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.

Slasher with the difference being that there is a male and a female slasher who meet and slash away at each other until they learn the impetus for their deviance is their mutual genital mutilation which look too real to be disbelieved. I still can't get over it. This is indeed a brutal movie. I almost didn't watch all the way through but I'm so glad I did. It's original and cinema art.

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.

I must admit that I had more expectations and hopes for this movie, but director and writer Takashi Hirose just failed to properly deliver on those.

Sure, the movie is visceral and have some scenes that will probably be offensive to some viewers and unnerving to others, if not downright sickening. But this movie, and lets just be bluntly honest here, was nothing more than about an hour of a lack of storyline and just watching random violence and mutilation. Sure, it might sound like fun in theory, but trust me after 15 minutes, you will be ready to slither on to another movie, because "Brutal" got real repetitive really fast.

The special effects in the movie's three segments were adequate. But mind you, they are somewhat on the low budget side, so don't expect to be blown away by mutilation and mayhem that looks fantastic. The special effects serve their purpose, but they weren't dazzling or spectacular.

As for the acting in the movie, well let's just be kind and say you know what you will get here, with a movie such as this, for better or worse. The acting performances where not outstanding, nor memorable, but they served the lack of storyline well enough I suppose, to go hand-in-mutilated-hand.

The movie's selling point is, of course, actress Asami. And whom are you kidding if you say that you probably picked up the movie because of her. I did. Of course I did.

"Brutal" is a Japanese gorefest movie that came and went without leaving much of a dent in the horror genre. I managed to sit through the entire 67 minutes of playtime, but I can honestly say that I wasn't overly entertained or impressed. And I know for certain that this is not a movie that I will be watching a second time.

I am rating "Brutal" four out of ten stars.

As much as I abhor gore, torture and brutality I thought this a very arthouse flick. Great cinematography. Disgusting in nature and not pleasant to watch but worth it for a glimpse into an original style of film making.