So, on to the second of our movie reviews ahead of the Paracinema all-night at Derby Film Festival, where on the 5th May Film Gutter have helped to curate a great evening of cult, extreme and trash cinema. There was an initial confusion in my part with this one in not quite realising that Black Devil Doll was something entirely different from the previously-reviewed Black Devil Doll From Hell (http://gingernutsofhorror.com/film-gutter/film-gutter-reviews-black-devil-doll-from-hell-1984), which was probably one of the most laughably bad but somehow likeable movies I've ever had the fortune to watch.

But no, Black Devil Doll is a much newer production, although I think it's fair to say there's a dose of inspiration taken from Chester Novell Turner's previous cult feature. The story here – and I use the term story liberally – follows a convicted rapist and murderer, Mubia, who at the moment of his execution manages to leap out of his own body and into the body of a puppet owned by young Heather. As you can imagine, Heather is pretty startled to see her puppet come to life, and even more so to find a supposedly dead criminal inside it. Still, what barrier should any of that provided to true love blossoming? Yes, it's not long before Mubia in his doll form and Heather are enjoying romantic picnics, meals and indeed plenty of sexy times if the montage is anything to go by. This heartily upsets Heather's obsessed ex, White-T, who seethes as he develops a plan for revenge.
 
But Mubia – being the convicted sex attacker that he is – isn't satisfied purely with Heather, so he somehow persuades her to get some of her friends round and get them drunk so that he can have sex with them too. Why Heather agrees to this I'm still not quite sure on, but it is what it is and it's not long before Heather's voluptuous crew are swinging by for a party, much to the delight of Mubia himself (one of my favourite scenes is the Doll gawping as the four girls gratuitously wash the car they arrived in). Heather welcomes the girls and makes her excuses, heading for McDonalds (and it is quite specifically McDonalds in a weird bit of product placement) while leaving the girls to Mubia's twisted desires.

What follows is a veritable orgy of blood, gore and puppet sex that takes up a huge chunk of the runtime, and admittedly is kind of fun its own sleazy, absurd way. I'm willing to predict right now that after I've served up two slices of utter darkness with Song of Solomon and Your Flesh, Your Curse, this one will absolutely go down a treat. It's ideally watched as a late night movie, potentially while more than a little drunk. There are not great pretensions here, and it doesn't really matter – this is flat out for fans of gore, nudity and puppet naughtiness, and if you like any of those things there's plenty to keep you going throughout here.

It's a difficult movie to rate, because although it is entertaining it's also complete and utter fluff that is unlikely to live very long in the memory. I suspect in time I'll be able to tell people: 'Oh yeah, Black Devil Doll was fun,' without really being able to pinpoint much more than that about it. The short runtime probably even feels a bit long for what is such a slim storyline, and is padded out with some weird business about fried chicken that pads out the credits. The effects are OK for purpose but certainly don't look all that realistic, and there are a number of scenes that feel as thought they run longer than they should have.

With all of the above said, this is a perfectly satisfactory piece of exploitative trash cinema, and if that's your bag then your liable to get some sort of kick out of it. And while it's no classic, it certainly whiled away a Saturday evening perfectly fine, and I suspect will be an ideal 'switch the brain off' movie in the wee hours to boot. So I'm giving this one a rating of 6.5/10.

 The Paracinema All-Night Takeover offers five extreme horror movies – including Black Devil Doll – as well as a host of 80s action movies, all for one great ticket price! For more information, visit https://www.derbyquad.co.uk/idfest/dff/dff-pc--the-all-night-paracinema-takeover--18-.aspx

You can also get a ticket to see Song of Solomon individually, which is the first movie in the all-nighter, at https://www.derbyquad.co.uk/idfest/dff/dff-pc--song-of-solomon--adv-18-.aspx

Fresh from the fabulous experience of Starburst Film Festival in Manchester, Film Gutter is going to have a small hand in another film fest this May, namely Derby Film Festival. The opening weekend of the event from 4th-7th May is the Paracinema weekend, celebrating and highlighting films from outside of the mainstream, and the 5th May sees a very exciting night for fans of extreme cinema, with five movies screening throughout the night at the Paracinema All-Night Takeover!

Over the next few weeks we’ll be bringing the focus to the movies on offer, which will include two we’ve already reviewed (and loved!) on these pages – Kasper Juhl’s stunning Your Flesh, Your Curse as well as the wild experience that is American Guinea Pig: Song of Solomon.

Which leaves us three very different movies indeed to look at – Ron Bonk’s She Kills, Jonathan Lewis’s Black Devil Doll and today’s focus, Guy’s fascinating short, Difficulty Breathing.

Now any of our regular readers will be aware that we dip our toes into Japanese cinema quite a bit, because it has a huge repertoire of movies to select from and a reputation for producing some of the darkest, most challenging and flat-out strangest movies out there. Difficulty Breathing is certainly a worthy entry to that pantheon – simply shot, and following a single unnamed female lead, this is a distilled tale of one woman’s descent into insanity.

