{"id":52,"date":"2008-06-13T00:17:59","date_gmt":"2008-06-13T04:17:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.elsweb.org\/nsftmfx\/2008\/06\/13\/timothy-415\/"},"modified":"2008-07-03T23:19:11","modified_gmt":"2008-07-04T03:19:11","slug":"timothy-415","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.elsweb.org\/nsftmfx\/2008\/06\/13\/timothy-415\/","title":{"rendered":"Timothy 4:15"},"content":{"rendered":"

Take pains with these things; be <\/em>absorbed in them, so that your progress will be evident to all.<\/em><\/p>\n

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This post has been a long time coming. Gore films. That’s what this is about. The only way to begin here, I feel, is to just tell you straight up & with no calculated reservations of my own that this is about dismemberment, disembowelment, & buckets full of glorious corn syrup. You’ve been steadily (not on my part, but I hope on yours) warned.<\/p>\n

The idea of becoming a gorehound first came to me when I was a senior in high school, after most of my closest friends had gone to college ahead of me & I began my trek towards making old acquaintances into new cliques right at the end of four years of hanging out with basically the same people every day. Ted was one such re-ventured buddy, as we had once been in the same band together (for a short time) & at one point worked at the same used record store together as well (for a slightly longer time). Ted is a year older than me, as most of my friends were at the time, but he had decided to stay in Northern Virginia after high school, luckily for me.<\/p>\n

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[Yep. There’s me during a fire drill my senior year. Probably watched some gore that night.]<\/p>\n

But to be honest with you, I don’t remember what it was exactly that kickstarted our mutual interest in the wonderful world of spurting blood. It could have been any combination of research of Japanese shock-video directors, discussions of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre<\/em>, & nights of staying up until dawn watching as many films as we could. In the early days, though, around late autumn of ’05 I suppose it would have been, the movies we stayed up for hours & hours watching were of any type. There were no rules, really — one such movie night we watched (& I believe I have the order in which we watched them correct here) Instrument<\/em><\/a>, Cabin Fever<\/a>,<\/em> Collateral<\/em><\/a>, & Amelie<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n

Now wait a minute — I remember exactly what sparked our fascination in gore. This is a serious brain fart on my part which, as one might say, has just been expelled. It was Cabin Fever<\/em>, an Eli Roth comedy-horror masterpiece that came out in 2003 & is almost universally either loved or hated. My fondest memories of the film are two-fold: there is a scene that I loved that involves a girl shaving herself in the bathtub…& eventually shaving her skin off; the other memory is simple – the last line of the movie. If there is any moment in any scary movie that will make you jump to your feet & flip out in the way that only a college basketball game in double overtime is apt to do, the last scene of Cabin Fever<\/em> is it. A brilliant film; just thinking about it right now forces a yearning in my adrenaline to see it once more.<\/p>\n

[kml_flashembed movie=\"http:\/\/youtube.com\/v\/8EhRGRFnpm0\" width=\"425\" height=\"350\" wmode=\"transparent\" \/]<\/code><\/p>\n

[It’s easier if you just don’t question it. & yes, there’s language, if you need a disclaimer.]<\/p>\n

Anyway, the guts flowed pretty much from there on out. Ted & I quickly found out that researching gory movies is not only easy, but actually incredibly addicting. It became almost a challenge, a daily journey to keep reading & making lists & digging through movie rental stores to find something that would really challenge our disgusting-factor — that’s the one that sparks you to vomit or scream. Our next two films we watched too close together for me to remember which came first. Takashi Miike<\/a>‘s Audition<\/em> <\/a>was a movie that I had seen mentioned as one of the scariest moments in film on some special Bravo had put on<\/a> a few months before, & it had looked incredibly intriguing (& awesomely terrifying). The plot follows a Japanese widower who holds fake auditions for a new movie so that he might meet a new wife. Who he meets, it turns out, is completely insane & shockingly unafraid to use needles in unorthodox ways. As a whole, the film was about 75 minutes of terribly slow build-up with about 10 or 15 minutes of perfectly executed horror. It’s hard to say it’s not a good film, but at the same time it’s hard to say I truly liked any part of it other than the final few moments.<\/p>\n

