Rosso sangue

MONSTER HUNTER is the HALLOWEEN-esque 'sequel' to 1981's insomniac's dream ANTHROPOPHAGOUS. This time around D'Amato brings to us a sense of pace, making Monster Hunter much more enjoyable. The added gore (including an ultra-torturous scene involving an oven) and cool electronic music score is a nice bonus (I caught some music from PIECES in here as well...cool). The story (or lack thereof) brings back George Eastman as our favorite cannibal, this time not on a Greek island, but somewhere in the US being hunted by a priest (of all people). During this, he somehow manages to spill his guts (again, but does not eat them) on an iron fence outside a house. Eastman is taken to a nearby hospital. There, he recovers, kills the doctor (gorily too I might say), hacks up a few others and then returns to the house where he had his 'accident', and proceeds to stalk the babysitter and kids residing there. A bit boring at times (aren't all these italo-gore flix?) but Eastman's presence is over powering and the end involving a 'vegetable' overcoming her disabilities to face the beast is fairly ironic.

I just managed to sit through "Rosso Sangue" aka "Absurd" aka "Antropophagus II" aka "Horrible" (add to those about 10 other aka-titles -- surely this should already tell you we're not dealing with an excellent picture here).

So D'Amato delivers a straight-up horror movie this time. Is it any good? Barely. It is a relaxing film, though. Because between the handful moments of gore, you'll have plenty of time to doze off & catch a nap since there's hardly anything going on.

The mighty George Eastman wrote the script and I'm sure it must have read a little something like this when he handed it over to his buddy D'Amato: "I say nothing in this film, I'm indestructible and I kill everybody". Now you just figure out how to turn this into a movie, Joe.

And so did Joe, being the talented man that he is. Also, some distributors tried to market this as a sequel to D'Amato's "Antropophagus" aka "The Grim Reaper". But it's not. Just because Eastman looses his intestines again in this film, doesn't make it a sequel.

D'Amato pretty much turned it into a plain slasher flick. In a way, "Absurd" is like John Carpenter's "Halloween", only with Eastman's evil bearded face to scare you instead of a masked Michael Myers and without the likable Jamie Lee Curtis to root for. Eastman escapes a hospital, kills his way through a whole town, eventually ending up in some house to do some more killing. All this while a priest & a cop are on his trail, blabbering on about Eastman's character being some ultimate creature of evil. So, it's more or less the same movie. Plus, it's a lot worse too, of course. Still, as far as slashers go, there are also a lot worse out there.

Now I was under the impression that this was supposedly one of the goriest & most demented horror efforts ever to come out of Italy. Sadly, it's not all that exciting. There's a handful of gory scenes, yes (drill through the head, saw through the head, etc.) and they are amusing to watch, but nothing we haven't seen before. All the rest of the film, is just plain dullness I'm afraid. The climax features a blinded Eastman (his eyes stabbed out) versus a physically disabled teenage girl. You can imagine how exciting them two stumbling about in a darkened mansion turns out to be. The ending tries to be shocking, but it's basically just a happy end.

I remember once being impressed with "Beyond The Darkness" aka "Buio Omega". Maybe I should re-watch it to see if it still holds up well, because D'Amato is rapidly loosing some filmmaker credit with the stuff I've recently seen by him.

A priest is pursuing a madman who,the victim of a genetic experiment,has become a homicidal killer with blood that coagulates very quickly,making him virtually indestructible.The killer goes on the rampage in a small town.This ultra-gory sequel to Joe D'Amato's "Antropophagus" is very slow and boring at times but has also some creepy moments plus plenty of very strong violence and gore.The bandsaw killing is ten times nastier than the similar drill scene in Lucio Fulci's "City of the Living Dead".The gore flows freely resulting in a film that is simultaneously repellent and extremely funny.Highly recommended.

Luigi Montefiori aka George Eastman is definitely one of the scariest movie villains I've ever seen. His sheer size alone just makes him creepy. He obviously doesn't mind being violent; it seems to come naturally to him. If you've ever seen Bava's "Rabid Dogs," you should know what I mean. His role in "Rosso Sangue" is no exception. He delivers the goods here.

Transformed into an unstoppable machine by an experiment gone awry, the bad guy makes his way through the countryside in search of his next victim. His next victim is basically anyone who gets in his way. He eventually lands at the home of a family and stalks them down.

For the gorehounds, there will be a lot to love here. The scene with the band saw was sweet. For the lovers of Italian shock, there will be little we haven't seen before, but it is still worth a viewing.

Ultimiately, this one could have been as triumphant as "Buio Omega" if there had been a few added killings. There are really only a handful. I wish there had been twice as many. I would have given this one at least a nine.

Aficionados of Italian horror soundtracks will recognize a few of the tunes from other flicks.

Worthy of a viewing for fans of D'Amato. Also recommend, if you like this one: "Tenebre," "Anthropophagus: The Grim Reaper," and of course "Beyond the Darkness." 7 out of 10, kids.

I first saw this in the mid 80s on a vhs. Revisited it recently on YouTube. The quality is fine n it is totally uncut. Eastman once again plays a killer but this time he ain't no cannibal but a product of scientific experiment gone wrong in which he turns into an invincible nutjob who can heal itself n somehow makes weird snorting voices towards the end. Compared to Anthropophagus, this film is fast paced with lots of gory kills. Comparison to Halloween is inevitable, acting n editing wise it is horrendous. The short hair blonde is cute but her death sequence is terrifying. The nurse's drill scene made me squirm.