Come on, could you resist a short film with a title like that? Whether or not it's inspired by the Cannibal Corpse track of the same name, it did immediately pique my interest. And the fact it's brought to you by Black Vomit films probably tells you we're wading into classic Film Gutter waters...
 
The movie itself follows the twisted Alexander, a serial killer and presumably our collector of dead human (although we never see the collection here per se). We open with him killing an unnamed female victim, with all the while a laughing man in a straitjacket giggling away maniacally. It soon becomes clear that this character, 'Madness', is one of three facets of Alexander's mind that are very much alive and real to him. Madness is joined by the gravel-voice and physically intimidating figure of Hate, and the alluring voice and form of Pleasure. It's actually a pretty effective device that gets used throughout – we've seen plenty of killers with the classic 'devil on their shoulder', but a killer with three demons all offering up individual ideas and suggestions? That can't end well. And it doesn't, as Alexander continues his spree by raping and tormenting another anonymous female victim before meeting his own end.

It's fair to say that you can't necessarily do a huge amount in 21 minutes, and indeed given when I saw here I think I could have gone for a feature film of this. There were enough interesting concepts and directorial panache from Fernando Rick that I think it could have sustained 70 or 80 minutes, maybe even more if we had delved into Alexander's history and backstory. But what it does in its alloted run time is pretty solid, and there were enough flashes of flair to lift this a bit above some of the tired old serial killer fare we often endure at Film Gutter. The whole thing was a slightly disorienting and discombobulating experience, which gave it an air of confusion very apt to the deranged mind of a serial killer. The performances on the whole were good, which each of the three 'demons' being really committed to what they are doing and Alexander himself being a sort of blank-eyed, dead-faced lackey to their foul desires (which are, of course, his foul desires).
 
It certainly has something of the look of a 70s slasher, and in no small part pays a homage to that sort of era and style. Some of the visuals almost felt lifted right out of that time, which is no criticism. It's a lively and lurid little piece that fans of gruesome serial killer pieces would probably get something out of, and certainly one that I did as well. If you were going to level a criticism it's that there's not really any message here, or anything much Dead Human Collection has to say – apart from maybe that a sense of destruction and violence can ultimately only lead inwards.
 
RATING: 7/10. A good offering in a subgenre that isn't always my favourite, Dead Human Collection isn't perfect but it has a certain energy and brashness that gives it something above many others. The acting works well, the mood is grim and sombre and the pace doesn't let up from start to finish. There's no particularly deep meaning, but even with that in mind it's likely to keep your eyes on the screen for its short runtime. I could have lived with more, but this solid 20 minutes will do just fine for 7/10.
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Extreme horror cinema is a broad church, and can take in movies that approach things in all sorts of ways. Some are flat out, balls to the wall gory, violent and exploitative. Other are quieter, subtler, depending much more on disturbing context, mood and atmosphere. For me, both can be equally effective, although I think the second may be harder to achieve. Blood, vomit and bodily fluids are more likely to be ‘universally’ disturbing – it’d hard to imagine anyone working their way through the Vomit Gore films without being perturbed by at least something, if not nearly everything. However a softer approach leading to a shocking finale can have every bit as much impact – the close of a movie like Megan is Missing will absolutely never leave me, and for an hour or more there’s nothing visually disturbing, just an uneasy mood. She Who Must Burn takes a similar approach, being monumentally uncomfortable viewing all the way through – anyone watching this movie will have that sense of watching an absolute car crash about about to unfold, and unfold it does.

The story follows two groups in a small American town, Angela and Mac and Jeremiah and his followers. Angela is a counsellor at the local abortion clinic (a minor criticism on that is that we never see a nurse, doctor or anyone more senior than her) and Mac works as deputy sheriff at the local police station. Jeremiah is your local church leader and tensions in the town are starting to grow as Angela has not only protesters outside her clinic but even outside her home. But things are going to take another step up as Jeremiah’s wife, Margaret, decides to leave him after a particularly brutal beating he inflicts when she says she’s on the pill. She goes to see Angela, who dispatches her to somewhere safe and what has been a bubbling conflict is about to explode in pretty spectacular fashion.

She Who Must Burn is certainly not flawless, but it has a fair amount going for it. For a while it’s hard to believe this kind of religious fundamentalism exists in modern America, although eventually it starts to sit a bit better and a look at the news would probably show this kind of thing does still exist in some places. The performances are generally pretty good, although the dialogue can be a bit too on-point. There are a few minor detail quibbles that individually don’t affect things that much, but when you roll them all together becoming a bit of an annoyance. Without trying to spoil too much, why you would just let a murder suspect go home is beyond me – surely no law enforcement in America would let that happen? It’s sort of explained but remains slightly infuriating.

For all the imperfections here, it remains a movie that really engaged me and I found pretty agitating and distressing – in the right way, if you see what I mean. I was shouting at my screen in absolute fury in a number of places, which is not an easy effect to achieve. It’s compelling viewing although it’s not hard to guess where it’s going – all the same, you simply can’t take your eyes off it. It’s car crash cinema pretty well delivered on a low budget, and I’d generally recommend it as worth a look – although if you’re particularly religious I can’t quite imagine how this would sit with you. It’s not got a great deal positive to say about Christianity, although it’s hard to think of a more extreme version of its proponents.

