Anale Geburt (1999)

Anale Geburt (1999) - Germany
Directed by: Leif Lorenzen and Sönke Petersen

ABOUT THE FILM:

Anale Geburt is the third and final (?) entry in a series of amateur German "splatter" films made in the year 1999 by amateur splatter label CUM Pictures. This is the last movie of theirs that would come into the public eye, as their films' materials were seized during the making of their fourth movie Fötus Gulasch.

So after Exhumed and Circumcised and Permanent Diarrhea and Hemorrhoids, what new could the colorfully-titled Anal Birth bring to the table?

REVIEW:

To be honest, this is more of a stream-of-conscience rant than it is a proper review.

What more can I say about Anale Geburt than was said about the previous two films? It's pretty much just more of the same old trash. It's a collection of short stories that have no connection to each other and are just more of the same thing. Shitting, eating shit, raping puppets, really bad amateur gore scenes, annoying camera work and really ugly video quality; the list goes on. 

The only things that remotely set this film apart from the other two is that the stories are much longer, and some of the gore effects are a bit more ambitious, even if not good. Probably the only decent effect in the film is when one of the characters is found laying in a field full of horse dung with his leg cut off by a spade. Even through the horrific quality, the effect looks halfway decent, and clearly had some effort put into it. I just wish it was in a better movie.

The problem with these movies is that they try way too hard to be shocking and gross, and have nothing else to really offer. The two shit on newspapers and crucifixes and stick googly eyes on the shit. They fuck their rabbit. They perform necrophilia on a corpse in their basement. They try to kill a puppet after discovering the puppet shits on them in their sleep. It's just pointless filth and depravity. And on top of that, the movie is way too long at about 90 minutes.

The end credits were pretty cool though.

RELEASES:

-Anale Geburt 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.

Aberración (2000)

Aberración (2000) - Chile
Directed by: Patricio Valladares

ABOUT THE FILM:

Aberración is a 22 minute Chilean film that was made in 2000, in the infancy of filmmaker Patricio Valladares's career. This is one of the earliest gore films, if not the earliest, to ever come out of the country, and was shot in 2000 with a budget of 15,000 Chilean pesos (roughly $18 in USD).

We follow a man living in a dorm with his roommates, who pours a bag of chopped mushrooms (?) into some water, and for some reason, his skin rapidly decays to a nauseating green and he attacks one of his dorm mates, who also transforms and begins to attack others.. Will anyone survive?

REVIEW:

The story is extremely straightforward and easy to follow, despite the lack of any English subtitles. However most people who watch this probably aren't in it for the story. If anything, they're in it for the gore. Aberración may be a very rough and cheap piece of amateur gory filth, but simply put, this little film does not fuck around. Within only a few minutes, our lead has already transformed into his demonic form and begins to feast on his misfortunate victims. He tears at his dorm mate's jugular with his razor sharp teeth, bites open his victim's stomach and disembowels them, all the while smearing the organs on their face. Eyeballs are also plucked out and eaten, and there are many stabbings and eviscerations.

Sounds pretty brutal, right? Well, the idea definitely is. But it would be better if it wasn't so badly executed.

The acting is mediocre at best; at some points, you can tell the actors are trying to keep in their laughter. Despite the occasionally interesting visual effects and edits, the camera work is quite shaky and very muddy looking (presumably shot with a cheap digital video camera). As I stated before, the story doesn't really matter that much. So let's touch on the gore, shall we? ..The unconvincing, butcher-shop gore effects look pretty silly, with very thick and bright red fake blood. The make-up in general seems very caked-on, with everything just laid on top of the actor, or with the guts just hiding underneath a shirt. Definitely not the best special effects, but they're far from being the worst. Also I gotta give credit to the actors; I don't know if I'd be able to stand having smelly animal guts and offal rubbed all over my face.

With everything I mentioned set in stone, just mix some metal music into the edit and you have Aberración, a rather bare-bones but amusing amateur splatter movie. Worth checking out at least once, if you've got 22 minutes to kill or if you just wanna watch some crappy Chilean shot-on-video demon madness!

