It’s strange in a way that we have a globetrotting series such as Film Gutter that so rarely gives a chance to actually look at a film from these shores. In four years and nearly 200 reviews I’m pretty confident I can count the British films that we’ve reviewed on one hand – I can recall some good examples in the likes of The Lesson and Feed The Black, as well as our recent review of short film Stuck – so it’s nice to have the chance to spotlight something from these shores.

Oppression comes to us from Capture That films, and is solidly described as an ‘arthouse horror’ – I’m sure trying to pare down the actual meaning of that could be an article in and of itself, but it’s pretty apparent this is a short film trying to separate and distance itself from the more mainstream elements of horror. It’s obviously a labour of love too, with director Gore (a pretty suitable name for these parts!) also writing and starring in the movie. Not an uncommon thread for short films, and certainly not something that holds things back at all here.

Oppression is the story of an unnamed man wandering a forest – I’ve assumed it’s after some sort of apocalypse, but that might just be conjecture on my part. He’s clearly having some difficulty telling the real from the imagined, and the runtime here is partly a quest for survival and partly a quest to find something much deeper. There are plenty of implications as to what might lie in his past thought his daydreams and hallucinations, and while they are pretty clear individually it’s not always that apparent how they actually link together ultimately. There’s very little dialogue, with only a handful of whispered lines adding something to the theme and feel of the movie, and generally very little human interaction whatsoever throughout.

The result is a movie that feels pretty sparse – in all honesty the premise would struggle to stretch to more than this kind of runtime – but was interesting enough to keep my attention throughout. It tends to unravel slowly as a movie, and in fragments, and while certainly refusing to give you anything neat-wrapped I feel like there is enough information here to at least draw a conclusion – although of course it’s hard to know whether my conclusion would be the same as anyone else’s…

It’s hard to say too much more without getting into spoiler territory, but, as one might expect from a movie keen to mark itself as ‘arthouse horror’, Oppression is suitably nicely shot and laden with some lovely visuals, as well as some pretty dark but still stylish visuals. It’s got a nice look and feel to it, and although it certainly wouldn’t be the most extreme of the extreme we’ve watched here, it has a moment or two that might rattle a relative newcomer to our world. To me, though, after last week’s trauma watching Green Elephant, it was actually great to watch something that was generally appealing to look at and approached things in a rather more subtle fashion.

Some of the comments that I applied to Possum recently will stand here too – it’s not a film that is neat or tidy in the narrative sense, nor that offers and firm answers to the questions it poses. It put me in mind to some extent of its fellow short film Precut Girl, or even bits of Your Flesh, Your Curse – albeit a much softer version! There’s enough here to reward your time without it being a serious standout, and enough to have me keeping my eyes peeled for more work from this particular team going forward.

RATING: 7/10. Nebulousness seems to be the word of the week for me in the reviewing sense, and by keeping this one mysterious Oppression has built something interesting without a doubt. Those of you who like to chew over a movie and pull it apart like a puzzle might well enjoy this one, although if you prefer a straightforward narrative and character arc you might be better to look elsewhere. For me this was good without being classic, and being as Capture That Films have uploaded this to YouTube for free you’ve got plenty of chance to check it out!

When it comes to undefeated streaks, there are all sorts of decorated sports people that come to mind. Floyd Mayweather's unbeaten 50-0 boxing career, or the 14 consecutive wins of the 'wonder horse' Frankel, or Arsenal's acclaimed 'Invincible' Premier League season.

And, since its inception, Film Gutter has been carrying its own undefeated record – in almost four years and nearly 200 movies, no film has beaten me yet. In that time I've seen things I never thought I would see, and many things I frankly wish I could unsee, but I've gone from start to finish on every single review. That's included cringing, retching, almost crying and actual crying, but never pressing the stop button. I started the series with a sort of curiosity as to whether that movie was even out there, if it even existed – like seeking Atlantis or the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. Now I know it is out there, and it wasn't just a myth after all...

Yes, today that undefeated streak has sadly come to an end. It had to happen eventually – there have been near-misses in the past, with Thanatomorphose, Vase De Noces and the offerings of Lucifer Valentine leaping to mind as some of the most gruelling movies I've had to suffer through for the sake of Film Gutter. There were moments I could have given up in all those films, and probably more besides, but I managed to dig deep and find a way through the distressing content there.

So what was the movie that finally beat me? Green Elephant. And to be honest, I can't really call this a review – it's probably half a review at best, because I got about halfway through before I reached scene I simply couldn't go past. Svetlana Baskova's 1999 offering is an experimental exploitation horror film that follows two Russian soldiers incarcerated in a tiny, grimy cell. It's never made entirely clear why they are there, but what is apparent is that the two are struggling to live in this confined space with one another, and the tension between the two really crackles away. There are even some funny moments within the first half hour or so, and I was enjoying myself enough – even if enjoying wasn't quite the word, I was certainly interested to see more.
 
However there was a scene at about 42 minutes in that I just couldn't stomach, which had echoes of one of the roughest scenes I had to ensure from the aforementioned Vase De Noces. As the moments wore on I found myself retching really notably, and I thought to myself 'if I carry on I'm actually going to throw up'. I even tried to come back to watch it again later but had such a similar reaction that I just figured it wasn't wise to carry on. In fact even the thought of it in typing this review makes me feel pretty queasy.

I suppose I could have skipped that scene and watched the rest of the movie, but that simply would have felt like cheating. I'm not too big to admit when I'm beaten, and it didn't feel right to try and disguise the fact. So hats off to Green Elephant and all involved – you've succeeded where stacks of directors and hundreds of movies have failed. Maybe there'll be another film in the next four years to take over that mantle, or join this one in the Film Gutter Hall of Fame, but for now it has the honour of being the only movie to make me press stop and say 'that's a bit too much for me'.

For those of you who want to take this mini-review/feature as a dare, then good luck to you. Otherwise Film Gutter will be back for its regular programming next week, where we will actually have a complete movie to comment on...

Today we are honoured to bring you an exclusive in depth interview with the world famous film director Uwe Boll.   

Uwe Boll is a German restaurateur and retired filmmaker. He financed his own films through his production companies Boll KG and Event Film Productions. Many of his films were produced on low budgets and Boll himself had backed his projects financially or made use of crowdfunding platforms.

Boll's filmmaking career is generally divided into two distinct phases: the first consists of big budget films with a usually renowned cast, most of which gained him a reputation as a "schlock maestro".

His second phase is marked by films with a smaller budget or were independently made, relatively unknown actors and different approaches to filmmaking; Boll's Rampage film series, Tunnel Rats, Stoic, Amoklauf, Heart of America, Assault on Wall Street and Darfur. 

After losing financing and facing constant criticism, Boll partially retired from filmmaking in 2016  to work in the restaurant industry. He opened his Bauhaus Restaurant in Vancouver, which has earned positive reviews among food critics.

be sure to check out Uwe's website 

WWW.UWEBOLLRAW.COM


and be sure to check out his highly entertaining  Youtube Channel is always a  bust watch, 

In the meantime make sure to check out all the articles in our Octo-Boll series