Brutal

Date of viewing: September 29, 2024 How many times watched: 1 Where: Tubi

A serial killer runs into another serial killer and the two of them bond through their love of stabbing genitalia.

Objective rating: (1 out of 5) The stabbing scenes and general scenes of violence in this movie are well done and I would say are the highlight of the film if you are into well done and uncomfortable violence.

There isn't much to the plot, the characters are paper thin, there is no build up or release of tension, and there really isn't much to the movie outside of the violence.

Subjective rating: (1 out of 5) I found this movie to be a bit dull to watch as there isn't much to it outside of the scenes of violence.

Overall rating: 2 out of 10.

Silly violence & gore snoozefest that has zero redeeming qualities, entertainment value or sense. There is an attempt to make it all seem arty farty including using the scratched film stock effect Tarantino & Rodriguez's Grindhouse but its all so deathly dull and illogical that it would literally be more rewarding and entertaining to watch grass grow.

I like violent and gory movies as much as the next guy but here its just for the shock value AND it doesn't even do that well. I was simply bored and just wished for the movie to end. Thankfully, its just about an hour long but that hour seems really really long. Not a movie I would ever recommend to anybody.

A chubby misogynistic serial killer brutally kills a group of bound and gagged girls, reducing their remains to a red slop that he flushes down the loo. A female psycho despatches of her victims by repeatedly stabbing them in the crotch. These two sickos meet and discover that they have more in common than their love of killing: both of them have had their genitals mutilated, the guy's wiener just a stump, and the woman's holiest of holies sewn shut (and her nipples removed). The pair then stab each other. A lot.

If you've enjoyed extreme Japanese cinema such as Grotesque, Guinea Pig, All Night Long and Red Room, then Takashi Hirose's Brutal probably sounds like it will satisfy your hunger for more visceral violence, being an hour and seven minutes of unrelenting barbarity. Unfortunately, despite the virtually non-stop stabbiness with a smattering of blunt force trauma, the film is actually quite dull, failing to deliver the graphic nastiness that fans of Eastern excess no doubt crave. There's very little in the way of unsettling prosthetic gore effects -- just lots of unimpressive knife thrusting with plenty of blood splashed about. It all gets very repetitive, although the disfigured private parts are an eye-opener.

... yet very few cineastes will have the stomach to watch it from beginning to end.

No, it is not torture porn. Nor is it shlock in the grand western tradition of LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT.

It is a distinctly Japanese attempt to explore the nature of the relationship between men and women.

This is made crystal clear by seemingly random cutaways to a "too cute to live" teenage couple who talk earnestly about male-female relationships, while the real exposition of the topic is left to the central characters. Who say almost nothing. But actually show us the dark side of the topic by their actions.

Even when the film is trying to deliver a message that reflects life and love through situations and characters, that message is not fully grounded. It is very clear that the film has only 3 chapters, chapter 1 is man, chapter 2 is women and chapter 3 is man and women, the film shows the suffering of love between man and women by ugly, nakedly, it's shows hatred acts for not being loved (or being betrayed) or being not satisfied with desire. The message of the film will not be supported by people because of the lack of humanity, the character is also dirty in every action, it only shows like the animals who enjoy revenge in life or crazy animals who have lost their mind! This is not art! What is the meaning for homeless scenes by the way????