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!