Fetus

The opening credits for Fetus proudly state (twice) that it is 'A gore film by Brian Paulin'. Yup! That it most certainly is. The story definitely comes second to splattery excess in what is one seriously strange journey into the macabre. And it's directed by Brian Paulin.

The bare bones plot sees bereaved husband Kevin (Brian Paulin) resorting to necromancy to be reunited with his wife Sara (Nette Detroy). Purchasing an 'instruction manual' from his local Satanic corner shop, Kevin conducts a series of rituals with little success, but lots of mess, the magick requiring unwilling victims (or bits of them, at least). Eventually, Kev succeeds in bringing back Sara, who looks like she's suffered the same fate as that first baboon in Cronenberg's The Fly; even worse, he also summons a screeching demon at the same time.

This all sounds pretty straight forward, but Paulin's telling of his tale includes freakish dream sequences and surreal moments that make it a bit of a head-scratcher overall. But hey, this is, as the credits say, a gore film first and foremost, so let's put the narrative to one side and talk about the blood and guts, of which there is plenty...

The film opens with Sara in hospital, in labour, but the birth doesn't go well: the baby is born via C-section and Sara haemorrhages, bleeding to death. After a dry spell, during which Kevin becomes more and more depressed, sees something weird in the viewfinder of his camcorder (?), and visits the book shop, things get juicy again: Kev abducts two men and gets to work on them, cutting open one victim at the base of his skull and inserting a crowbar, and skinning the second (after bashing him in the face with a hammer). He uses these victims in his first unsuccessful ritual.

Desperate, Kev seeks help from the owner of the book store (Kevin Barbare), who tells him to take a hike. So Kevin abducts him and, in a scene that had me more than a bit confused, causes the man to cough up his guts and his face to explode. Extremely gory it is, but it don't make much sense. Now it's time for Paulin to get sleazy: Kev kidnaps a woman, jams a tube in her neck and bleeds her out, after which he indulges in a spot of necrophilia. This causes his junk to go all manky, and the corpse to give birth to some baby heads and a fetus (which he decapitates). Then the woman comes back to life and stabs herself in the crotch. I'm totally confused.

Finally, Kevin constructs some kind of strange device incorporating the baby heads, a round piece of metal, the woman's corpse, and a hazmat suit. This succeeds in bringing back Sara (but not how he remembered her) plus the demon. And for some reason, Kevin gives birth to a baby out of what is left of his penis. The film ends with the demon ripping off the top of Kevin's head.

The make-up effects, also by Paulin, are sometimes a little too messy for their own good, making it hard to see what is going on, and a few of the more ambitious prosthetic creations aren't totally convincing (the crying baby heads and the Sara thing), but Brian also pulls more than a few unsettling show-stoppers out of the bag, making the film an entertaining treat for those who dig practical effects of the ultra-gory variety.

6/10. An often confusing but very bloody ride for fans of low-budget splatter.

Lots of people hated both Fetus and Bone Sicknes, two movies from director Brian Paulin. Well, i like them both. Paulin delivers the goods in this two movies. Fetus is a non-stop bloody perverted low budget movie. Paulin is like an American version of ultra gore directors, his movies only objective are to show blood and gore and gross stuff. Thats what he promises and thats what he gave the people with Fetus (and Bone Sickness). Don't expect Oscar material performing or dialogs, this is low budget exploitation. One great highlight of the movie is the sound, its very well worked, the editing (image and sound) is really good and generates some good scares. Recommended for the gore fans.

This is a real bloody treat for you. And by bloody I mean bloody! This movie is damn near soaking in the stuff. But that's not all. There's some truly demented and depraved stuff going on in this beauty. If you are easily offended or squeamish, this is not the movie for you.

The plot is pretty simple, a man loses his loving wife during childbirth, along with his newborn baby. He falls into a deep depression and comes to the conclusion that he must bring her back from the dead, by any means necessary.

