Horrible

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.

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.

Absurd - 1981 ( This Film Rates a C ) A man with an unusual cerebral mass has the power to regenerate dead cells. He is virtually immortal, insane and a "blood thirsty beast". Of course there is that one and only secret way to stop him. The gore and effects are fake looking but several of the kills are brutal and intense. The script is poor, the transition between scenes is poor, highlighted with terrible and unconvincing acting through out the entire film. The officer in this film has a cigarette in every sequence he is in, hell, everyone in this film smokes. The soundtrack has some really spectacular moments, a good example is at the 44:16 mark. Sadly the scare tactic during this scene completely deflated with the randomness of the bearded guy. There are several other scare tactics that were hokey and just didn't work. Overall there is enough "absurd" to keep this fairly entertaining, but ultimately it cannot overcome its consistent failings.

Joe D'Amato's "Rosso Sangue" aka. "Absurd" of 1981 is sometimes named a sequel to D'Amato's shocking highlight "Antropophagus" of 1980. This is not really true, as while both films star George Eastman as the vicious villain, and both films are extremely gory, the story lines have nothing at all to do with each other. I loved "Antropophagus", which is not only tremendously gory, shocking and disturbing, but also scary as hell. I also enjoyed "Rosso Sangue", but it is not nearly a great as its aforementioned predecessor. The film is, once again extremely gory, and exploitation-icon George Eastman is once again predestined for the role, but the film is not nearly as scary as "Antropophagus", and neither is it anywhere near as shocking. A small town is infested by a genetically mutated man (Eastman), who has the urge to brutally murder everybody he sees, as a result of a nuclear experiment gone wrong. Not only does he have the urge to murder, however, his mutations also made him very strong and immune to injuries... The film's main qualities are the great score, the extreme gore, and George Eastman. The huge Eastman really is one intimidating fellow, who always fits in his mostly sardonic roles. His greatest moments were Mario Bava's 1974 masterpiece "Cani Arrabiati" ("Rabid Dogs"), and "Antropophagus", but Eastman truly is an enrichment to any of the films he starred in, and "Absurd" is no exception. While he is not quite as scary-looking as in "Antropophagus" here, Eastman single-handedly carries the film with his maniacal performance. The other performances are quite forgettable, but this is not really of any importance. Overall, this is not nearly as great as "Antropophagus", but it is definitely a film that any fan of the very brutal kind of Horror/Exploitataion should enjoy. Recommended to my fellow Italian Horror buffs.

While I've seen over a dozen of Joe D'Amato's films, this was my first foray into his horror films (unless you count Emanuelle and the Last Cannibals, and his Caribbean Horror/Porns, which I have seen.)

For the first half of the movie I wasn't that impressed. But, the second half was relentless, suspenseful, brutal and agonizing. I've seen hundreds of horror/gore/splatter/slasher films, but the infamous 'oven scene' (which I won't spoil) had me literally covering my mouth to keep from making too much noise.

The rampage of the second act works well because the horror comes from the THOUGHT of what is happening, rather than the more visceral deaths of the first half. There is blood and gore, to be sure, but Joe D'Amato shows a modicum of restraint, letting the suspense build in a way it was unable to in the first act.

So, if you decide to give this film a try, and I hope you will, stick with it. Not only does the film really get going in the second half, the final shot of the film has to be one of the most unexpected, shocking and unexpected moments I've ever seen.