RATING: 7/10. There’s a lot good, and a few things that are not so good. It’s decently directed and imagined – although there are some scenes that look distinctly like stock footage – and the actors all do a pretty decent job. It held my attention strongly all the way through, despite being distinctly uncomfortable viewing at the same time. That’s always been an approach I’ve liked where it comes to films, and it’s decently done here. So this one earns a very respectable 7/10.

As we mentioned a few weeks back, Film Gutter had the pleasure of having a small hand in Derby Film Festival, particularly the Paracinema weekend exploring genre and off-mainstream cinema. And as you can imagine, despite being up all night on Saturday watching a host of extreme movies, there was plenty else to catch throughout the weekend, and it felt like a good idea to bring the focus to a couple of notable entries that might be of interest to our readers here at Film Gutter.

One of those features with an extreme flavour was Phobia, which I managed to clamber out of bed for on Sunday afternoon, and was rather glad I did. Brought together by Domiziano Christopharo – a growing name in the field without a doubt – this project brought together 14 international directors, all of whom were given a remit to explore a particular phobia in a variety of short films. I'm a well-documented lover of anthology films, so this one certainly had a special appeal to me personally. On top of that there were enough familiar up-and-coming names to draw me in as a viewer, especially Poison Rouge, who directed the absolutely watch-through-your-fingers nightmare that is American Guinea Pig: Sacrifice.

Like many anthology films, we kick off with our linking segment of a young lady watching the television and flicking through the channels, with a host of horrors being presented to her – our array of short films. Like many anthology films, what is presented to us feels rather hit and miss, some of which may of course be a matter of personal preference. The ultimate question for any movie in the subgenre is whether there is enough here to make it an interesting and worthwhile experience, and I would certainly say yes in this instance. Inevitably there are weaker segments here – the coprophobia (fear of feces) section unfortunately stands out as one of the poorer entries, being hamstrung by some unfortunate choices of visual effects. There were numerous other sections that were perfectly serviceable but in reviewing this one a few days later don't really linger in the memory.

With that said, there were a number of components here that do deserve some special praise – Lorenzo Zanoni's opener on chaetophobia (fear of hair) is a suitably sinister launching-off point with a great lead performance, mysophobia (fear of germs) is a gloriously – and dare I say expectedly! – bloody entry from Poison Rouge, Alessandro Redaelli's parthenophobia (fear of virgins) was a heartily entertaining offering and Rob Ulitski's gerascophobia (fear of ageing) was an interesting entry that took an unexpected and more subtle approach. However the standout here was Alessandro Giordani's astrophobia (fear of stars), a clever and well-developed entry that could easily have stood a much more substantial offering – it was certainly satisfying in its own right but it felt like it could have been a feature film in and of itself and been every bit as good.

If you have an interest in anthology films, and indeed extreme horror, then Phobia is generally a well-done feature that hits more often than it misses. There may well be a bit of discussion about personal favourites, likes and dislikes, but I think there's going to be plenty here for horror lovers to get stuck into. There is some real dark stuff, some brutality and gore, some flashes of humour and some of the quiet and understated too. It also uses the linking segment to deliver its finale, which I thought was a nice touch.

RATING: 7.5/10. The nature of the anthology film almost means that scoring a 9 or 10 is practically impossible, because it's made up of so many individual components that you can't absolutely love everything. With that said, I felt like of our fourteen here there were six very good installments, six perfectly fine installments and maybe a couple of duds, which isn't a bad strike rate at all. It's also very nicely done on a limited budget and is well worth a look for fans of the milieu – don't be afraid to check it out...

ROB ULITSKI ON 'GERASCOPHOBIA'

Alex: How did you come to be involved in 'Phobia'?
Rob: I came to be involved in 'Phobia' after working with Producer Sam Mason Bell on a previous, local anthology. He then introduced me to Domiziano over Facebook, and he invited me to create a segment. 
 
Alex: Your segment was on 'Gerascophobia' - fear of ageing. Was that your choice or a topic you were given?
 
Rob: We were given free rein with our Phobia choice. The only rule was to make sure there were no duplicates. The Fear of Ageing is something I've been interested in for a while, so I thought it would be the perfect theme for my segment. 
 
Alex: Was the idea for the segment something that came about quickly, or took a while to develop?
 
Rob: The basic idea came to me quickly, but the story in general took a few weeks to develop. I knew that I wouldn't have the budget to perform any ageing effects or special effects makeup, so I had to think of an idea that would represent the phobia but in a more creative and unusual way. By making the main character a wannabe model who feels like he has missed his opportunity, I had the ability to develop something I feel is quite relatable - we are all expected to look our best and overachieve at a young age, so perhaps the fear of ageing is something that is creeping up on us at a younger age.
 
Alex: 'Gerascophobia' was one of the more subtle and atmospheric portions of the movie - was that a deliberate choice, given there was some pretty extreme stuff elsewhere?
 
Rob: Whilst I had no idea of what the other filmmakers on the project were making, I knew that there were two ways to go about this idea. Either bloody and violent, or more subtle and psychological. I wanted to get creative with how I told my story, with the daydream sequences and the highly conceptual scenes, so I chose to go more subtle, and let the idea and visuals creep people out. So I wouldn't say it was a deliberate choice because of the film as a whole, but a deliberate choice because I knew I wanted to tell this story in a different way. 
 
Alex: How was it seeing the whole film put together as a final product?
 
Rob: It was an amazing experience. The QUAD is a great venue, and seeing it for the first time was a real ride. The filmmakers on the project vary in experience, but all of them have captured the spirit of the anthology, and I think it is a testament to the power of collaboration.