Catcall/Gorefest 2 (2019)

Catcall/Gorefest 2 (2019) - Canada

Directed by: Patrick Fortin

ABOUT THE FILMS:

Catcall and Gorefest 2 are a pair of short films, both under 10 minutes in length, made by underground Canadian filmmaker Patrick Fortin.

Catcall takes place in Quebec and tells the story of a relentless young lass as she cooks up her grisly revenge on all the men who constantly hound on her.

As for Gorefest 2, whereas no real story is easily interpreted, there is an endless barrage of bizarre and violent imagery. Across the 6-minute runtime we are treated with demons, clowns, chainsaws, vomiting and plenty of gore and melting body parts, a la Street Trash.

Some savory fixings in Gorefest 2

REVIEW:

Whereas the shorts don't provide much in terms of story, gorehounds will sure as hell have a lot of fun with these little sickies! Director Patrick Fortin truly packs a punch here with an endless array of truly grotesque but thoroughly entertaining gore effects sequences. Not only are the effects very well-crafted and well-implemented, but they prove to truly get under one's skin, due in part to the sound effects provided. The endless sounds of spurting and squishing will leave one wanting to clean their ears out after a while.

It's also clear that a lot of care and attention to detail went into visually crafting the films as well. The shorts are tightly edited and lit, with some interesting cinematography. Whereas Catcall is shot on digital video, Gorefest 2 almost looks to have been shot on film. There is plenty of grain and scratches present, and the colors are very bright and vibrant; both films definitely give off a Grindhouse sort of feel.

Definitely peep these shorts out if you're a fan of Grindhouse-style cinema and films like Street Trash.

Sweet revenge in "Catcall"

RELEASES:

Catcall and Gorefest 2 were released together as a double-feature DVD by Gore Addict and Goriest Production, a DVD which was limited to a run of 100 copies.

Extras:

-English subtitles

-Making of Gorefest 2

Please consider supporting indie horror and buy the movie here:

https://patrickfortin.wixsite.com/patrickntu/product-page/catcall-gorefest-2-cover-2-50-copies

Backyard Gore Torture (2019)

Backyard Gore Torture (2019) - United States

Directed by: Gore Filth

ABOUT THE FILM:

Backyard Gore Torture is the first official short film from underground filmmaker/gore movie enthusiast Gore Filth. Shot with a VHS camcorder over the course of one afternoon, this very modest "horrific home movie" plays out like a faux snuff film, as a couple castrates and tortures a pedophile who they caught off of the street. The film comes to an end after the camera man instructs his lover to saw off his hand and his foot, as his bloodlust has not yet been satiated.

REVIEW:

Backyard Gore Torture is very self-deprecating and doesn't take itself seriously at all, and as a result we get a thoroughly entertaining, if inept 12-minute short film.

Immediately, the inspiration behind such a creation is obvious in the opening credits. The camera pans across walls and shelves decorated with posters and obscure horror DVDs and memorabilia, with the credits crudely written on paper, an opening familiar to that of Chainsaw Scumfuck. Meanwhile, grindcore music can be heard blaring from speakers off camera, as the credits roll.

The scene moves to the backyard, where a hooded and masked figure takes a hedge trimmer to a very crudely designed dummy, fully stuffed with cotton with several blood bags in place of where the dummy is to be cut. As if the visuals weren't funny enough, there are several instances where blood bags can be seen falling out of place, and there are malfunctioning blood tubes all over the place. Gore and props seem to consist of store-bought meats and Halloween shop prosthetics and mannequins.

Backyard Gore Torture is an absolute mess, albeit a very entertaining one. The creativity and the "horrific" special effects really help make for an interesting and fun viewing experience.

If you are a fan of (quite literally) backyard productions made on the ultra cheap or are just looking for a good laugh, Backyard Gore Torture makes for a great candidate.

RELEASES:

-Backyard Gore Torture was released on DVD independently by Horrific Home Movies, and has no extras. Since the film was shot on VHS in one take with no edits, the DVD is just a rip of the tape.

Meat Butcher Baby (2009)

Meat Butcher Baby (2009) - Canada

Directed by: Yan Kaos

ABOUT THE FILM:

Meat Butcher Baby is a very obscure underground gore film from Canada made by Yan Kaos, an artist who specializes in gore and in the dark arts.

This 18-minute short follows a very simple plot. A masked lunatic murders and very slowly dismembers his female victim inside of a bathtub, removing her arms and gouging her eyes out in gut-wrenching, grisly detail until it all ends with her unrecognizable body in the tub.

REVIEW:

Meat Butcher Baby is an excellent sophomore effort by Kaos, succeeding his debut short film Wrong Dose/Bad Reactions.

