Blog Archives

The Beast in Heat (AKA Hell Camp) (1977)

23/6/2016

FILM GUTTER

Come on in, the water's sizzling...

The Beast in Heat (AKA Hell Camp) (1977)
Dir. Luigi Batzella (as Ivan Kathansky), Italy, 86 mins

Hooray! It's Nazispolitation time!

Some of you might be wondering 'what the hell is Nazosploitation', so to answer that before we go further this is a subgenre of extreme horror offering films set in Nazi Germany, often centred on bizarre and disturbing experiments or torture techniques in SS camps. If you go looking, you'll actually be surprised how popular this niche was – Ilsa, She-Wolf of the SS and The Gestapo's Last Orgy are a couple of the most prominent examples. And from any of these movies you can expect a good smattering of gore, plenty of nudity and lots of actors and actresses giving their best dastardly and sinister efforts.

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Baskin (2015)

20/6/2016

FILM GUTTER
Come on in, the water's delirious...

Baskin (2015)
Dir. Can Evrenol, Turkey, 97 mins

Well here's a movie that has had its fair amount of hype. The trailer looked really interesting, and I've always had a great fondness for international horror – old favourites from these pages have included the French Martyrs, Germany's Cannibal, Australia's The Loved Ones and plenty more besides. But most of the horror movies that have come with a fair amount of pre-release excitement have been deep disappointments – It Follows, The Witch and The Green Inferno have all fallen below 5/10 for me. So I come to Baskin, a recent Turkish horror feature that has received a great reception around the horror circuit and hits UK VOD from this Friday, 24th June.

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BEYOND THE MADNESS (OLTRE LA FOLLIA) (2016)

16/6/2016

FILM GUTTER

COME ON IN, THE WATER'S SICKENING...

Beyond the Madness (Oltre la Follia) (2016)
Dir. L. Atomico Italy, 61 minutes

Most of the time, when I've watched a movie, I'm pretty quick to get to the review because I find it useful to bottle those initial thoughts and reaction. There's also the chance I might forget some of the details, so it's good in that respect too.

I watched Beyond the Madness four nights ago and I've been debating since how, or even if, I can review this. It's the first 'adult' horror film we've looked at, for a start, but of course this is Film Gutter so we've gone far outside the usual boundaries of the genre.

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FILM GUTTER: UNRATED: THE MOVIE (2009)

9/6/2016

FILM GUTTER

Come on in, the water's terrible...

UNRATED: THE MOVIE (2009)

Dir. Tio Rose and Andreas Schnaas, Germany, 81 mins

There are many respects in which I consider myself blessed with Film Gutter, and one of the main reasons for that is that I very rarely encounter any bad films. Sure, there are plenty that are brutally hard to watch, but its seldom I get to the end and think 'what a letdown'. The unbearable Chaos is the only film I've ever given 0/10, and most do sneak above the average of 5. I've even had to award a few tens to those most wonderful offerings from the past 18 months.

But I'm afraid that Unrated is not one of those – in fact, it will be joining Chaos in that exclsuive club of scoring 0/10. This is a movie that I would award minus points if I could. Now, I'm aware it might sound like I'm being too harsh here – it's a low-budget movie, so there are of course limitations to what can be done. But directors using a tiny budget creatuvely can do fantastic things – this cost about the same as Phil Stevens' remarkable Flowers, so I'm not willing to let this movie off too lightly.

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THE LOVED ONES (2009) DIR. SEAN BYRNE

2/6/2016

FILM GUTTER Come on in,

the water's embracing...

The Loved Ones (2009)

Dir. Sean Byrne, Australia, 84 mins

We're off the Australia once again – quite a jaunt from here in the UK, but thankfully the world of film makes everything smaller, closer and easier to find. This one is also a rewatch – I actually rented this originally from Blockbuster Video (remember those, anyone?) and when it rolled around on the Horror Channel here in the UK I couldn't resist taking another look. I had fond memories of this as truly twisted fun, and on second viewing it certainly lived up to my recollection. The Loved Ones is out there – pretty way out there – but it's probably one of the extreme horror movies that has made me smile the most. It also – I only realised this time around – starred Robin McLeavy, who was recently in Backtrack and Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, and an actress I'm sure we'll be seeing more of in the future.

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The Beast in Heat (AKA Hell Camp) (1977)

​FILM GUTTER​Come on in, the water's sizzling...

Baskin (2015)

​FILM GUTTERCome on in, the water's delirious...

BEYOND THE MADNESS (OLTRE LA FOLLIA) (2016)

FILM GUTTER​COME ON IN, THE WATER'S SICKENING...

Beyond the Madness (Oltre la Follia) (2016)Dir. L. Atomico Italy, 61 minutes

FILM GUTTER: UNRATED: THE MOVIE (2009)

FILM GUTTERCome on in, the water's terrible...UNRATED: THE MOVIE (2009)Dir. Tio Rose and Andreas Schnaas, Germany, 81 mins

THE LOVED ONES (2009) DIR. SEAN BYRNE

FILM GUTTER Come on in, the water's embracing... The Loved Ones (2009) Dir. Sean Byrne, Australia, 84 mins

Archives

FILM GUTTER

Come on in, the water's sizzling...

FILM GUTTER
Come on in, the water's delirious...

FILM GUTTER

COME ON IN, THE WATER'S SICKENING...

Beyond the Madness (Oltre la Follia) (2016)
Dir. L. Atomico Italy, 61 minutes

FILM GUTTER

Come on in, the water's terrible...

UNRATED: THE MOVIE (2009)

Dir. Tio Rose and Andreas Schnaas, Germany, 81 mins

FILM GUTTER Come on in,

the water's embracing...

The Loved Ones (2009)

Dir. Sean Byrne, Australia, 84 mins