RELEASES:

-Aberración was released on an extremely rare DVD sometime in the early 2000's, by Vallastudio. The exact date of its release is unknown, but the back of the cover has a blurb followed by "España, 2003"

-The short is officially available to watch on YouTube, courtesy of the director. You can watch it here.

AE Filmkunst Triple-Feature!

Today's review(s) will be taken in a different approach, as I will be covering three movies all in one article, as opposed to the usual singular title or occasional double-feature.

I will be covering three different short films released over the years by German-based team AE Filmkunst, formerly known as White Lodge Movies. Last weekend I reviewed their short Blutkreis, an amateur horror film that followed animalistic rituals and weird occult-like happenings. I was quite impressed by the unsettling yet intriguing atmosphere that the filmmakers had managed to create with little to no resources, and I was left wanting more. And more I got, as I was sent three more short films produced in the earlier days of the studio.

REVIEWS:

Woodstock Witchcraft (2013) is a 15-minute short film made in succession to the 2013 feature film The Last Tape, when AE Filmkunst went under the name White Lodge Movies. In getting the gist of the story, I can recollect this film showing the practices of witches within their lair. Whereas that plot description sounds very vague, there's definitely more to it, considering the language barrier. Unfortunately, the screener copy I was given access to had no subtitles, and there was a bit of narration over the top. However, aside from the narration being lost on me, the film itself is very well shot and tightly edited, with beautiful lighting and interesting sound design. There are also quite a few visual aspects that keep me watching, as we get to see the contents of the witch's lair. Everything is well-designed and laid out; overall a very polished short!
Directed by Tim Rabenstein, Isabelle Fitzgerald and Johannes Kluger.

Watch the Lights (2014) is another intriguing endeavor from the White Lodge team, this time shifting a focus on extraterrestrial life! A man lies within his workspace; various videotapes about UFOs and aliens line the shelves, and he inspects his setup, trying to detect any otherworldly life. As soon as he does, he makes his way toward the forest..
This is a genuinely creepy mindfuck of a short film centered on aliens set to a score of creepy ambient droning music, complimented by excellent lighting and well-organized set pieces. The story is easy to follow, as the short film is more visually driven. On the note of visuals, the puppeteer work on the aliens is done well, with much green slime and goop on display as well.
Definitely a great short! It is by far my favorite out of the bunch.
Directed by Tim Rabenstein, Isabelle Fitzgerald and Johannes Kluger.

We'll round off this triple-review with Different Night, Same Torture (2018). This one plays out similarly to Blutkreis, as it lies its on focus on spiritualistic and sacrilegious imagery. The short, split into three different pieces, follows a God-questioning man as he wanders across a plain, wherein lies a cemetery and a church, with many a statue of angels and other religious figures. The man stops to pray and to cut plants, only to cut his hand open and spill blood onto a crucifix, which he then burns and proceeds to don a gas mask. As the shorts progress, the man seems to grow more disdain for this supposed God and desecrates artifacts and texts with his own blood and urine.
This one is interesting as well in its manner of storytelling, as we are shown everything through visuals and through actions. The short, I feel, sets out not to be overly obscene, but to portray one's struggle to believe in or find a God.
As always, the film is well shot and edited, with great lighting and music by Musica Non Grata and Sander Cage from Sado Messiah Productions.
Directed by Tim Rabenstein and Herzog F.

CONCLUSION:
The work I have seen from AE Filmkunst (or White Lodge Movies) has been very impressive and much different from how I expected them to be! Each short is a carefully planned and executed work of art, with attention to detail and with each having its own way of telling a story. I would highly encourage any fans of horror to check out AE Filmkunst's works, as they are obviously a very talented team of artists!

RELEASES:
-All three films have been released on DVD with English subtitles!

Keepsake (2019)

Keepsake (2019) - United States
Directed by: Nathan Hine

ABOUT THE FILM:
Keepsake is the latest endeavor from Pennsylvania-based film-crew Hardgore Core Productions. I had previously covered their short film The Last Days of Livermore, a short film that was surprisingly well-made and executed with heart and care.
Keepsake fares no differently, as we are presented with another eerie tale, this time about a man who meets up with a cutie at a restaurant. They make their way out to a ramshackle house that had been within the young lass' family for years. The man is skeptical, but is further enticed by a drug he is fed by the yonug beauty. Before entering the house, he sees some rather morbid premonitions of the neighbors waving severed hands at him, but he writes it off as a side-effect of the drug.
And then the two made their way upstairs..

