August Underground's Penance

I'm a big fan of shock and gore films,but this heap of crap wasn't worth the power it took to run my laptop as I watched it...for FREE THANK GOODNESS! It's the same 'ol hash in a different package. If you've seen ONE August Underground "movie" (and I use the word movie LOOSELY) then you've seen them all pretty much. The ONLY redeeming quality of these "movies" is that the gore looks pretty real. Actually better than some HIGH BUDGET films. Aside from that...this "movie" has absolutely nothing new to offer you. Go do a search for "shockumentaries"and you will find much MUCH better films to satisfy your shock and gore needs. I WISH I had my time back with this pile of garbage. Toodles.

So what's the message in Penance then? A guy brutally murders people because he hates himself? Well f**k me what a revelation! This bombshell aside, there appears, not surprisingly to be no valid reason whatsoever for this incredibly crapulent and nauseous creation. If it's purely infamy Vogel's looking for he's gone about it the right way, but hey Vogel, why not surprise people and at least try to make something remotely intelligent, then you can throw in as much filth and degradation as you like and still get taken seriously? The thing is, Vogel doesn't have the minerals to create anything of any quality or depth, and Penance is a hollow exercise in pushing the boundaries of what is watchable. It's utterly devoid of any subtext whatsoever.

Ironically the only thought provoking element in this film is Fred Vogel himself, who co-writes, directs, produces?, and stars. In much the same way as Argento used to perform the stabbings himself in many of his films, Vogel has a vested personal interest in the violence displayed here. Writing, directing and playing the central character seems to be giving Vogel the closest experience possible to fulfilling his ultimate fantasy without actually having to get arrested, although one could argue that even the inclusion of such a young girl in the filming of this offal is worthy of a stern ticking off. Has she seen it yet? I wonder. Charming.

Now don't get me wrong, I'm a lover of extreme violence in cinema when it is in context. Henry, Portrait of a Serial Killer, Man Bites Dog, Peeping Tom - these are all violent films - Henry especially, but they also deal with serious themes such as alienation, voyeurism, the boundaries between audience and spectator, and in particular, audience complicity. Vogel's film, on the other hand is designed purely to shock and/or titillate. The only comforting thought one should be drawing from this experience is that you're not turned on by imagining yourself sexually and violently abducting people. If you are, then perhaps you should be applying for a job at Toetag films.

In Penance, Vogel seems, more than anything to be exploring his own psyche - his own capacity for the kind of behaviour he's mimicking, and it really does look like he's ready to take the plunge.

Beware Vogel - when you're staring into the abyss, the abyss is staring back at you!

"August Underground's Penance" is basically the personal home video of two sociopathic killers on murder spree.Again two nameless butchers played by Fred Vogel and Cristie Whiles videotape their bloodthirsty madness,but "Penance" shows also their slow decline.First of all I'm not a big fan of "August Underground" series.Still as a lover of extreme cinema who had previously seen "August Underground" and "August Underground's Mordum" I really wanted to see the final installment.This time the faux-VHS look of Mordum has been tossed aside in favor of a more contemporary digital look.The gore effects made by ToeTag crew are very convincing and the violence is dirty and vile.There are some boring moments,but overall "Penance" is not as perverted and repulsive as "Mordum".7 out of 10.

August Underground: Penance both sequentially and quality wise comes in third within the faux snuff video series (and I say series not trilogy simply because I know it in my gut that another one will follow in the future most likely out of necessity.) The digital video is clear this go around as opposed to the previous entries which sought to recreate the degraded bootleg VHS aesthetic. In all reality, the budget wasn't there for even average quality digital video hence the artistic reasoning behind the video's look. Reading previous reviews inspired my need to clarify some points. First, TTP has a loyal following who attempt to spread the sickness as it were, but the rest of the civilized world isn't buying the mantra or the videos for that matter. These non-conforming conformists worship at the altar of Vogel and his crew therefore the reviews are incredibly skewed as such.

I bought the previous two videos and each one brought something new to the table. The first seven minutes of August Underground seemed interminable for all of the right reasons as any good horror video should feel. August Underground: Mordum brought the gory excess to a new level, but its major drawback was the excessive rantings and ravings of its participants. Participants rather than actors, because in the scenes that required emoting you can easily tell the limits of such were very small as opposed to the moral ones which were non existent, in all actuality. Penance suffers greatly from this huge shortcoming since it is essentially a two character study of derangement.

Another glaring weakness of Penance is the insistence to continue the home video footage look rather than a cohesive narrative structure with steadicam shots. Penance gives the viewer headaches not only visually but also conceptually. You would think the depravities shown in the third and final video in a faux snuff series would be taken to Mephistophilian levels unseen before within the gorenography genre, but this is just not the case here. Real animal death and dismemberment? Done to incredibly superior effect in "Cannibal Holocuast." Child murder? This was done even better within its own series in Mordum. Fetal death? This centerpiece of shock was undermined by the utter lack imagination within the scene. There was no build up to the moment. The camera did not follow the mother around a store as she shopped for her baby. It didn't portray her absolute joy about this time in her life nor did it display her horror during her final moments as she realized the impending end to both her own and her unborn child's life. It seems Vogel and company simply ran out of ideas which is shocking considering the repugnant reputation we are dealing with.

The whole supposed finale has the feel of a quick dash for cash rather than a true artistic conclusion about the faux snuff phenomena the series explored. Perhaps in this way it truly is a throwback to the exploitation films of yore.

There aren't many films that have turned me away completely. AU Penance was a first for me. I have never had to take a break from a film before or after this one. The August Underground films each have their "breath of fresh air" scenes in between - or even during - the more disturbing blood/vomit drenched scenes. Penance was different. Where it seems most people think that Mordum was the most disturbing in the trilogy, Penance went to a completely different level of grit and darkness. The breaths that this film took weren't enough to have strong enough laugh at to set you at ease or even kind of take you out of the disgust that was taking place. At one point, I had to stop the film and spend half an hour away from it to relax before I could finish. As the credits rolled, I sat in silence just staring at the screen unsure of how exactly I should feel. Easily the most difficult film to sit through, and easily one of my favorite films because of it. Fred Vogel and his team did an incredible job.