One of the few gory films we traveled to the theater to see was Eli Roth’s Hostel<\/em><\/a>, which we saw (obviously) based solely on the fact that Cabin Fever<\/em> was so incredible. Again, it seemed to be pretty give & take; we saw it late enough at night that besides us, there were only three other people in the theater (which can either perfect or ruin a movie atmosphere), & the entire first half of the movie was technically not horror at all, but porn. Or, I suppose, as close to porn as you can get while still sustaining a plausible R rating (which means lots of female nudity & excessive groaning & moaning). All I remember of those 45 minutes or so is laughing my head off at how inane this movie was. & then it got good & gory, & I knew I was heading down the right path.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

It’s a little hard to explain without thrusting experience on the reader, but there is something so incredibly life-affirming about watching a solid gory movie. Not only are you watching a movie chock-full of scenes of violence to the extent of which you will never see in your life, but for any bad thing that has happened to you, you can always say to the screen hosting a barrage of images concerning a sharp blade, an eyeball, & lots of red: “Hey, I’m glad I’m not that<\/em> guy.”<\/p>\n

Also, when else can you push yourself to the limit of unadulterated adrenaline at the movies? Any movie can make you cry, but it takes a lot more to make you speechless.<\/p>\n

Which is the exact reaction Ted & I had when we watched Slaughtered Vomit Dolls<\/em><\/a> (I swear that’s the actual title — how could someone pass on this movie, just by title alone??), a movie that Ted read about on an IMDb message board & investigated further through its trailer (I was 2 seconds from posting the trailer here until I just now re-watched it & realized I couldn’t let myself do it, not even with a disclaimer. It is on YouTube if you’re interested, but you might want to make sure no one squeamish is in the room first; it’s definitely not commercialized by any stretch of the imagination. You’ve been warned [for the second time in one post!]). The film is billed as a revolutionary new genre of film called “vomit gore,” & just knowing that, you shouldn’t have to ask why no one said a single word throughout the entire first hour of the movie (it’s only slightly longer than that). The plot follows no real linearity other than the deranged memories & thoughts of a Satan-worshiping young woman with a penchant for bile.<\/p>\n

We knew after watching that that we had reached a new plateau. A new horrible, horrible plateau.<\/p>\n

The funny thing about gore, though, is that really there is no plateau; it’s just one steep climb up. Perhaps this is why it seems to be human nature to decry the genre at all cost. If one were to say that they have nothing against a good gory flick, & in fact some of their best friends are gore movies, general reactions steer towards automatic distaste. I understand this. It hits too close to home for some people to see acts of unnecessary violence, & it proves the human body & mind to be utterly fallible (perhaps “prove” is to mean “shows fictional accounts of”). One story goes that none other than Charlie Sheen came across one of the Guinea Pig<\/em><\/a> movies (accounts vary as to which one it was, but Flower of Flesh and Blood<\/em> seems to make the most sense to me) somewhere & quickly reported it to the proper authorities. Word got round to the FBI that this snuff film had been made involving slow & delicate disembodiment, & the creators of the film were forced to prove it was a fake by including “Extra Features” on the DVD & VHS releases of their films showing bloopers & behind the scenes footage of the cast & crew just having a down-home good time.<\/p>\n

