August Underground's Penance

Director - Fred Vogel (The Final Interview, The Redsin Tower)

Starring - Fred Vogel, Cristie Whiles (August Underground's Mordum, The Redsin Tower), and Shelby Lyn Vogel (Maskhead, Murder Collection V.1)

Release Date - 2007

Genre - Horror

Format - Bluray (Personal Collection)

Rating (out of 5):

     Well, I was able to do it.  I honestly didn't think I would be able to finish the August Underground trilogy.  I know some of you are going to go to the comment section and talk about how I couldn't handle them or I missed the point but I can assure you that is the furthest from the case.  I know exactly what the trilogy is trying to achieve and it doesn't work for me.  Maybe, big maybe, if I would have saw these films when they were released they would have had a bigger impact on me but seeing them all these years later after watching more extreme releases makes me wonder if I've become desensitized.  Regardless, I completed the trilogy.  

     The film follows the young man from the previous two installments and his girlfriend has they butcher, torture, and rape anyone that is unfortunate enough to cross their paths.  

     I really did go into this series with an open mind but the movie just doesn't have enough content to hold my attention for well over an hour especially after you have just sit through the other two films.  By the time you've reached the third film the movie is so overdone that you literally have to force yourself to finish it.  The acting in this one is consistent throughout all three films.  The characters are forced, unlikable, and really drag the scenes out.  Watching Fred scream the length of all three films is rough to sit through.  The characters are not that grounded and not enjoyable.  The story for this one is literally the same as the previous films.  We follows aadistic killers as they kill.  Simple as that with the film stretching an hour longer than it really needed to be.  Finally, this wouldn't be an August Underground film if it didn't have some of the best practical effects I've ever seen.  This one doesn't really embrace the gore like the previous films but what we do get is still very well done.  Overall, Penance is exactly as the previous films but it offers up very little for horror fans.  It's shocking for the sake of shock value but not much of a movie in itself.  Skip it.