August Underground

I am not sure this would be classified as a 'true' horror movie. Instead, the horror in this movie lies in the fact that it is something 'new'; the somewhat of a shock you get because everything is so unexpected. For example, you are afraid of bugs, they are ugly and disgusting – Now imagine this bug in a different form. Maybe it has a different color and makes weird noises. You will remember this bug because it is so different, and the difference from other bugs you are used to makes it even more disgusting. This is how I would describe this movie.

The two main protagonists seem to consider themselves to be at the top of the food chain; the world is their playground and the people in it are there solely to be used for entertainment. The protagonists do everything in a really nonchalant way, and regardless of how friendly others are towards them, they always see them as objects rather than people. This is the biggest reason why I raised my eyebrows, and questions like 'What are they doing, and why?' popped up in my head.

At first, I was not really sure I wanted to watch this movie, because of what people said about it and how extreme it is. In all honesty, the movie is not that brutal and chaotic as I expected. The pure violence portrayed in this movie is not as out of this world as someone might expect. We are so desensitized to this type of extreme violence nowadays that we get to see hammers, chainsaws and axes being used to chop off this and that even in mainstream Hollywood movies. It is not the visual violence that is disturbing in August Underground, but the concept of it and the atmosphere. It is more connected to the real world than in other movies, and the fact that this actually can happen (and probably has) in the real world, together with the previously mentioned attributes makes this movie quite unique and disturbing in a way we rarely see.

This might be the second worst thing to happen in 2001

From the plot summary, you might think that August Underground might be like a heinously gory version of the Belgian semi-classic 'Man Bites Dog', but you'd be wrong as August Underground is nowhere near that good. The film apparently has the intention of being a phony snuff film, and indeed the violence looks graphic and realistic, but it's all really cold and pointless. There is a sex scene at the end of this film that really sums it all up; it's about as far from being erotic as it gets, so it's extremely difficult to get involved with it, and the same goes for the violence. Violence that is simply shown gives the audience no reason to care, and so overall; the film is really rather boring. There has been a slew of direct to video trash films like this one over the last few years, and despite the fact that August Underground seems to be reputed to be one of the better ones; it really isn't. The only good thing I can think to say about it is that director Fred Vogel succeeds in creating a home video style look to the film through the use of a hand-held camera; but like the worst film ever made, The Blair Witch Project, this really only makes it so that the audience can't always see what's going on; which only succeeds in being irritating. Overall, I can't really recommend this film. I'm a fan of sick filth, but it didn't do anything for me. I'd recommend seeing something else instead.

This camcorder tape cant even be classified horror, and would be an insult to the outstanding horror directors to have it labeled as such. It is the result of two very sick and twisted depraved examples of individuals who think they can be the next Blair Witch producers. Nothing is further from the truth. It is a fine basis for them being able to commit a heinous crime and be able to present a defense of INSANITY. It would appear similar to the result of two freaked out, doped up teenagers who would next think of attempting to simulate the Columbine incident. I have viewed most of the top listed horror or disgusting films and would not even consider this to be in the running. As I started my comments, this is not even a film. And I would not give it the satisfaction of being something worth rating. I listed it as 1/10 because that is the least one can to to proceed with their comments.

It don't even fall in the category of the Guinea Pig series. Those can be seen for what they are. This is nothing.

what exactly is the point of this movie?

I just watched a little of it, and at first I was obviously disgusted. It's not hard for me to believe people watch stuff this extreme, but I at least would like to know what the point is. It wasn't even entertaining or scary, just disgusting. The director might as well try making real snuff films. It's obviously his real passion. Another question would be why exactly there's a minimum of 10 lines to a comment. I hate reading long comments anyway. But anyway, I guess i see films like hostel and the saw movies and I thought that was extreme, and then there is underground stuff like this going on. Sooner or later there will end up being real victims in movies. I mean honestly where can they go from here? I guess we all do wanna see things that disgust us and scare us to some degree that cant be denied, but I mean how far are we willing to go?