The Mutilation Man

This is a good example of how NOT to make a film.

There is very little meaningful dialog, no context for the events, and constant cuts between seemingly unrelated scenes. The result is a confused, clueless viewer; the plot is absolutely impossible to follow and the ideas presented are meaningless without listening to the director's commentary.

This movie has a lot to do with human atrocity and tries to show how wrong it is, with an emphasis on child abuse. It includes some stock footage of real, horrible acts of violence, including war time executions. Although it works in the context of the movie, I feel that the ideas behind the movie could have been presented without resorting to such extreme content. This film is absolutely NOT for the weak stomached or the easily offended, and should not under any circumstances be shown to minors.

The climax is anti-climactic compared to the content of the rest of the movie. If you're not listening to the commentary while it happens you will probably miss it.

The director's commentary was a one-shot, "sit the guy down and let him talk, no cuts" type of commentary. While this isn't necessarily bad, the director ends up rambling a lot and often spends minutes at a time complaining about his college, filming conditions, co producers, bad film, and a dozen other things. The constant negativity detracts from what otherwise is an essential tool for understanding the movie.

The movie was shot many years ago on 16mm and Super8 film over a period of four years on an extremely low budget. Because of this, the video and audio quality is poor. That alone does not make it a bad movie, but it does make a bad movie worse.

Apparently, The Mutilation Man is about a guy who wanders the land performing shows of self-mutilation as a way of coping with his abusive childhood. I use the word 'apparently' because without listening to a director Andy Copp's commentary (which I didn't have available to me) or reading up on the film prior to watching, viewers won't have a clue what it is about.

Gorehounds and fans of extreme movies may be lured into watching The Mutilation Man with the promise of some harsh scenes of splatter and unsettling real-life footage, but unless they're also fond of pretentious, headache-inducing, experimental art-house cinema, they'll find this one a real chore to sit through.

82 minutes of ugly imagery accompanied by dis-chordant sound, terrible music and incomprehensible dialogue, this mind-numbingly awful drivel is the perfect way to test one's sanity: if you've still got all your marbles, you'll switch this rubbish off and watch something decent instead (I watched the whole thing, but am well aware that I'm completely barking!).

Andrew Copp, the director isn't unknown to me. This is his first attempt to make a movie. the first which means, no budget. Copp is known for his brutality used in his flicks. Here having almost no money he used stock footage of some nasty scene's to shock people from Vietnam, most I have seen earlier (brutal executions).

Be advised that the quality is very low because it was shot on super 8 and 16mm. There's a lot of gore for the geeks out there but I must warn you due the stock footage that this isn't for the weak of heart or people who are easily offended.

Some might say this is an art flick like Begotten (1990) because what you see is sometimes hard to understand. Yhe mutilation man himself is walking around naked full frontal so some might have trouble with the nudity. And the score doesn't make it easier to watch this sick flick.

Andrew Copp went further into other disturbing flicks. This is the most weird one. It's not for everybody but gorehounds should love this. But it's hard to sit through due the low quality and not actually having a story...child abuse looks the main theme to be.

Gore 3/5 Nudity 1,5/5 Effects 1,5/5 Story 1/5 Comedy 0/5

An Avent-garde nightmarish, extremely low-budget "film" that has delusions of grandeur. Hard to sit through. I get the message that child abuse is wrong. Wow big revelation. I had no clue it was wrong before viewing this. Yes that's sarcasm. DON'T watch this "film" if you're offended by nudity of either the male or female gender. DON'T watch it if you're the least bit squeamish. DON'T watch it if you care about acting. On second thought just DON'T watch it period.

My grade: D-

DVD Extras:making the movie , the premiere,interview with Kristie Bowersock, deleted scenes, movie stills, Director's commentary, 2 versions of the teaser trailer, music video by The Azoic, & a classroom video experiment

"The Mutilation Man" tells the story of a tormented young man named Ivan who travels a barren wasteland performing gruesome shows of self-mutilation before an adoring crowd.He is doing this in the desperate attempt to make sense of his past at the hands of his abusive and murderous alcoholic father.We later learn that his dad not only abused him,but also murdered his mother while Ivan was a kid.Andrew Copp's "The Mutialtion Man" is an utterly nihilistic and disturbing piece of experimental horror.The script deals with the themes of abuse and self-loathing and is truly thought-provoking.Still Copp's debut is pretty difficult to sit through as it features lots of extreme gore including genital mutilation and even cannibalism.Real death footage is also rather unsettling.However if you are a fan of surrealistic horror films give it a look.7 out of 10.