Blimey, 2020? It's really rare that we get much chance to look at anything quite this recent at Film Gutter. Every single year when I do my Top 10 or Top 5 I have to remind everyone that it's for movies reviewed in the last 12 months, not released in the last year. I suppose even now this one would be too late for a 2021 top list, but it's nice to have the luxury of not delving back into the 2000s or earlier for a movie. And today's offering is Uncle Peckerhead, one of those movies that I came to knowing absolutely zilch about. It just looked interesting and fun when it popped up on Sky Cinema, and about in the Film Gutter ball park, so I stuck it on for a watch. And honestly, I'm pleased I did, because this one was pretty damn entertaining.

Uncle Peckerhead followed bandmates Judy, Max and Mel, who comprise the punk band Duh!, and they're desperately looking for a break. They finally get the chance to go on a mini-tour around their neck of the country, but sadly they don't have the money or the transport to do it. But in their search for a van to take on the road, they meet Peckerhead, a curious, enigmatic older gentleman who lives in his van and is more than pleased to take Duh! on their travels in search of fame and fortune. All sounds dandy so far, right? There is one slight catch – each night at midnight Peckerhead turns into a devouring, flesh-eating demon with an insatiable appetite. Granted, the phase only last for an unlucky thirteen minutes, but that's long enough for plenty of carnage. And of course, this does prove something of a problem for the band...

This one immediately wears its 80s influences on its sleeve, and the whole film is something of a throwback to that time – but certainly a fun one. The personalities of all the main characters were likeable, and their banter and back and forth was always pretty funny. The effects for when Peckerhead turns looked decent, and when we do see it there's enough blood to keep the gorehounds on board without being the most OTT I've ever seen. Strangely this is really quite a sweet story a lot of the way, with the band trying to help Peckerhead, who by day genuinely comes across as pleasant and supportive of the endeavours of the group, who all turn out to be his friends as the story wears on. It wouldn't be the most cutting or extreme movie we've ever looked at, but it does have this out-there feel and calls back to plenty of horror classic with its look and feel.

I'm no expert on punk – honestly metal has always been my scene – but the band sounds pretty good and it was nice to see them sort of winning the day in the end, as bittersweet as it ultimately was. They also have a rival band who sound horribly emo – though I might have my music terminology off – and their performance was a comedy highlight in here.

Ultimately everything about Uncle Peckerhead felt satisfying. The plot was really solid, the performances were effective and the comedy worked well, which is not always an easy thing to do in a movie like this which blends several elements. It's not an absolute revelation, but as an unusual and sometimes gory slice of quirky horror-comedy it hit all the right beats. I couldn't honestly find any great amount to quibble about without it really hitting the absolute highest of notes.

RATING: 8/10. It's nice to sit and watch something so new, and while it pays homage to the past it still feels fresh enough. It may not reinvent the wheel or break boundaries but if you are a fan of horror with a slightly lighter tone – while keeping some of those extravagant bloody flourishes – you ought to have a good time with Uncle Peckerhead. It might not be one that will stick with your forever, but it's a plenty fun way to while away an hour and half or so, and for that reason I'm giving this one an 8/10.

For all the movies from Japan we've been lucky enough to highlight here at Film Gutter, it's actually surprisingly rare that we've ever headed to the nearby shores of South Korea. In fact I think our only viewings from this country have been short films, but today's movie might do something to rectify that. We're bringing the focus now to The Butcher, an extreme horror offering that has a plenty nasty enough reputation to live up to. But will it justify the fuss that has come with it?

The movie itself follows two groups – a husband and wife couple unfortunately captured by three people looking to make a snuff movie, and the trio who have captured them in order to make their on-demand 'film' at the behest of a director who calls a number of times. The whole thing itself is about as grim and grimy as you could imagine, with the action being shot either on a handheld camera by the captors or cameras attached to helmets placed on the victims. I will certainly say the second is a nice touch of originality, and something I've not seen before, so I do give some props for that.

