Guinea pig: Android of Notre Dame

"Android of Notre Dame" is a strange little film. This sci-fi / horror production is the truly bizarre tale of a mad, vertically challenged scientist and his dying sister. This film reminded me of what might happen if a bunch of horror fans stumbled across a disused "Doctor Who" studio from the '80s...the production was a combination of cheap sets, colourful lighting and gallons of very bright and otherworldly gore...just what the doctor ordered!

"Android" is definitely a hesitant recommendation but perhaps a necessary viewing for "Guinea Pig" completists and fans of alternative J-Horror.

I didn't exactly know what the hell was going on since I saw this in Japanese without subs, but from what I could piece together the plot involved a dwarf scientist trying to find a way to bring his dying girlfriend back to a healthy physical state. Along the way he does lots of bizarre and graphic experiments on naked women (and he always nods his head after doing *ANYTHING*) and holds some guy captive who apparently tried to sucker him out of a business deal. The movie was certainly interesting to watch, and as with the rest of the series the special effects were for the most part phenomenal; but it just wasn't as gritty, humorous, or disgusting as the other GUINEA PIG films. However, I still feel that it's a worthy effort.

This is actually part 3.Blame Thomas Weisser for his useful but highly innacurate Japanese Cinema Encyclopedia,this is where lots of mistakes like this originate.The first two entries (on Midnight Video) in this series are DEVIL'S EXPERIMENT and FLOWERS OF FLESH AND BLOOD.This entry (which is curiously also called GUINEA PIG 2 in Japan) is from a completely different video company (JHV).You can tell because this is where the series switched from thoughtful and detailed meditations on sadistic behaviour (although you'd have to be an idiot like Charlie Sheen to really think it's snuff) to camp gore comedies like this. Toshihiko Hino (who can be spotted as a torturer in the first ZERO WOMAN-not the one available on Japan Shock video as Zero Woman,that's actually ZERO WOMAN 2) is a dwarf scientist trying to find a cure for his terminally ill girlfriend.He experiments on naked women.Parts are funny,and it's easy to sit through at only 50 minutes.Director Kuramoto is also responsible for the first two SEX BEAST ON CAMPUS sequels

If you like Japanese horror, and there are many reasons why horror fans should, avoid this SOV piece of garbage. Not scary, not shocking, not entertaining. It does not make a horror film simply to throw lots of ketchup around and try to look gory. How this flic ever achieved a commercial release is a mystery to me.

None of the urban mythology surrounding some of the other Guinea Pig films applies to this one which is just a mad scientist tale involving quite a bit of gore. It does not resemble a snuff film in any way, nor is it supposed to appear to be anything more than a movie. The effects are visual amazing, but are not all that realistic, not that androids have ever been dissected before in reality.

It's only about an hour long and the production values are low, but still it might be worth tracking down. The story is interesting enough and deals with the ethics of killing someone to save another person's life.