live in, minus the Taco Bell and Chewy Chips-A-Hoy wrappers. 

The sexin’ for the time being is standard sexin’ with all of the groin areas pixilated because that’s what they do in Japan. So after staring at pixilated penetration and blowjobs for ten minutes Kiki pulls out and leaves an non-pixilated load on Kana’s stomach.  Everyone regroups and gets ready for the next scene where things start going south for poor ol’ Kana.  The filmmakers start in with the dildos and the lubed up buttholes then the hot wax, boob bondage, and enemas.  Kana doesn’t seem like she is a big fan of any of this (unless she’s like every other woman in my life and is faking her fear and pain) so she tries to make an escape during a break between scenes.  The cameraman, or woman with a mustache, followers Kana and gives her a whack on the head and drags her back to the bed.

For the rest of the movie everyone has a lot of fun torturing the hell out of Kana in the form of chopping off limbs, while Kiku is humping away at her, and cutting apart her tongue.  During these scenes I wish I had some subtitles because I can’t tell if Kiku is in on the whole thing or if he’s just wigged out and going along with the insane torture to save his own ass.  Oh wait, he does help cut off one of her legs and when the filmmakers cut open Kana’s chest Kiku starts inserting his pixilated wiener into her thoracic cavity. That answers that.  But unbeknownst to Kiku, his diligence is not rewarded because the filmmakers kill him too, then bury a giant blade into Kana’s face ending the movie.

TUMBLING DOLL OF FLESH was an entertaining watch.  It’s a slow build with a lot of pixilated sex scenes but the payoff is worth it when the madness starts.  I would like to see the movie with subtitles so I can get a better feel for the characters to make me care for them less while they’re being brutally murdered.  Now I’m going to go draw a warm bath and listen to Landslide by Fleetwood Mac on repeat to cleanse myself of that somewhat disturbing movie.

Blake and Jimmy’s Extreme-O-Gauge!

Realistic Gore:  3 out of 5, disturbing but a little too fake.

Rape:  2 out of 5, they are in a porn, but Kana being drugged up and having her limbs cut off during some sex scenes can’t be consensual. 

Animal Death: 0 out of 0.

Necrophilia:  0 out of 0, I don’t think Kana was dead for any penetration.

Torture:  4 out of 5, I consider what Kana went through torture.  Especially the hot wax on her bottom!
Overall Movie:  3 out of 5, It was good but I'm not doing back flips over it.

Fred Vogel's AUGUST UNDERGROUND

By Jimmy Squarejaw

One of the most dividing genres in horror is the “found footage” and “caught on camera” flick.  You can polarize a group of people at the mere mention of THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT or V/H/S and then watch how everyone takes a side, draws a line in the sand, and starts bitching at one another worse than Fox News supporters arguing with liberals.  One film and film series you don’t hear a lot about on major horror sites and top 10 lists is Fred Vogel’s AUGUST UNDERGROUND trilogy, the first of which got released in 2001-ish. 

AUGUST UNDERGROUND is about the exploits of two nameless killers, one of which is director Fred Vogel, going on a killing spree.  The beginning sets the tone immediately when the two killers go down into the basement of “Fred’s” house.  Other than a ton of porn glued and taped all over the walls and strewn across the floor, we find that they have a naked hostage duct taped to a chair, and her nipple is cut off.  We get the impression that these two are pretty comfortable in the situation and allude that they’ve done this before.  After torturing and degrading her for a bit they head on out and film their day to day tom foolery that includes a lot of the word "dude" and a lot of giggling.  The killers are your average white males in their early twenties that don’t have shit to do on a daily basis except turn their hats backwards, masturbate to Tomb Raider and drink Rockstar Energy drinks, and that makes them a little more creepy to me than a steroid pumped killer in a hockey mask but not as creepy as a football player from Steubenville, Ohio .

Soon they pickup a hitchhiker that doesn’t have a problem being frumpy or doing sexual favors for money and beat her to death.  Throw in a clip of one of there dogs who took a crap then it’s back to the basement where Fred is sawing apart a body in a bathtub, gagging on the horrible smell of his viscera.  After he pukes a bit Fred brings over body parts to the tied up girl and makes fun of the fact that they killed her boyfriend and wave his severed hand and foot in front of his face laughing their asses off all the while.  If they think that's funny wait til' they watch WEDDING CRASHERS starring Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn!  