Meat Butcher Baby plays out like a faux snuff film and is surprisingly effective in achieving this. Director Yan Kaos takes a very straight-to-the-point direction with this film, as the torture begins within only two minutes. Our masked assailant slowly saws the woman to pieces in a sea of blood, a mountain of gore as an unidentified camera operator documents the entire process.

The faux snuff feeling is further pushed by the grainy and ugly VHS-like picture quality, which really gives off an uneasy aura of reality to the whole thing.

Such atmosphere is pushed even further by the gore effects, crafted by both Kaos himself and Jordan St-Louis. The gore is very well-done and proves effective enough to get under the skin of even the most jaded gorehounds. In addition, to keep an air of realism, music is used at the very bare minimum and only makes appearances in the opening and closing credits. For music, we are treated to some great lo-fi thrash/punk tracks, performed by Kaos with his band Diearea as well as a band called Demonic Disaster.

Definitely hunt this one down if you're a fan of gore and faux-snuff type stuff.

RELEASES:

-Meat Butcher Baby has been released on several occasions, on both VHS and DVD, by Kaos under his label D.I.Y. Productions.

Les Démons de la Cave (1998)

Les Démons de la Cave (1998) - France

Directed by: Yoann Malnati

ABOUT THE FILM:

Les Démons de la Cave is an early 44 minute effort by French cinematographer Yoann Malnati, who went on to work on many Canadian television series and films. This early horror short film tells a rather familiar story of a young French man named Franc, who finds an ancient relic in a box hidden away in a cellar. It is soon learned that anyone who touches this relic will become possessed by a demonic entity, and Franc spends the film attempting to fight off this deadly deity.

REVIEW:

Les Démons was produced and filmed in France on weekends over the course of over a year. Malnati wrote, directed and starred in the film at the young age of 17.

Within only about 10 minutes of watching, it becomes clear that Les Démons is a film with naked ambitions. Whereas there are a few clear nods and homages to films such as Evil Dead 2, the film maintains originality and takes its own twist on the classic lore of unearthing demonic spirits by newfound relics. For a 44 minute film, I never felt bored and often found myself on the edge of my seat, anticipating what would happen next. Every scene is carefully interspersed and well-paced; every movement of the actors and the cameras are well-choreographed and the editing for such a low-budget production is tight. The film, for the most part, takes place indoors and is well lit with a nice selection of yellows, reds and greens to give each scene the appropriate feeling and set an awesome atmosphere. Speaking of atmosphere, the film's original score is haunting, well-crafted and further helps set up an amazing atmosphere.

Director and star Malnati steals the show as Franc. Malnati is surprisingly proficient in exhibiting body language and is not afraid to go all out with his performance. This man bashes himself into walls and piles of wood and junk, flips over tables and pulls all kinds of stunts with style. While the actors aren't very good at conveying emotion through voice, all of the cast members deliver strong showings, which is surprising considering they're just a bunch of kids.

The special effects are also very well-done and nicely implemented. The gore effects are never over-the-top and feel moderately realistic, and are used sparingly but used well. The monster and creature effects are well-made and look really good for such a low-budget production! It obviously took a lot of time and careful attention to detail when crafting every mask, hand and other limbs.

Les Démons is probably one of my favorite movies that I've watched since I started To Obscurity and Beyond. Everything about it is awesome and I highly, HIGHLY recommend you looking for this film! It is absolutely worth your time, especially if you love creature features!

RELEASES:

-Les Démons de la Cave was independently released on VHS by Malnaski Production in 1998.

-The movie is officially available to watch on YouTube, courtesy of Malnati himself!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ainvNy8VhU8&t=126s

Das Weststadt Massaker (1991-1994)

Das Weststadt Massaker (1991-1994) - Germany

Directed by: Andreas Bethmann

BACKGROUND / ABOUT THE FILM:

Das Weststadt Massaker is the earliest available film from prolific German splatter/porn director Andreas Bethmann, who is better known for his works such as Dämonenbrut, Rossa Venezia and Help Me I Am Dead. Bethmann began making films at the age of 18 in 1988 with his debut film Begrabt in Tief (yet to be released), and he continued to make amateur films for 10 years until he could finally afford to make his visions come to life at a reasonable cost.

Das Weststadt Massaker was one of those amateur films. The film is combined of three separate shorts from 1991 and 1994, and the storyline is that of...a killer in a mask setting loose to wreak havoc upon any and all he finds in the woods.

REVIEW:

Of course, the entire thing is in German and there are no English subtitles available, but those really aren't even needed as you can easily follow the plot. The cast, more than likely Bethmann's friends and family members, are all amateurs and the few who actually try to act see laughable results at best.