\"\" This seems like the best time to mention Guinea Pig<\/em>, which was one of the first set of movies that got me really intrigued & excited about gore. Ted & I grew to adopt a system of buying films online either through Ebay or Amazon (usually the former, though, since many gory movies aren’t always sold commercially) that involved one of us making the purchase & the other of us paying half-price in cash. It made sense, & it worked. Anyway, the Guinea Pig<\/em> boxset<\/a> was the first that we purchased with this method, for a total cost of 50-odd dollars, practically slobbering over the deceptively simple packaging of it when it finally arrived. The series contained 6 Japanese gore movies that many boasted were the best out there for gorehounds. The best of the bunch, for anyone interested, is the aforementioned Flower of Flesh and Blood<\/em><\/a>, which was at the time I saw it the most straight to the point film I’d ever seen — a man drugs a woman so that when he meticulously cuts her into pieces, it feels pleasurable to her (it’s actually amazingly done; the cinematography is wild at points). Devil Woman Doctor<\/em><\/a> is hilarious, & it’s supposed to be, but also obviously not for the faint of heart — it basically plays out like an infomercial or something where a “devil doctor” treats people’s ailments in gruesome ways. Mermaid in a Manhole<\/em><\/a> is the other one I would recommend whole-heartedly, & it has perhaps the most pointed plot of them all — a man discovers a mermaid dying in a sewer, so he takes her home & paints her portrait with the pus that she emits (trust me, it’s just as cool as it sounds).<\/p>\n

Something that I’ve found completely reaffirming in my journey through gore is that there is a strong number of people out there who are making movies that combine two things so corrosively opposed to each other, namely horror & humor. Some of the funniest movies I’ve seen have also been the bloodiest. The<\/em> bloodiest movie ever made (more blood was used in a single scene than any other movie has used) is a complete riot: Peter Jackson’s Dead Alive<\/em><\/a>. The concept of Jackson’s early movies was all that really originally attracted me to watching them, as I was intrigued that the same man who made epicly-too-long movies like Lord of the Rings<\/em> & King Kong<\/em> once made anything else, & so I rented Bad Taste<\/em><\/a> one night for Ted & I to watch. It was a complete mind trip, & I hardly remember what it was all about, but there was definitely some blood in there. Dead Alive<\/em>, though, is the more famous by a long shot, & is amazingly well done given the circumstances. It has a hilarious script, ridiculous acting, & more gore than you can possibly know what to do with. The basic premise is that a shy, quiet man’s mother is bitten by a mysterious rat-monkey that kills her but brings her back to life. She proceeds to infect others, creating mass zombie carnage & leaving our poor quiet hero to save the day.<\/p>\n

Obviously, this video is not for the faint of heart (but it is in my top 5 favorite movie scenes!):<\/p>\n

[kml_flashembed movie=\"http:\/\/youtube.com\/v\/bl03m53RlX8\" width=\"425\" height=\"350\" wmode=\"transparent\" \/]<\/code><\/p>\n

One comi-gor-edy (kind of just made that up) that I like even better than Jackson’s masterpiece, though, is the more recent Dead and Breakfast<\/em><\/a>, which is billed as the U.S.’s “answer to Shaun of the Dead<\/em>” (another very good movie). I’ve blogged about this movie before, but it’s worth another few words if it means people will go out & buy it (as it is one of the few gore movies that you can find almost anywhere — I got mine at Best Buy!). It is a completely over-the-top zombie flick that combines bizarre cameos & bad acting with a ton of gore & moments like this:<\/p>\n

[kml_flashembed movie=\"http:\/\/youtube.com\/v\/lcwP5wpNGyw\" width=\"425\" height=\"350\" wmode=\"transparent\" \/]<\/code><\/p>\n

Then, of course, on the journey to find movies that would completely shock & disgust us, Ted & I ended up getting what was coming to us. We found movies that completely disgusted us all right, for better or worse. These were the truly gory<\/em> movies, ones that didn’t pull punches or try to seem less invasive by adding humor or some odd plot twist. They were just plain hard to watch. The Japanese & Chinese have a history of making completely shocking films (in part thanks to Takashi Miike, whose Ichi the Killer<\/em><\/a> I found to be a complete bust), & they hold people’s attention for a reason. Movies like Men Behind the Sun<\/em><\/a>, a true story account of Japanese WWII “experiment” camps wherein Chinese prisoners were tortured with dry ice & given autopsies (both of which are graphically shown, of course) to study new methods of human tolerance, & Naked Blood<\/em><\/a>, a film that explores pain giving addictive pleasure to its recipients in a handful of incredibly realistic gory scenes (the one that sticks with you is when a woman sticks a fork in her eye & eats it…in two very agonizingly slow bites) — these are the ones that really make you squirm.<\/p>\n