The next outing the duo go on is at a rec hall with live music by a terrible band that covers Korn.  Shows you that there is shit to do in their town because the hall is packed with pookah shell necklaces, backwards hats, spitfire shirts and girls wearing Gap and Old Navy clothing.  Looks like I should’ve covered Korn instead of Blink 182 in my late 90’s early 2000’s band because we never played to anyone, but I digress. 

The duo go on more outings and kill more people taking time out of their schedules to visit an Amish part of Pennsylvania with a gift shop that has a gigantic model town built in it, a slaughterhouse where they talk about putting fingers in pig butts, and a church garden where they do an obligatory “have you seen my keys” joke next to a statue of a biblical figure.  I love all of these scenes because when the carnage starts happening you have a little insight into the motiveless intentions of their killings and the inane lives they lead. It’s very real and in my opinion very feasible that bumps on the log like the two killers really exist out there. 

AUGUST UNDERGROUND finishes off with a trip to the tattoo parlor/comicbook store and then the duo hiring overweight ebony and ivory prostitutes.  Both of these situations end badly to say the least.  In these scenes I really appreciate Fred’s character because we see him really snap a few times contradicting his usual giggling and bro-isms.   From the beginning to the end he noticeably gets more and more unhinged during the killings. 

This is a great movie and anyone who likes extreme movies has probably seen at least one of the AUGUST UNDERGROUND trilogy.  The film is gritty, the special effects are disgusting looking and as a joke if you sent this to a country bumpkin sheriff department it would probably be taken pretty seriously as a snuff film.  There isn’t a fake feeling in this movie and I can’t really catch any moments in it that make me think I’m watching a movie not something real.  I highly recommend getting these to everyone!

Blake and Jimmy’s Extreme-O-Gauge!

Violence:  I’d go 4 out of 5, it’s really violent, but the sequel MORDUM sets the bar one step higher!

Torture:  3 out of 5, not really a torture movie in my opinion because these guys like to kill.  But shit mashed into a cut open boob is pretty torturous.

Rape: 2 out of 5, some molesting and pushing faces into butts, but not full on rape…….sequels however.

Animal Death:  1 out of 5, no animal death but the one scene in the slaughterhouse is sad.
Overall Movie:  5 out of 5, classic!

Snuff

Review by Jimmy Squarejaw

*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. 

This week I had a sincere moment where I reflected upon a lot of the bad choices I’ve made in my life; getting a tattoo inspired by Travis Barker, going to see the Family Values Tour in 2002, and smoking PCP before I watched KICKBOXER Part 2, 3, and 4. But as they say, "it’s better to go through life making mistakes rather than having regrets." And watching the 1976 movie SNUFF sure as hell was a mistake. On the plus side it was a whole hell of a lot better than the shit hemorrhage known as PROJECT X, the god awful yawn fest titled DEAD HOOKER IN A TRUNK, or the gift to teenage suicide known as THE HANGOVER!

SNUFF is a run to capitalize on the hysteria created by the Manson Family in the late 60’s early 70’s. Short story short, it’s about a female biker gang doing drugs and killing the hell out of an assortment of people under the Svengali figure known only as Satan, pronounced Sah-Than. This group of uninhibited biker-women go through shopkeepers, movie directors, and distinguished gentleman taking a squeak in the local Brazilian Airport bathrooms. By the end of SNUFF I was exhausted trying to keep track during horrible dubbing, tons of dialogue scenes that take place almost off camera, and terrible unrealistic violence. Then all of the sudden at the non-thrilling climax SNUFF switches gears and totally abandons the entire story thus far and turns to the camera crew shooting the final scene of the movie we were watching. A guy, I’m thinking the director, coerces a young gal on staff to start getting it on with him in front of the whole camera crew. Then he pins the sexed up girl down, cuts her finger off and guts her, amazingly enough pulling out her heart from where her uterus is as well as all of her intestines. My guess is SNUFF was shit and probably titled something completely different then someone, guessing an executive producer, had a brilliant idea to incorporate a scene that “could be a girl dying on camera” and re-titled it SNUFF.

