Sickcess

First of all, no one except people below the age of 15 and right wing Christians will ever be scarred of Dani Filth. So a movie with him as the main villain will have that against it from the beginning. But apart from that this is a fun, gory, flawed B-movie.

Considering the opening line of this review, you will probably guess that I'm not a big Cralde of Filth fan. I listen to them maybe once a year or so, but there are much more interesting black metal out there by far, and far more interesting artists.

The movie is basically an anthology consisting of four segments linked together by a main story about a hypnotist serial killer occultist at a mental asylum, taking his revenge on the people responsible for his incarceration through occult means and with the help of the character played by Dani Filth.

I was 19 when this movie came out and I watched it almost immediately. Back then I really liked CoF, even though I would not say I was a fan then either. I would also say that I still think the uncensored version of "From cradle to enslave" is a really neat music video. The point of this is that a movie which CoF are involved in comes with certain expectations when it comes to gore and nudity. And here the movie delivers. I remember that I liked the movie back then and when I re-watched it yesterday I still liked it, even though I have changed my opinion about the band.

The movie is very heavy on the gore, contains some nudity and the gore looks rather good for the most part, considering this is a low budget movie. The acting is not good but not terrible either, the music is okay and naturally features songs by CoF, even though there are only two and I think also one intro song to one of their albums. In spite of its cheesiness, the movie also many times manages to get the mood right and although I find it too long it never really gets boring. The main story and the stories of the segments aren't that bad either. There are some really bad effects though, but they are not the gory ones. There are some car scenes with for example a car crash, which I had a hard time telling how it was made, only that it really looked fake. Like the car was cut into the scene in some really weird way.

I honestly don't see how you could expect more than a cheesy movie with a lot of gore and nudity from this one. And this is what you get. I really have a hard time seeing how anyone can be disappointed by it. I think that maybe, at least with some individuals, some movies you are just not supposed to like if you are a certain type of person. That is of course not to say that people can't have legitimate reasons for disliking this movie. That is why I said "some individuals."

So was this movie worth the wait? Not really, but still fun to watch.

So, college kids travels to the Peru jungle to expose a corporation trying to force away natives from their land. They end up crashing with their plane and captured by cannibals.

The movie starts off slow but has an acceptable back story so it's okay. When the gore finally starts we get some nasty stuff, but it could have definitely been more. I would have particularly liked to see some more tributes to the kind of gore portrayed in Cannibal Holocaust. And honestly, even though it's always fun seeing people getting slaughtered no matter what sex they are, I would have liked to see some more graphic butchering of females. I'm not a misogynist (and not a feminist either), but come on, this is what we all want to see when we watch a movie like this one.

The make up could have honestly been better. I think they over did it. The actors playing cannibals looks very much just like that - actors playing cannibals. Deodato and Lenzi managed to do much better with much less. Some of the scenes were difficult to make sense of, like the scene where the kids are fed by the cannibals. But I won't go into detail of this since that would be a spoiler. There was some cynical social commentary which I personally liked, which also was present in the films this one payed homage to.

All in all, far from Roth's best and really over-hyped. But still an entertaining movie with some nice gore scenes. Know what to expect and you won't be that disappointed.

Nazis, nudity, homosexuality, rape, bestiality, gerontophilia (it's when you are relatively young and like to have sex with old people), sadomasochism, sexism, sexual violence, plenty of gore and politically incorrect jokes. Well, it even has some gerontophile Nazi homosexuality and some weird social commentary. And I have probably forgotten something. Also the killings of women are very sexist.

The plot goes something like this: A journalist tries to find his partner and teams up with a former detective. The partner got killed by a Nazi cult when they stumbled onto one of the cults rituals and the journalist got knocked unconscious. While looking for the partner they stumble onto something bigger, namely that the Nazi cult is after some kind of occult spear with which they hope to resurrect Hitler and the third Reich or something like that.

Of course you can't judge this kind of movie by the same standards as a Hollywood-film. I would say with a budget of 6000£, the fx of this film is outstanding. Honestly, the gore is great and outranks many movies with 20 times the budget of this one. And I really want to stress this: considering the budget, this movie is a real accomplishment.

Also, the acting is quite OK for a low budget movie. I mean, of course it sucks, but the characters manages to be funny and I really don't think you can expect more than that.

The soundtrack is sometimes extremely funny, mainly when it consists of perky old-school pop (not sure if it actually is pop, but it sound popisch, perky and 1950s old anyway). The soundtrack actually made me laugh out loud a couple of times. Especially look out for the song in the bestiality scene. Make sure you listen to the lyrics.

If I should complain about something, it is that this film is too long. Many scenes could have been shortened considerably without loosing anything, so much that it would probably not have had to be longer than maybe 1:20. Low budget gore also generally works better if it's a little shorter.

Also, the sometimes coarse accent would have called for some subtitles, especially because the dialog is most of the time really funny if one manage to follow it. So Shane Mathers, if you by any chance read this review, for the next project after "Terror nation", please make it a little shorter and ad some subtitles, in case you're still using actors with coarse accent. Other than that, keep up the good work!

And finally, of course this movie is not for everyone. If you haven't seen any low budget gore before, if you don't like the genre or have a weak stomach, chances are you won't like this movie. Or if you are a politically correct douche bag that feels like taking a dump every time someone tells a racist or sexist joke, you will probably hate it (and this review, since you think I'm being ignorant and intolerant of your relation towards your opinions, and your need to take them deadly serious or something like that). But if you are not snobbish when it comes to budget and you have a sense of humor, you will probably love it. And to be clear, the point of having racist or sexist jokes is of course not to make a serious statement, but to offend. So if you've gotten offended, well... mission accomplished!

I would also recommend not being completely sober when you watch it. You don't have to be drunk (or stoned if that is what you prefer) out of your mind. But a little buzz will surely enhance the experience.