However that does mean the whole premise of the movie is a real double-edged sword – the production style and design makes it feel almost legitimately like the production of a snuff movie, probably closer than anything barring American Guinea Pig: Bouquet of Guts and Gore. The way the movie is shot does give it a certain sort of authenticity, but with the camera jolting and juddering around all the time it gave me a headache even at its short runtime. It also gives the whole thing a sense of absolute chaos, which is probably what the director was intending, but it is genuinely difficult to tell what's going on numerous times throughout. There's nobody to really care for or care about – the character development is far too rough and ready for that, and even the husband (as the person we come to follow in the main) feels fairly irredeemable by the end of it all. It's maybe a deliberate creative risk to play with that good guy/bad guy standard, but it doesn't land here.

There are some genuinely nasty moments – especially when the pig-masked third character enters the fray – but the first half hour or so doesn't really kick into any sort of full gear, which given the short runtime feels a bit egregious. Surely we could have got the ball rolling a bit sooner here, or maybe even cut the runtime? Even at 75 minutes it feels a little overlong for what it is, and I wonder if some of it was improvised because it meanders plenty. I think ultimately this was just too chaotic and too confusing to really get that much out of, and I couldn't really connect with any of the characters to hate them or feel sympathy for them, which severely hampered any emotional impact it was trying to have. If you are really into down and dirty, noisy and in your face horror this could be up your street, but this one didn't really cut it for me.


RATING: 5/10. I don't want to go too hard on this one, because I can respect and indeed understand what it is that the director was angling for here. There were little flourishes I liked along the way, but overall the unsteady camera made me feel a little nauseous and rendered a lot of the action really hard to comprehend. The acting wasn't bad – everyone who was captured certainly seemed to be plenty distressed throughout! – but I do feel like the people involved were maybe let down by the script and the overarching story here. This appears to be about the only work by this director, which is kind of a shame, because while this wasn't a slam dunk there were some flourishes here that suggested there could have been better going forward. For all the reservations I had, I do feel like other viewers might get more out of this one than I did, so I'll grade this one a down the middle 5/10.

It’s time for a deep delve into the VHS archive here, and a look back at a late 80s movie that took its cues from various other places – yes, it’s time for a look at The Rejuvenator. This one is not terribly well known, and has a little of the look and feel of something like Reanimator. But does this one live up to that standard? Well, let’s look a little deeper…

The Rejuvenator follows the story of scientist Dr Gregory Ashton, who is working on an exprimental serum to extend people’s lives, a sort of fountain of youth. They’re currently at the animal experimentation phase, and all seems to be going reasonably well. His main benefactor is aging actress Elizabeth Warren, who is funding his efforts in the desperate hope of getting back to her heyday and resurrect the acting career that made her so rich and famous. Early on in the movie, she delivers a stern ultimatum – either inject her with the serum as a live subject or she will withdraw her funding. Dr Gregory is unwilling, but decides that it’s all he can do to keep his project alive – and in fact the first injection of the serum seems to go incredibly well, with Elizabeth reverting back to her younger self and even a little splash of romance between our two leads (with classic 80s music to boot). But sadly the effect of the serum fades away all too quickly, and Elizabeth quickly devolves into a terrible monster. And with the constant risk of his test subject turning into a hideous creature, Gregory becomes ever more desperate to find more and more serum. But there is one running problem – the raw ingredient for the serum can only be found in human brain matter, and as Elizabeth needs more and more with her tolerance growing all the time, Gregory starts to resort to desperate measures…

The Rejuvenator absolutely screams late 80s in every frame, which I don’t really mind that much, and there are certainly things to like here. The acting performances are generally solid – if nothing particularly special – and the actual core concept is a fairly interesting one that has been explored many times in horror film before and since. And this is a reasonable exploration of the ideas of science going too far, and playing god, and what risks are you willing to take to advance the human species. The effects actually look reasonably decent – maybe apart from one or two little moments towards the end of the movie – and I think that most horror viewers would find this one perfectly likeable. I’ve seen better, no doubt, but it kept my attention and entertained me fine, so you can’t ask too much more than that.