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Not to mention Cannibal Holocaust<\/em><\/a>, the Ruggero Deodato film that boasts itself to be the “Most Banned Film of All Time.” I won’t dwell here for a very long time, but if you plan to go as far as you can go on the road to the goriest movies without going over the edge (which I will describe in just a bit), this is probably the place to be. It’s arguably the movie that inspired The Blair Witch Project<\/em> (with its shaky, handheld style & plot based around “found” footage from people lost in the woods), but it’s far beyond that. It isn’t so much the physical human violence that gets you (which is actually relatively well done, & very gruesomely awesome in its own right), but the unadulterated violence towards animals (all REAL) that is both unnecessary & gag-inducing. There is a scene where a monkey’s face is shaved off. There’s not much more I can say about that.<\/p>\n

But the most vile creation I’ve seen put to film was without a doubt Fred Vogel’s August Underground’s Mordum<\/em><\/a>, not so much a movie as an 80-minute exploration into how far the limit can be pushed in the gore genre. There are times, after all I’d seen, that I closed my eyes & plugged my ears & longed to get up & leave. I stuck it out just to say I’d done it, but I’m not entirely proud to have done so; the movie is that<\/em> sick. The “plot” here takes the form of first-person accounts of three serial killers who use a handheld camera to chronicle their murders in unbearably long, drawn-out scenes of unbelievable torture & filth. The acting is probably the greatest I’ve ever seen in a film, but only because the actors are able to create a loathing & fear in the viewer incomparable to much else I’ve seen — they aren’t just acting like scary bad guys, they actually ARE terrifying, to the point where you fear mankind when the screen goes black at the end of movie. I have never recommended this movie to someone, & whenever I speak about it I explicitly tell people that they shouldn’t watch it. There’s really no going back once you’ve seen it, unfortunately.<\/p>\n

\"\" & I suppose that’s where I’ll have to end this, though there are countless other movies I didn’t mention. I suppose when all is said & done (which it never is, is it?) gory movies are like any other passion — they require complete dedication & purpose, & if you aren’t interested, then please don’t give it a shot. Films can be an arrestingly effective media, & I truly believe that gore is the greatest example of that. There’s nothing like watching mutilation put to tape, as long you understand that when the camera was turned off, everyone stood up, had a good laugh, & went home for dinner. Without a strong belief in this, you aren’t going to stand a chance.<\/p>\n

& in case you missed it, here’s a relatively comprehensive list to start from:<\/p>\n

Dead Alive<\/em><\/p>\n

Bad Taste<\/em><\/p>\n

Cabin Fever <\/em><\/p>\n

Naked Blood<\/em><\/p>\n

Men Behind the Sun<\/em><\/p>\n

Riki-Oh<\/em><\/p>\n

August Underground<\/em><\/p>\n

August Underground’s Mordum<\/em><\/p>\n

Flower of Flesh and Blood<\/em><\/p>\n

Mermaid in a Manhole<\/em><\/p>\n

Devil Doctor Woman<\/em><\/p>\n

He Never Dies<\/em><\/p>\n

Devil’s Experiment<\/em><\/p>\n

Android of Notre Dame<\/em><\/p>\n

Slaughtered Vomit Dolls<\/em><\/p>\n

Cannibal Holocaust<\/em><\/p>\n

Jungle Holocaust<\/em><\/p>\n

Dead and Breakfast<\/em><\/p>\n

Hostel<\/em><\/p>\n

The Toxic Avenger <\/em>(which I haven’t seen yet, but desperately want to so please let me know if you have a copy!)<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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