I’d often do a top ten here, but it’s been a slightly truncated year – my initial intention was to round off the series this year, but with lockdown kicking in here in the UK and other places around the world we had something of a ‘quarantine revival’! With that said, the few months break from the series earlier this year has proved really restorative, and the aim right now is to push the series on into 2021 with the usual weekly review on a Thursday.

So, without any further ado, here are the top 5 movies watched and reviewed for Film Gutter this year!

5) DIS (Dir. Adrian Corona, 2018)
RATED – 8/10

Sometimes when you give a rating you slightly come to regret it, because your views on films can – and probably should – change over time. While this would strictly on ratings be seventh on the list for 2020, of all this year’s movies Dis is the one that has probably stayed with me the most. Adrian Corona’s movie is a fascinating creation, slight and deft but with surprising layers and definitely leaving many questions for the viewer to pick out after the closing credits. It’s a relatively short watch, but was certainly a rewarding one, and an experience I intend to repeat.

4) VIBROBOY (Dir. Jan Kounen, 1994)
RATED – 9.5/10

I’ve always been a fan of a short film, and Jan Kounen’s Vibroboy is just a gloriously manic ball of energy that rolls along for 28 of the strangest and loudest minutes of your life. The performances are great, the idea is bonkers and the whole thing is delivered with such enthusiasm and panache I find it impossible not to warm to it. Just great, bizarre entertainment. It might well be in the ‘not for everyone’ camp, but this one was certainly for me. It was super, super close between the top four, because there were three movies I rated 9.5 this year! Which leads us to…

3) TETSUO: THE IRON MAN (Dir. Shin’ya Tsukamoto, 1989)
RATED – 9.5/10

There remain a few gaps in my cult cinema knowledge, and this wild Japanese offering was among them – but what an experience. This black and white nightmare is a dark tale of augmentation and mechanisation, pretty much unlike anything I’d ever seen before. The effects still look surprisingly great given this one is now 30 years old, and the whole thing still feels super-fresh. Even more amazing is the slim budget this was delivered on – well deserving of its place as a serious underground favourite.

2) BUTT BOY (Dir. Tyler Cornack, 2019)
RATED – 9.5/10

The most recent offering on the list, and still available on a number of streaming platforms right now – and well worth your time and rental money. This strange tale of an ordinary Joe who has the capacity to insert anything into his butt, and the broken detective chasing him, is just a remarkable effort. It’s funny, it’s dark, it’s entertaining and it keeps you guessing constantly throughout. There are some fantastic acting performances also, which definitely elevates this one to another level. It’s a withering look at regular American life wrapped up in an utterly insane concept, and I loved every minute.

1) MARQUIS (Dir. Henri Xhonneux, 1989)
RATED – 10/10

How had I never seen – or even heard – of this movie before? This French/Belgian production was put together by acclaimed children’s TV director (!!) Henri Xhonneux, who produced something rather different with this extravagant take on the Marquis de Sade. The fact that the characters are all presented as puppetry-style animals, and de Sade’s penis is a talking puppet in and of itself, makes this a unique offering. It’s just one to sit back with your jaw on the floor and witness – totally weird, darkly hilarious and really utterly mind-blowing. I struggle to think of a film I’ve enjoyed more in all the years of Film Gutter to date.

What did I just watch? I suppose that maybe that’s not such an uncommon question around these parts, but Mecanix is a movie that has certainly left me scratching my head – and I don’t mean that as a negative.

This Canadian offering – presented in French – is a sort of bleak fairytale, set in a nightmarish future land inhabited by strange creatures that have enslaved humanity. These beings seem to be part mechanical although have something of an organic look about them. The humans in the movie are tortured by their rulers, and serve their whims. The humans’ only hope of freedom – as referenced in the very opening – is the embryo of the universe, which our leads set about beginning to find…

What is so strikingly different about this one is its visual style – I don’t fully know what to compare it to, although there are a few leap to mind. If you call to mind maybe the likes of Begotten or Flowers, perhaps even a dash of Tetsuo: The Iron Man, you may have something close, although it’s something else again from those. There are numerous elements of what looks like stop motion, bits of what appear to puppetry and potentially even some Claymation for the bizarre species that has overtaken humanity. There are even a few sections where things are drawn and animated, which adds more to the curious mix.

The vast majority of the movie is presented in a very dark sepia, with only the odd cut away from that. That makes it fascinating to look at but – if I was going to criticise – does make it a little bit hard to tell what’s going on at times. Ultimately I didn’t mind too much, because it’s really the look, feel and soundscape of this one that make it most interesting. Like Begotten, the plot can be pretty hard to get at, but that didn’t make me dislike it or lessen my interest any. Half of my summary above was ultimately cribbed from IMDB, which helps it to make some more sense post-fact!

There are some criticisms besides the plot being hard to follow – some shots are ultimately repeated without it being clear what they really add, the voice acting maybe isn’t always what it could have been and you might be able to argue even at a mere 69 minutes it’s a bit long. The main criticism I could see people throwing at it would be that it’s pretty pretentious – and perhaps it is, but I’ve never been averse to a bit of pretension in movies. You could also call that aiming high, and thinking differently about cinema, and this feature does both of those things.

Ultimately Mecanix is a fairly short watch and probably one to – in a positive way – just let wash over you! Breathe it in, absorb every frame and take from it what you will – you might grab the storyline, you might not, but this remains an impressively shadowy and surrealist offering either way. If you treat it more as a visual experience than as a movie you might find that’s a better approach to take to get the most out of it.