REVIEW:
Similar to Last Days, there are still a few minor sound issues, such as dialogue that is difficult or even impossible to decipher at times. But beyond that minor error, this is another really solid effort from the Hardgore Core team!
Once more, the short is well-shot with plenty of smooth camera-work, and the location is perfect for the given scenario. The two main stars, Bob Vresilovic and Tiffany Laskey are perfect for their roles. Tiffany does a great job at balancing enticing and sexy with creepy and foreboding, and she pulls off her character very well.
The film takes its time to build up to its climax, and does a great job at building up tension by showing increasingly more creepy aspects of the house and of the neighborhood it lies within. And then we reach our climax, and are treated with one of the most uncomfortably long and drawn out murder sequences I've ever seen in a film. The camera does not shy away from the gore at all, as we are treated with extreme close-ups of the man's jugular as it is slit wide open. Many a gallon of arterial spray floods the bed and its surroundings; tissue and viscera is torn in excruciating detail, and the sound effects are nothing short of cringeworthy. The man is now a keepsake for her collection...
Crafted by the Hardgore Core crew, with additional props by James Bell, the gore effects and makeup are insanely well done and will easily satiate the gorehound's appetite.
And for the cherry on top of this crimson sundae, we are treated with a haunting and beautiful score by the talented Will England, which compliments the film well, in contrast to the usual use of extreme metal or noise in other gore films.
Overall this is a very solid short film from a group of talented and passionate filmmakers, and I can highly recommend it!

RELEASES:
-Keepsake was originally created for and is apart of the gore anthology film Followers of the Dead Light, orchestrated by our favorite Canadian sicko Yan Kaos!

-Keepsake was released on a limited edition DVD by Dead Vision Productions in 2020, but the DVD is out of print.

Blutkreis (2017)

Blutkreis (2017) - Germany
Directed by: Tim Rabenstein

ABOUT THE FILM:
Very special thanks to AE Filmkunst for providing me with a screener!
Blutkreis is a 20-minute short film produced by AE Filmkunst and co-produced by Grindhouse Films. The film is narrated by a man who explains the purpose of the blood circle, and how the rituals are passed on. Blutkreis is rather experimental in style, showcasing a linear selection of scenes of sacrifice and debauchery, layered with religious undertones and coated with gore and a foreboding atmosphere.

REVIEW:
I found Blutkreis to be very much in the spirit of Norwegian black arts what with its focus on ritualistic and religious undertones as well as chilling yet beautiful imagery of the forest and nature.
This film is equal parts old school amateur German horror and underground ritualistic video art. Along our journey filled with grisly sacrifices, we are aided with an eerie yet soothing and beautiful drone score by Musica Non Grata that balances the evil and the spiritualism very well. In addition to a good score, we are also treated to interesting and well-crafted sound design, which matches each scene perfectly and further establishes the atmosphere.
The shooting locations are well-picked and for a film shot mostly at night, there are some creepily beautiful shots that glow brilliant greens and blues, in contrast to the crimson juices on display. Aside from the rather shaky camera work, Blutkreis is a pleasant film to look at, and the film grain adds much more grit to an already grim piece of art.
I most certainly recommend Blutkreis to fans of amateur horror. Whereas there are a few notable splatter scenes, the film heavily relies on its score and the atmosphere it builds to sustain the viewer's interest, which is commendable. I am looking forward to seeing more titles from AE Filmkunst and co!

RELEASES:
-Blutkreis was released on DVD by AE Filmkunst in 2017 in a limited run of 33 copies, and each copy came with a pair of photographs from the set.

-NOTE: The version I watched, with the score by Musica Non Grata, has not yet been officially released, but will be included as a bonus on the upcoming DVD for Blutkreis - Chapter II! The original edit of Blutkreis showcased a different soundtrack, with black metal and and acoustic gutiars.