Chainsaw Scumfuck

I'm the same age as cult horror director Alex Chandon and like him I have had a fascination with gory films since I was a teenager. Unlike Alex, though, I only dreamt about making my own movies, never actually getting off my lazy arse to pick up a camera, which is precisely why I admire stuff like Chainsaw Scumf**k: it might be technically shoddy, suffering from terrible acting and lousy special effects, but at least it got made, and started Alex on a path which led to him directing a couple of proper films that are well worth any gore-hound's time (Cradle of Fear and Inbred).

Chainsaw Scumf**k is a 7-minute short in which a masked killer attacks some long-haired layabouts in their flat, using a pair of shears and a chainsaw to disembowel and hack off the limbs of his victims. The direction is ropey, the image quality very poor (do you remember how bad VHS actually was?), the editing choppy and the script almost non-existent. But it's there. On the interweb. For all time. Proof of Alex's love of gloriously gory horror way back when he was young.

This little oddity from the bowels of the UK tells the story of a chainsaw welding maniac as he breaks into the house of some teenagers just screwing around and ruins their good time; a fairly simple and generic concept that claims to have been influenced by The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

Given how brief it is, there isn't a lot to critique in terms of face value.

Plot: The premise is simple, and again, fairly generic for the decade and sub-genre of SOV. I have a feeling if this ended up being a 60 minute movie (at the very least) it could have had the potential to make a stronger impression.

Visual/Sound: In terms of technical aspects, they're not the best and sink to the bottom with others of the time like "The Bloody Video Horror That Made Me Puke on My Aunt Gertrude", "Nekro", and "Blood Lake"--especially the former. Visually, it can be a little hard to see how good the special effects could have been, and the sound is hard to make out.

Special Effects: This ties into the technical aspects of things. Because the lighting and quality of the film is gritty and tough, it's a little tough to make out the violence. You can see things as they happen, but the true "money shot" isn't clear. So if you want to get in on some true blood and guts action, you might not find it here.

Overall: If you want to watch a solid SOV with great acting, good sound quality, and "goregous" special effects, then this isn't the movie for you. However, if you're looking for something over the top ridiculous that doesn't take itself seriously, then check this one out. I know I had fun with it.

5/10

Chainsaw Scumfuck (1988)

*** (out of 4)

If you're expecting some sort of high art film then it's best that you don't even consider watching this short film from Alex Chandon. A brief history will help you with this film. It was made during a time that the BBFC was pretty much trying to put a ban on gore and horror movies so the director, obviously a fan of the genre, decided to give a very big middle finger to the censors. The story here is quite simple as a couple friends are sitting around when a maniac breaks in and begins slaughtering them.

This amateur film isn't going to win any Oscars but it's fun for what it is. The low-budget is rather obvious and it adds to the film's charm. It certainly works when you know the history behind it and you can't help but cheer on the rather obvious special effects that were just designed to show gore and upset certain "normal" people who felt they were better than the horror genre. At just 7 minutes it's certainly worth watching.

This one of the very first (if not THE first) films by Alex Chandon, director of Bad Karma and Drillbit, two enjoyable SOV splatter flicks, as well as the feature length films Cradle of Fear and Inbred, which I have yet to see.

The "plot" of Chainsaw Scumf*ck is simple, some guys are hanging out in their apartment, somebody rings the doorbell, one of the guys answers the door and finds out that somebody is a masked maniac who wants to kill them all.

Being that it's shot with a 1980's home video camera, the video and sound quality are terrible. Shots are often very blurry, especially during the gore scenes, which makes it difficult to tell what's being cut up.

By regular standards, this is a terrible film, as it's basically just some friends goofing around with a camera, but can be enjoyed for what it is as long as you don't expect anything more than some friends goofing around with a camera.

Now I usually don't write reviews for films like this, but I just wanted to bring up that I am impressed by this film's visuals. It is pure 80s cheese with a dark feeling when you watch it. Enter Chainsaw Scumfuck, a movie with no plot, but who cares? It's all gore and bloody short as well. A man with a chainsaw killing off random people with shaky camera movements, yep, this is a perfect example of what true Shot On Video films used to be, since all the modern ones went mainstream and focused much on the nudity. This film has all, it's from the director of Bad Karma and Drillbit, which are not so bad short films with decent special effects and cool camera angles. This short will bring up all the laughs and wonders cause it is just so good. I like the music in this as well. Remember other Shot On Video films where they had metal music for their films?