August Underground's Penance

After watching all three August Underground films, you will be questioning yourself whether the directors are disturbed for making such a sadistic series, or are you disturbed for watching all three. The first august underground was dark and disturbing as it mimicked a snuff film so accurately. Mordum, in my opinion, is one of the most brutal films ever made. So, what are we expecting with Penance? Well, Fred Vogel and Cristie Whiles are back as directors and star in the third installment of the series playing the psychopathic killers Peter and Crusty. Penance takes a different approach, yes, there is still vile scenes such as disembowelment and cutting out a fetus from a victim, but we see more from the killers. There are more "breather scenes" in between the torture and murders showing them just goofing around in front of the camera. What is pivotal in this film is that it digs deep into Peter and Crusty's mental state. Over the series, we have seen Peter, a big strapping lad perform such barbaric acts that he is now reduced to gagging, not being able to perform and abusing substances heavily. On the other hand, we have seen Crusty drop her punk goth image and her twisted enjoyment of brutally torturing and murdering women, to become highly emotional and realizing how vile she has become. It was going to be very hard to top the horrendous depravities that occurred in Mordum, but somehow Vogel and Whiles managed again to have us reaching for the sick bucket. For a film that had a very low budget and unknown actors, it pulled off something so spectacularly disgusting that the series will be implanted in our memory for a long time.

The shock film, August Underground's Penance, is the pinnacle of holiday filth. I suggest using your Christmas stockings once you run out of barf bags, you'll definitely need them for this movie! T'is the season for child molesting and baby killing! The August Underground trilogy is a collection of snuff footage filmed by the murderers, one male and one female, themselves. The first August Underground is disturbing in the way that it depicts a snuff film so accurately. August Underground's Mordum, as far as I am concerned, is the most disgusting and upsetting movie ever made. So what does the latest installment have to offer? Pure unabashed gore! Blood, guts, intestines, nails through the head, disembowelment, cigarette burns, limb sawing and heads being opened like Christmas presents! Thanks to the special features section in Penance we learn that real pig intestines were used in the film making the actors sick to their stomachs! Yes, these poor psychopaths actually got immortalized vomiting nearly constantly during the taping. The effects in this gore-fest are so realistic that the Toe Tag crew decided to use a better quality camera then in their previous movies to show off their skills and attention to detail. This film shows the character development of the killers and adds that touch of humanity to contribute to the realism to this movie. And, while Penance may not be as disgusting as Mordum, it does manage to supply a generous amount of its own sickness to the trilogy.

Which brings us to the only thing worse than Christmas carolers; home invaders! Focus on a standard suburban family. Let's call them the Cleavers. Each of the Cleaver family is beaten, raped and killed all on Christmas day. It's better to give then to receive! Of all the atrocities committed on this family the worst by far is done to sweet baby Jane. After the killers viciously beat and rape the sweet lass, her butcher delivers one of the cruelest lines in cinematic history: "Kill it." Did you get that? Not her - "it."

Another offensive scene which actually triggers the emotion of one of the killers highlights a very realistic looking fetus being ripped from a mother's womb. The female slayer finally breaks down and cries once she realizes they've finally go too far. The dead mother-to-be experiences the one instance where it's not better getting your present too early! Taking violence to another level all together. It is chilling the way these serial killers are portrayed so believably. August Underground's Penance also has an ending that has to be seen to be believed! The final scene might leave fans a little choked up.

August Underground's Penance is a shockingly gruesome movie filled with anger, torture, and ejaculation. It looks like it will be a White Christmas after all! This film is a holiday must own for any true gore-hound like me!

"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.

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.

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.