That's the general scope of it. The story is pretty plain, with relatively plain acting and sound effects to go with it. Also with this being shot on video, it looks so cheap most would probably dismiss it as rubbish before even giving it a chance. They would miss out though. Where this movie succeeds is in the special effects. Those were some astounding effects! Things were so bloody I was getting nauseous. Usually I find blood splatter fun and hilarious, but I was getting grossed out in this one. You gotta admire that reaction. So seldom do people get grossed out anymore with movies. But this is just disgusting. Never mind the gore, you got so many taboos broken it's insane. I don't want to spoil anything, but given the title, you know there's going to be some mistreating of a fetus. But that's not all. There is a truly demented scene towards the end that I will not spoil here, but if it doesn't leave you applauding, I don't know what will.

I'm going go out on a limb and guess many horror fans would not approve of this. But being the gore hound that I am, I found this little gem delightful.

You're wife and child die during child-birth. What do you do? Of course you visit your nearby Goth store and buy a witchcraft book so you can resurrect them. Dur!

Brian "I don't want to shave my head" Paulin is back again with another gore flick. After the ultra gory and ultra turdy Bone Sickness, I had a slight curiosity to see how his new horror flick would end up turning out. My main issues with Bone Sickness was that it was repetitive and boring. Unfortunately the same problems occur in Fetus. Scenes go on for far too long. This film should definitely have been a short instead of a feature. That's a f@ckin fact.

Honestly, there isn't anything very memorable in this one. In the other review on here the reviewer mentions some pretty cool stuff like a penis giving birth, some chick shooting her snatch away....honestly, even though these things sound cool, they really aren't. There's zero scares and anything remotely gory is so amateurish and sloppy the feeling towards anything extreme is more neutral than eye-opening.

For this guy, there isn't anything to really write home about. There's some okay nudity, some very average looking graphic gore, and.....yep, that's it. I really do hope that Paulin's next venture doesn't have him as the lead, and that he strictly focuses on the fx, since anyone who studied under Dick Smith should be pretty good. Unfortunately, this one is another lame duck, and it's strike two for Brian "My Mom says I'm handsome" Paulin. In the meantime, I'll go re-watch some classic Ittenbach.

I've now seen several gory horror movies by Brian Paulin, two of which I enjoy as much as vintage Lucio Fulci, Inside and even more than Olaf Ittenbach's best pieces (his nasty shot on video gore chambers, Black Past and The Burning Moon, rather than his ambitious, but often dull "big" movies).

I hope Mr. Paulin gets his due.

Certainly, the viewer needs to accept certain things that come with a micro budget labor of love like Fetus and undoubtedly some viewers want quickly-edited bloody action movies (28 Days Later and The Descent) rather than atmospheric isolated horror, which is my preference (eg. Rosemary's Baby, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Scarecrows, City of the Living Dead, Inside, Profondo Rosso, The Shout, Lost Highway). I imagine that if this piece (and Bone Sickness) were shot on film in the seventies and rediscovered now, they would be ubiquitously categorized as "essential cult."

((I don't have a problem with shot on video stuff (which this is), especially when the compositions and lightning are as thoughtful as they are here and i believe there is a some benefit to the extra visual information you get at 29.97 fps, a different level of reality, even if the image isn't quite as pretty. It's not better than film, but different with it's own quality.))

When comparing Fetus to Paulin's seemingly best known work, Bone Sickness, Fetus is altogether better realized-- the compositions, lighting, acting and effects are of a higher caliber-- but Fetus is less ambitious in terms of its scope. So Fetus is more professional and less flawed than Bone Sickness, but it does not reach as high or sustain its crescendo for nearly as long. I also appreciate the fact that Fetus is done in a completely serious way, rather than the jokey splatter of Jackson or Evil Dead II or Shaun of the Dead kind of stuff.

The music is strong, and in an older Giallo style, which helps the vibe. There are certainly some moments that confused me-- audio & effects ideas that didn't fully translate-- but this movie and Bone Sickness are the best shot on video horror movies I've seen, and they overachieve in so many departments (inventiveness, craziness, atmosphere, gore, etc.) that all the flaws are easily forgiven.

If you liked Ittenbach's Black Past & The Burning Moon, I recommend Fetus, which is a comparable chamber of gore, though Fetus is better written and photographed and is aided by a very good score. I look forward to more work by this driven and talented guy.