Morituris: Legions of the Dead (2011)

 (out of 5)

Morituris:  Legions of the Dead (2011)
d:  Raffaelle Picchio
s:  Valentina D'Andrea, Andrea DeBruyn, Desiree Giogetti, Francesco Malcolm, Giuseppe Nitti, Simone Ripanti
format:  NTSC Region 1 - personal collection

     Sometimes you watch a movie just totally in awe.  This was one of those films for me.  Throwback style of the old Italian exploitation films.  Dark and gritty with no obvious cgi, always a plus.  Gory and nasty to the hilt with fx worthy of the name Sergio Stivaletti one of my all time favorite fx artists.  Now this movie has a lot of rape in it.  I described it to a friend as a, "sort of Blind Dead Rape Revenge."  This seems to set people off on misogynist tangents but ultimately the fact is the act is horrific and hence is a part of exploitation and horror films.  This in no way means the filmmaker gets off on portraying rape in his film.  I have seen the original I Spit On Your Grave get called out for this same thing and Meir Zarchi was attacked for it.  However like Meir Zarchi Raffaelle Picchio is not anti-woman, and not pro-rape.  In fact like Meir the events in the film are reflective of the society we live in and showing full scenes of rape pushes the issue right in your face where it should be.  Morituris is about three young men who essentially bring two young women out into the woods to rape and torture them.  This whole set up was taken from the real life Circeo Massacre which happened in 1975 in Rome, Italy.  It was the director's intent to bring attention to such heinous crimes not prophet from them.  A certain "disgusting" horror web site even went as far as to actually say, "fuck off" to the director in his review.  Which to me sums up the ability this reviewer has to educate himself on a movie and the director before making assumptions. 
     Back to the movie itself.  Not a lot of movies hit the old school 70's and 80's cord with me but this was definitely one of them.  The shots were amazingly well done.  Just enough light for the viewer to see what the hell is going on.  Great angles too I really enjoyed the cinematography very much.  The acting was not poor or over the top in any way.  Right on point as far as I'm concerned.  The ladies certainly conveyed the terror and revolt of what they were going through.  So many movies just flub the whole pain and suffering thing.  Not this one. 
     The story goes from the nasty acts of gang rape to a full fledged horror film when the group stumbles into an old graveyard.  The old graveyard is home to legion of undead warriors with various weapons including a war hammer.  These creatures care not for whom they kill and soon both victims and their attackers are lambs for the slaughter.  The script and dialogue were perfect.  At first the girls are expecting a rave in the middle of the woods but soon they discover unfortunately for them, there is no rave.  Then not only are they running from the rapists but also the zombie warriors. 

This whole film was just a giant breath of fresh air.  Highly recommended for anyone in the mood for old style exploitation scares.  I for one will be rewatching around Halloween time.  I should add that this film is in Italian with English subtitles so all the "I can't read subtitles and pay attention to what's going on" people won't enjoy it and will miss yet another great film because of a silly typical American bias.