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. 

Gorgasm

http://srscinema.com/srsstore/
Tara, a psychotic call girl, has a strange obsession with giving men the ultimate climax. Chase is a detective out to stop her killing spree. 

Chaos A.D.

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/chaos-a-d#/

https://www.facebook.com/chaosadmovie/

http://www.thesleazebox.com/

The Sleaze Box proudly presents it's latest film, CHAOS A.D. On Halloween night, we follow a troublesome brother and sister, an abused wife, and a sleazy politician who all get kidnapped by a villainous group called F.R.E.A.K. The group is mostly made up of women who terrorize their captives all Halloween night. Will the captives rise up and take down the evil group or will they fall to their doom. You will also be introduced to the new face of horror and her name is MISERY!

American Guinea Pig: Bouquet of Guts and Gore (2015)

(out of 5)

 

 

American Guinea Pig:  Bouquet of Guts and Gore
directed by:  Stephen Biro
starring:  Ashley Lynn Caputo, Caitlyn Dailey, Eight The Chosen One, Scott Gabbey, David Hood, Jim Van Beeber, Rogan Russell, Curse Mackey, Lucio Giovannelli, Lilly Dickenson
format:  NTSC:  Region 1 - personal collection


The Movie:  A woman and her daughter brutalized beyond belief after being drugged with LSD and some sort of paralyzing injection.   If you have seen any of the Japanese Guinea Pigs most especially The Devil's Experiment you will know what you are in store for.  I have read some reviews saying this movie is a remake etc. of those.  No it's not.  Influenced, inspired, yes.  But if anything it's just a continuation of those sick little shorts.  I myself have grown tired of "torture porn" and I mean real "torture porn" not like the Saw franchise which to me is just a gory horror film that happens to have some brutal torture kills in it.  But this film and others like it are just straight torture and a lot of it.  I grew bored of these years ago but when something like this comes out I just can't ignore it.  Most especially in an independent community I just love to support.

The Acting:  Nothing but real here.  The women were scared the men were domineering, all of them really did the trick for this film.  I really felt like I was watching these guys torture and murder this mother and daughter.  A bit of arguing between the big goat skull guy and the director with the Bible mask.  "Always on the left, never on the right!"

The Shots:  The movie looked very old school and at one point you see a film being edited using what appeared to be a half broken piece of film editing equipment.  The old rolling cameras they used continued to run out of film and this was very cool.  The movie looked all patched together like one would expect from an underground snuff film.  Loved this.  So authentic looking, so real.

The Gore:  There really is no way around it Marcus Koch did a spectacular job with the fx here.  Constant fx with the torture and dismemberment plus all the Guts and Gore that followed.  The famous picture that I first saw of the woman's face sawed in half was horrifying to watch.  I definitely have lost most of my urge to watch these kinds of movies but wow did Stephen Biro come through with a good one. 

The Script:  Some will say there is no script it's just torture.  Hmmm.  True but untrue.  It is a complete torture film but I'd consider it a well scripted torture film.  I have seen more than my fair share of these movies and the scripts are almost never this good.  The dialogue between the men, the overall story of why these men were doing what they were doing.  There's a bit more to this than just lay down and torture two women.  The end, well see it for yourself...

The Rating:  Yeah I'm going to have to go with 5 out of 5 bloody hand prints on this one.  Just too cool to not.  I wasn't sure what to expect and man was I impressed.