The camera work is often very shoddy, shaky and poorly done. The poor editing can be forgiven when you consider this film was edited together with two VCR's, which is a very frustrating editing setup to begin with. Aside from scenes that seem to have been included for no reason, there are several slow-motion shots that will draw out scenes to unnecessarily long lengths, which reminded me a lot of an earlier shot-on-video movie called Sledgehammer.

Probably the only thing that makes this film truly worth it are the laughably bad gore effects. The gore, while not good, is available in abundance. There are plenty of scenes of decapitations, stabbings, castrations, eviscerations, dismembered limbs and people getting run over by cars. Each effect has a considerable amount of (watery) blood involved and plenty of meat and viscera.

Despite all of the bad things I've said about this movie, in some weird way it's still sort of entertaining; even funny at times. It just goes to show that no matter how bad films like this can be, there will always be at least a certain charm or element to them that makes them enjoyable! Even if it feels like your typical Violent Shit knockoff, Das Weststadt Massaker still stands as a moderately entertaining viewing experience and a collector's item for fans of German underground gore.

RELEASES:

-Das Weststadt Massaker 1 was originally released on VHS in January, 1991 by AB-Video Pro with an uncut runtime of 21 minutes.

-Das Weststadt Massaker 2 was originally released on VHS in September, 1991 by AB-Video Pro with an uncut runtime of 34 minutes.

    -Extras:

     Das Weststadt Massaker 1

-Das Weststadt Massaker 3 was originally released on VHS in 1994 by AB-Video Pro.

Permanentes Diarrhö und Hämmorhoiden (1999)

Permanentes Diarrhö und Hämmorhoiden (1999) - Germany

Directed by: Leif Lorenzen and Sönke Petersen

ABOUT THE FILM:

Permanent Diarrhea and Hemorrhoids is the second film in the CUM Pictures trilogy. Similar to its predecessor, Exhumiert und Beschnitten, this "film" is a collection of shorts that have little to nothing to do with each other. Similar to its predecessor, this film is driven by incredibly cheap amateur gore scenes, plenty of real shitting, grindcore music and very "edgy" humor.

REVIEW:

There really isn't much more that can be said about this film as was said about its predecessor. I'm not going to bother trying to address story, as there is no story. These shorts were created for no reason other than to try to be as edgy and disgusting as possible. One of the shorts, Schulmassacre, is simply about a kid in a beanie who goes around shitting everywhere until he shoots up his school. The entire opening crawl of the movie is a series of real gore, autopsy and accident photos stolen off of the internet interspersed with the title cards. Even with the extensive and unnecessary scenes of shitting and shit-eating, the movie falls flat on it's face and feels more gross and stupid than "shocking."

Although not as ugly as the first, the film is clearly aged. There are plenty of VHS artifacts and the colors are oversaturated and will quickly give you a headache. The camera work is incredibly amateurish, as are the few "special" effects and the "acting."

You really aren't missing much.

RELEASES:

-Permanentes Diarrhö und Hämmorhoiden was distributed by CUM Pictures on VHS and sold through advertisements in the Gory News magazine. However, due to its scarcity, the movie is currently only available on bootleg DVDs.

Merah (2019)

Merah (2019) - Malaysia

Directed by: D-Ni

ABOUT THE FILM:

Merah ("Red") plays out like a 5-minute anti-bullying PSA, about a couple of bullies who pour red liquid all over another young girl's artwork, supposedly ruining it. However, her drawing is brought to life, and she confronts the young bully, smacking her in the face hard enough to draw blood.

REVIEW:

Being only a 5-minute short, there is very little content to digest in terms of story. I will say, however, that Merah works well as PSA as it can encourage people to stand up for themselves and not let people walk all over them.

On a visual level, the short is interesting. The gritty black-and-white cinematography works well with the subject matter and tone, and the highlights of the color red make the short feel more three-dimensional and give it life. The short is also tightly edited, with good sound design and choice of music. Probably the best part is the rotoscope effect, which takes place as the young girl's drawing, Hana, comes to life. The animation perfectly fits the movements of the actor and the style particularly reminded me of traditional anime/manga art, which I am quite fond of.

For a five-minute short, it gets its point across and definitely delivers some interesting ideas and techniques.

RELEASES:

-This short has not yet been released and I was provided with a screener copy from the director.

Feto Morto (2003)

Feto Morto (2003) - Brazil

Directed by: Fernando Rick

ABOUT THE FILM:

Feto Morto follows John, a mentally-challenged geek who was born with a dead fetus attached to his head after his fat, abusive father had incestuous sex with his own sister. No matter where he goes or what he does, poor ol' John is faced with misfortune. Whether it's his bizarre sexual encounters with his love interest, or his unpleasant experience with a local trio of violent and anarchic punks, John will be faced with misfortune, until he decides to seek help and get revenge.