There are some drawbacks, with all that said – one or two moments do lapse into cliché, especially with Gregory’s superior sniffing round his suspicious work that so many 80s movie villains liked to do. The assistant role is rather underplayed, and felt like a character you could certainly have done more with, and the same would go for Elizabeth’s butler Wilhelm. But on the whole it’s a nice neat and tidy horror movie that’s unlikely to rock your world but leave you reasonably satisfied by the same token.

RATING: 6/10. This one was fun enough in that distinctly late 80s way, doing many of the things that were pretty emblematic of horror in that time. It’s a decent example all told, and you will no doubt have seen plenty worse, especially if you’re a hardened fan of the genre. The story is solid and makes sense throughout, and has a strong concept at the heart of it that is explored well enough. There’s nothing really wrong anywhere with it – everything ranges from being OK to fairly good without any elements really verging into the great or excellent. I wouldn’t go out of my way to check it out, but this one certainly won’t ruin your evening if you decide to give it a watch. It may not be one to rejuvenate you, but it certainly won’t do you any harm to check this out either. 6/10 for this one all told.

Just to clarify – I am aware there is also a twelve minute version of this movie. This thirty minute version is from the Unearthed Films Vimeo page, where you can watch for free if you want to check it out after the review!

There’s something exciting – and perhaps a little daunting – about coming to a Film Gutter movie knowing nothing about it. It could be artsy, it could be an over-the-top b-movie, it could be an absolutely outrageous gorefest. And then again it could be something like Gerorisuto and fall dead centre in the ‘what the hell did I just watch’ camp. This one comes to us from acclaimed director Shinzo Fukui, probably best known for his neo-cyberpunk double-header of 946 Pinocchio and Rubber’s Lover. Of course, now I’ve conjured up those names I suppose I have to add those to the to be reviewed list. If you know anything about those films you’ll know Fukui is a pretty niche, cult sort of director, and this early short film pretty much shows all those traits. Admittedly he’s been rather quiet in more recent years, but this handful of movies alone cements him a special place in the hearts of many viewers.

So, what of Gerorisuto? The story itself – slim through it might be – follows a young, unnamed female protagonist who roams the streets of an unnamed Japanese city. She appears to be terrified of the camera throughout, which could taken effectively one of two ways – some have speculated that this is some kind of stalker following her, while it’s also conjectured that this might be some sort of supernatural force than only she can see and no-one around her is aware of. She plays up the fear and the terror of it quite well, but ultimately it explains very little and remains pretty hard to get to the bottom of. There are a few scenes on the underground, and some clips of our female lead accosting men on the streets – maybe actors, maybe real people – which make up around half of the running time. There are two other scenes that make up the movie – one with our lead buying some ice cream before spitting it out pretty grossly, and a second more infamous scene of her throwing up for about ten minutes. I gather in the 12 minute version this one lasts a few minutes – which is a quarter of even that runtime – but this one it takes up a third of the length, which is rather too much. Of course it’s hard to find any viewing pleasure in this scene – in fact it’s unsurprisingly hard to stomach, and brought me back to bad memories of the Vomit Gore Trilogy. *Shudder*

I’m not somebody who’s averse to movies being obtuse, or difficult, or requiring a fair wedge of interpretation. But for me there’s just not enough to latch onto here to really follow anything or to genuinely latch on emotionally to the singular main character. It just feels a bit too ‘art for art’s sake’ in this case. I’d also flag – and it might have been a computer glitch at my end – that the soundtrack seemed a bit out of sync, and went quite towards the finale, which did make it a little bit harder to connect with too. If you’re an absolutely completist of Japanese cult cinema, or a big fan of Fukui’s other work, you might find something to like here. Otherwise I think you can find better, even at this limited length.

RATING: 3/10. I couldn’t call this one complete bottom of the barrel, but it does have all the hallmarks of a director’s very early work and lacks the refinement that went towards Fukui’s work being so popular in later years. The idea is one that could have worked, but it just sort of meanders and goes nowhere ultimately, and is definitely held back by an egregiously long vomiting scene that doesn’t add anything. If you want to check it out, as I say, you can swing by the Unearthed Films Vimeo page and see it for free – as well as having plenty of other movies you can rent or buy.


By Alex Davis