Reise nach Agatis

First off, since this is a Marina Dora film, i was expecting a gorefest, since i know of this man's work. I have seen Melancholy Der Engel and Cannibal. Cannibal was kind of watchable, and Melancholy Der Engel was just a 2-hour shocker, that's only good at that. This movie is mind-bending tame when thinking of the director Marian Dora. Melancholy Der Engel is a top-class film compared to this thing.

The main problem with this movie is the fact that 50 percent of this movie is water scenes. You could of cut this movie in half, and we'd have a better movie. But no, no for whatever reason we decided to have this movie dragged to 1 hour when it could of been like 20-30 minutes honestly.

This is another one of these torture films, except this one is the tamest i have ever seen. What torture? They do nothing during the whole film, and then in the ending they let her "free" just to kill her. There's no gore, or shock or anything of value in this movie, except the ending. The last 10 minutes is the only part of this whole movie that's "disturbing", but even that hits late because you had me beg for this movie to end.

What plot We got a douchebag couple buying a prostitute, and then killing and torturing her in the middle of nowhere. There's a movie that actually kinda has the same idea a murder fest on a boat, and that movie is Triangle, and that thing is 100 times better than this thing ever will be. Why? Because we got characters you can care for, and people actually put an effort into a good story. Here you do not care about anyone. I did not care about the prostitute or the douchebag couple.

I would repeat the Vomit Gore films and the August Underground films than ever watch this thing ever again. When i saw that the director of this was Marian Dora, i was hoping for it to be in the same boat as Cannibal, but no.

Want good Torture films? Go watch Martyrs, Hostel, Guinea Pig (Part One), The Butcher, Grotesque, and Her Name Was Torment.

The Angels melancholy one of the other works of Dora, is much better than voyage to agatis; still it's original enough to contain enough shock... just not as much. And there it is disappointing, to see a movie just for the shock means it has to fail on all other fields in the end. For really... how could anything top the angel's melancholy??? I mean, that one was like the citizen Kane of shock cinema. Voyage to agatis just doesn't qualify; but it was worth the watch.

To review this movie, I would like to break from the typical mundane style, and simply put this into pros and cons.

Pros: The movie had a decent plot, especially for a M. Dora film, typically his movies focus so strongly on their arthouse style and gore they lack a strong plot. THE GORE, I have worked as a Paramedic for 4 years and NOBDOY gets the gore right like this guy, I am literally convinced there is something more sinister to it. Quite curious who the makeup / effects team is because they do an outstanding job... or well...

Cons: Movie does feel a bit slow; I feel there were some character holes with behavior clashing with expressions and what the viewer is deliberately led to believe. And that's about all I can find, the movie was overall quite good without any major flaws.

This is likely my favorite of Dora's films, and it should go without say this movie is a bit on the "extreme" side. Though not nearly as much as some other films by the director (MDE). I would actually recommend this one to a variety of horror film fans without feeling I have led them astray! 7/10

(2010) Voyage to Agatis/ Reise nach Agatis (In German with English subtitles) HORROR

Marian Dora is credited for five jobs for this low budget filth who even with his hard core fans, the average rating for his movies overall is still quite poor. Besides Marian Dora credited as writer and director, it says he is also credited for "Sound Designer" , "Cinematographer" and "Editor". The set up has naked lady after we see her walking on the streets, she is then killed at the opening, viewers are oblivious who she or what she does for a living, but she is killed on a beach and since we are seeing it from the killer's point of view, we don't even get to see his face for we can do nothing but suspect. The next scene then introduces us to a couple of Rafael (Thomas Goersch) and Isabell (Tatjana Lommel) bickering with one another while driving to a restaurant. Rafael appear to be the domineering one and with his wife's displeasure, he tries to entice a blonde lady they met their to come with them to their boat 1938 ZD. This new passenger's name is Lisa (Janna Lisa Dombrowsky) to which it says here she is a prostitute. And while on the water, he puts on his uniform on that may be a SS or whatever while viewers look toy dolls and down the line skeletons at the sea. And after much time is wasted he begins mistreating his wife Isabella before he mistreats Lisa. The end does not leave anything to be desired as he appears to be able to get away with his killings with zero explanation. Some viewers picked up "Knife in the Water" here! And yes, the writer/ director Marian Dora may have been inspired by the Roman Polanski movie but done with a much lower budget.

It is no surprise that this movie was made on a shoestring budget. They clearly did not have to pay for anything. The entire story is detailed in the IMDB write up. How that could take 73 minutes is the real mystery. The acting is awful, the pacing is slower than a snail and the editor and/or director must have thought that very short choppy clips would make the film seem interesting. It just leaves a feeling that this was made by amateurs with no clue how to make a coherent movie. There is zero character development, nor any background as to why the couple does what it does. Many shots have nothing to do with the story that is being portrayed which does nothing but add more dull time to the finished product. There might be 15 minutes of actual story and the rest is filler. I have seen worse low budget movies, but none as boring.