In the opening we see her out on the street, but as she goes on her way she finds herself drawn back to dark memories of a rape that she suffered. Haunted by those events, she rushes back to the safety of her house – and only rarely for the rest of the movie does she ever leave it. As she begins to run out of food, and suspect she is pregnant as the result of her sexual attack, her mind begins to unravel and the darkness that she felt she could keep outside soon enough inveigles its way into her home…

There’s no doubt that Difficulty Breathing is film-making on a very small budget, but it is generally effectively done. The lead actress gives a strong performance and her fear and paranoia is believable from start to finish, and the camera angles are certainly interesting also – at times they get extremely up close and personal, which just adds to the discomfort for the viewer. There’s very little dialogue, but it’s not really necessary at all in a story focused on isolation and reclusion. You also have to give a tip of the hat to the sound design – the first thing that rolls across the screen is a message saying ‘Play Loud’ and that’s certainly a piece of advice worth heeding! There are lots of simple but clever little devices in play here that genuinely added an audio element to the horror.

For all that, there were a handful of reservations. The beginning of the movie is certainly a slow build, and it’s only really in the last 15 minutes that we begin to build a real head of steam – I wonder if it could have potentially been a touch shorter and tighter all things considered. Some of the effects don’t look all that great, although that’s a relatively minor quibble in a film that is much more about psychology. The ending felt a little abrupt to me as well, although to some audience members it might feel like the perfect fit. I felt like a bit more steering in that direction would have been beneficial personally though.
 
With all the above said, what you have here is certainly a worthwhile way to spend forty minutes, especially for those who love their extreme cinema dark, disorienting and a little abstract. In fact, that might just be three things that Japanese horror cinema does better than anyone…

RATING: 7/10. A movie with effective atmosphere, a good central performance and some well-chosen sounds and camera angles, Difficulty Breathing shows plenty to like and is likely to appeal to fans of Japanese horror in its wider sense. It’ll certainly be interesting to see what kind of reaction it gets in front of an audience!

The Paracinema All-Night Takeover offers five extreme horror movies as well as a host of 80s action movies, all for one great ticket price! For more information, visit The Derby Quad Website 

You can also get a ticket to see Song of Solomon individually, which is the first movie in the all-nighter, at Song of Solomon at The Derby Quad 

All through March we had the chance to focus on some movies from Unearthed Films, who have always been one of the leaders in the extreme horror field. Of late the company has continued to expand and grow, blazing a lot of exciting trails, and it has just announced its latest venture – the Unearthed Films Extreme Horror Channel on Vimeo.
 
For those of you unfamiliar with Vimeo, it's a video streaming service on which independent filmmakers can showcase their work across a wide range of genres, either for free, for rental or for you to buy. I've used it a number of times in the past – in fact it was the first place I saw the incredible Tras El Cristal – and always found that it runs like a dream.
 
What's especially exciting about the Unearthed Channel is that it allows the films to be presented in an uncensored and uncut format – something that is rarely achievable on other popular platforms, who shall remain nameless here. So if you want the full glory of the Unearthed back catalogue, then this is the place to get it.
 
There's a good amount to choose from to begin with, and lots more content – taking in both new films and bonus features – will be going live as time goes on. But here's a few recommendations from me to get you started...

Flowers: I lose track of how many times I have raved about this movie, and I'll basically evangelise for Phil Stevens' incredible feature at every chance I get. So here goes again – if you haven't found a way to watch this yet, you can rent is for about £3.50, and you should really treat yourself. This is a sinister experience in sepia, claustrophobic, nightmarish, darkly beautiful and all delivered without a single line of dialogue.

American Guinea Pig – Bloodshock: My personal favourite of the four so far, Bloodshock is a dystopian torture experiment in black and white. Using a host of subtle but clever effects to crank up tension, and with one of the most breathtaking finales I think I've ever seen, this is a tough watch in places but well worth the effort. The physical and psychological suffering depicted in the lead by Dan Ellis was a great factor in this movie working so well – be sure to check it out.
 
Collar: Ryan Nicholson's sleazy, grimy feature is wonderfully shot and tells the various tales of a completely dysfunctional and almost utterly unlikeable cast. A strong and unflinching vision of the darkness lying at the fringes of urban life, Collar catches something that fans of bleak cinema might well like.

Lung: It's that man Phil Stevens again! This is a sort of spiritual sequel to Flowers, if not necessarily bearing any direct resemblance, it follows much of the style and flavour of its predecessor whilst bringing something new to the table. This confusing and abstract journey of a man through a broken city – and his broken memories – is another wonderful offering for fans of arthouse with an extreme edge.

Madness of Many: Another very arthouse feature, this time from Danish director Kasper Juhl, MoM might not quite be up to the incredible standards of Your Flesh, Your Curse, but it is very good in its own right. This dark fable follows a young girl into the afterlife, showing us more of the suffering that she had to endure in life – often beautifully shot despite so much challenging, confronting content, I feel like this one marked the start of a really exciting phase in this director's output.

There's numerous films I'll be checking out myself – Dreaming Purple Neon and Lilith's Hell certainly stand out as ones I'm excited for – although recommending them pre-watching might be a bit too bold! However there's bound to be something for an fan of extreme horror, so it's worth checking out an parting with a few quid for some of the very best contemporary work in the field.

Just drop by https://vimeo.com/channels/unearthedfilmsextreme/ to see more!