Now, I wasn’t totally against SNUFF, but I thought I was going to watch some batshit movie involving who knows what! The movie itself is a great entry into 70’s cult cinema but it capitalizes on the title and the mystery around it leaving this viewer totally let down on any and every extreme possibility. Know this, if you pick SNUFF up buy it as if you were buying some cheese-dick 70’s exploitation movie not a gritty entry into the hellish world of extreme movies! For a hell of a lot more info look this movie up on wikipedia, very informative!

Blake and Jimmy's Extreme-O-Gauge!

Rape: 0 out of 0Realistic Gore: 1 out of 5, there is shitty, unconvincing special effects up until the end! And then the effects go from shitty to just bad!
Animal Death: 0 out of 0
Torture: 1 out of 5, one guy is whipped, some chicks toes are cut, and the end girl is ripped apart. But my 13 year old cousin could make something look more convincing.
Necrophilia: 0 out of 0
Overall Movie: 1 out of 5, I might, maybe, someday watch this again. But for the most part is SUCKED.

August Underground's Mordum

AUGUST UNDERGROUND: MORDUM
Review 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.

A trio of psychopaths goes on a violent crime spree and films the whole thing. The group consists of two guys and a girl, caught up in a fucked up love triangle. It’s fucked up because one of the guys is the girl’s brother. Apparently incest IS best! The plot is simple, because basically there is no plot. Just a lot of scenes of rape, torture, murder, and even a little necrophilia mixed in for added vomit inducing fun. Hold on to your dicks!!

The AUGUST UNDERGROUND movies are pretty notorious in the underground horror scene, usually costing a fortune to get your hands on a shitty bootleg. Well, I was finally able to obtain a copy of MORDUM for a decent price. This is a movie that was made for a sole purpose: to shock, offend, and disgust the viewer. There is no hidden message or artistic value, just smut for the sake of smut. So does it accomplish this goal?

Abso-fuckin’-lutely.

The whole film has the look of a shot-on-video home movie. The majority of the budget was obviously put into the special effects and props. It’s all very real looking and gives the whole film a real ‘snuff’ feel. The trio obviously has a fetish for chubby gals. Three pleasantly plump women are kidnapped and held captive in a basement. They are humiliated and subjected to all kinds of torture. The demented female of the bunch can make herself vomit on command (yes, it is real puke.) She covers her captives’ half naked bodies in her putrid bile. While this atrocity is going on, one of the dudes is cutting off the dick of an already dead guy laid out naked on the concrete floor. He then proceeds to rape one of the girls with the severed member. After the rape fest of both girls, one of them is killed with a hammer while the other is stabbed in the stomach. One of the guys decides it is probably a good idea to have sex with the knife wound after the girl is deceased. All this is shown in graphic detail mind you. Still keeping your lunch down? Great, let’s talk dead babies and more necrophilia. The camera is now exploring one of the killer’s homes. It pans across a decaying, headless corpse of a dead infant. Maggots are the only things occupying the severed stump where its little baby head used to be.  The camera then enters into the bathroom where one of our crazy fucks is having sex with an already dead body in the bathtub. It turns out to be a child’s rotting corpse. In what might be the most disturbing part of the whole movie, the crazy vomit chick is shown stroking the dead kids head stating, “don’t worry, now you never have to grow up.”

MORDUM is definitely not for the faint of heart or the squeamish. It even found this seasoned hardcore horror vet feeling nauseous a few times. This is not a flick you will want to watch with someone who considers SAW the most hardcore movie ever. They might think you are insane.

You might not want to eat for a day before watching this movie!

Blake and Jimmy's Extreme-O-Gauge!

Rape: 5 out of 5- Very graphic scenes of realistic rape are shown throughout.

Realistic Gore: 4 out of 5- The effects are very well done and things get messy. It will have you ‘one eying’ your screen a couple times.

Animal Death: 0 out of 5- Only homo sapiens die here folks.

Necrophilia: 4 out of 5 - Well, kinda gross!

Overall Movie:  3 out of 5, it's a hell of a lot better than AUGUST UNDERGROUND, but not the best.