REVIEW:

Let's face it: Brazilians know how to gross us out, and they know how to make quality trash cinema. This has been proven time and time again. Feto Morto is no exception, and is the embodiment of the word "trash." We get babies with their heads stomped, a cured crippled man who only gets his legs run over again, gratuitous scenes of sex and vomit, ridiculous over-the-top gore scenes, kung-fu style fights, and much more.

Unfortunately, this is one of those cases where the filmmakers care more about trying to shock the audience instead of focusing on a story. And while the story is there, it's only used to set up the stupidly laughable gore and "shock" sequences. I will say that the few gore scenes presented here, while very cheesy and fake-looking, are certainly fun to watch. They made for a good laugh, specifically a unique kill where a man is killed with his own appendage. Also for a movie shot on video, the camera work isn't too bad. Despite being handheld, the shots are usually very smooth and it's easy to tell what's happening on screen. Unfortunately, the sound is quite poor. The music is too loud compared to the dialogue, and as a result, will drown the dialogue out. The music and sound effects are also noticeably low-quality, as if ripped from the internet, which can be quite distracting at times.

I'm not going to say I didn't enjoy the movie. I'm a huge fan of films produced and distributed by Troma, and I could definitely see this passing as an early 2000's Troma film. Although I thought the movie was entertaining to some extent, I don't think I'll be watching it again any time soon. Overall, being only 58 minutes long, it's a moderately entertaining viewing experience.

RELEASES:

-Feto Morto was released on DVD in 2003 by Black Vomit Filmes and distributed through the Canibal Filmes/Bulhorgia Produçoes website.

-Extras:

Making-Of

Trailers

Exhumiert und Beschnitten (1999)

Exhumiert und Beschnitten (1999) - Germany

Directed by: Leif Lorenzen and Sönke Petersen

ABOUT THE FILM:

Exhumiert und Beschnitten is one of three amateur German "splatter" films made in the year 1999 by the colorfully-titled label, CUM Pictures. This label was run by two teenage metalhead filmmakers who were fixated on dark humor, gore, and very graphic and disgusting scat-centered toilet humor. The first film in their trilogy is a very loosely tied-together collection of shorts made over the past few months of the two filmmakers acting out various "funny" scenarios, including fighting giants, watching porn, eating their pet rabbits, taking a shit, killing each other, and a variety of trashy antics.

REVIEW:

...And I thought Kifferduell was bad. This amateur German roughie is an embarrassing wart on the face of underground horror.

There is very little to no structure to this thing at all. Each short will randomly kick in with no build-up or anything. That is, aside from overlong title card sequences with the name of each short crudely sketched onto toilet paper. Occasionally, these are decorated with gross-out gore/porn images stolen from the internet. The entire movie is nothing but two teenagers dicking around with a camera while the parents are away, as they play with real feces, pretend to eat their pet rabbits, and play with some of the shittiest gore this side of Der Henker. Fake blood seems to be made of either paint or watery ketchup, there are ping-pong balls for eyeballs, and semen is just water flung out of buckets.

This unholy pile is topped with a soundtrack consisting of low-quality, stolen grindcore/brown-metal tracks, and video quality so atrocious that the filmmakers had to have run the master tape through sewage.

I could forgive Exhumiert und Beschnitten being bad if it wasn't absolutely boring as hell. During each short, the camera will usually run the entire time; they rarely cut the shot or make any edits. I think this film could have definitely used some editing; It could have easily been 45 minutes long, considering how much dead air there is. There are many scenes where the two just walk around and do nothing, and any of their juvenile attempts at humor feel very drawn out and fall flat.

Ultimately, Exhumiert und Beschnitten is a tedious, boring and ugly 90 minutes to sit through, and I would advise against watching it if ever given the opportunity. This atrocity is proof that some amateur films deserve to remain hidden.

SIDE NOTE:

Interestingly enough, it seems as though German authorities actually wanted this to remain hidden. According to a Pastebin link, there is an excerpt featured from the now-defunct Gory News magazine claiming that the filmmakers were visited by the police after they obtained their three videos by mailorder. Among the other films were Permanentes Diarrhö und Hämmorhoiden, Anale Geburt and a film called Fötus Gulasch. Whereas the first three films listed were finished and distributed, Fötus Gulasch was only about 90% complete when the raw materials were seized and production was shut down, thus making it a lost film. Judging by the quality of their other works (or lack thereof), this could be a good thing. But at the same time, morbid curiosity is peaking my interests. In the link provided, the director claims that the film was better than their previous efforts, even in terms of splatter effects. I don't know if the film will ever be released, but if it does leak or get released, maybe I will check it out.

RELEASES:

-Exhumiert und Beschnitten was distributed by CUM Pictures on VHS and sold through advertisements in the Gory News magazine. However, due to the scarcity of the film, it is currently only available on bootleg DVDs.