RATING: 8/10. I expect this is a movie I’ll be rattling round in my head for a while, and it’ll be interesting to see whether this one is improved or diminished by more time and perspective. I certainly liked what I saw, and it’s clear the director has gone in with a vision unlike much else out there, and I think has been pretty successful in creating it. There are criticisms, sure, and some might write this off as ‘fancying itself’ a bit too much, but I don’t think it fully crosses that line into nonsensical navel-gazing. It’s not a simple watch, and doesn’t spoon-feed a narrative whatsoever, but it’s really something else to look at and a movie that did warm me to it in numerous ways. Regular readers here will know just how much I prize originality, and that’s something Mecanix certainly has in spades. So I’m happy to award this one a very sharp 8/10.

You can rent or buy Mecanix at the Unearthed Films Vimeo channel, along with a wide range of other extreme horror movies. Check it out at Unearthed Films Extreme Horror Channel on Vimeo

I’m always very much up for exploring new climes in horror, and I can’t think that I’ve often been quite as far east in Europe as Romania. In fact, this was a film that had appeared on my radar a number of times since its release, so when this one popped up (fully legally licenced!) on the Kings of Horror YouTube channel I pressed play pretty quickly. I knew a little of the central premise of this one, which had always interested me, so would it live up to my expectations in the end?

Be My Cat is a found footage film – Romania’s first, if you take in the movie’s tagline – following director Adrian as he sets out to make a sort of ‘promo reel’ designed to make his ultimate dream come true. That dream? To have Anne Hathaway come to Romania to make a film with him, which would be called Be My Cat. Meta enough for you so far? Good, because it’s going to get more so.

As a director Adrian is extremely method, and sets the three actresses he hires – all of whom believe they are acting in a real film rather than a test piece – difficult challenges before things take an even darker turn. I sort of can’t say too much more than that, so I’ll move on to some of the other points I wanted to make about the movie.

First up – director Adrian Tofei takes the lead role himself in this piece, and I personally feel like he smashes it. There is some debate on his merits, if you read the reviews and comments, and you may know within ten minutes if this is for you because you’ll sense roughly how you feel about his performance. There’s also something fascinating about a director making a film in which he also acts, playing a director who is also an actor… wait a second, my head is spinning… see, I warned you it would get even more meta! The whole time he has this manic energy and enthusiasm, and can jump from seemingly innocuous and disarming to dangerous in a matter of heartbeats. I was really fascinated with the line that Adrian (the on-screen performer!) was confused about between actor and character, and blaming some of the more heinous acts in the film on being ‘in character’, so it wasn’t him per se. It’s a really interesting trip if you can get into the zone with this movie.

It does remain a found footage movie, and if that is something that turns you cold this likely will too – though admittedly I’m not always dead keen, I’d argue this is one of the better examples of the subgenre. It’s hard to know exactly how to feel as the movie comes to an end, and it does prod and poke at various interesting questions en route. I’d also have to say that for the real gorehounds out there, this one is much more about suggestion than it is the real hard stuff – you’ll probably find other movies out there to better suit you. The acting is generally decent, and while some say Tofei’s performance is too jittery and unfocused, I think those are the qualities that make it – this is a man obsessed by a single goal whilst battling his inner demons to try to desperately achieve it.

Overall, as a bleak, psychological character study I thought this was an effective effort done on a low budget, and goes for me towards the top of my list of top found footage movies. I certainly hope there are some further movies in the offing from this director.

RATING: 8/10. This is certainly quirky, and feels really quite different to a lot of what I’ve seen. It drew to mind bits of things like Tabloid Vivant or Eat or Starry Eyes, with their dark take on the process of making film and art, but still offered a meta version I’d not encountered before. It is chilling, and grimly fascinating, but I couldn’t call it the most extreme offering of all time. I couldn’t call it entertaining precisely, but it sure held my attention rapt throughout, with plenty of uncomfortably moments, so happy to give this a very solid 8/10.

Now, I wonder if Anne Hathaway has watched this one yet…?

Oh yes folks, we're back, and it's time for one final uneasy peer into the basket as we draw this particular trilogy to a close. Nine years on from the first movie, director Henenlotter brings us Basket Case 3: The Progeny, and picks up almost directly from Basket Case 2 – so directly, in fact, that we kick off with the finale of the previous movie being replayed to us. Given that was only out a year before, it seems a bit of a pad for the runtime, but it's not as egregious as it might have been. It's probably not helped by the fact I was trying hard to forget that absolutely gross ending... shudder...

So, Duane and Belial are basically estranged after those events, with Belial refusing to talk to his brother at all, and Eve is pregnant with Belial's kids. With the clan of unique individuals not having the skills to see the labour through, Granny Ruth piles the whole collective onto a school bus with blacked-out windows – with a sign at the front wonderfully reading 'NO ONE YOU KNOW' – to visit Uncle Hal and Little Hal to deliver the little ones. Little Hal is an inventor and another unique individual, although the small town they live in seems to tolerate him just fine. However, when Granny Ruth's wards arrive in town – with a distinctly upset Belial among them – that tolerance doesn't last terribly long, and soon enough the police in the town start to turn against them. And that's not to mention Eve having an absolute plethora of babies in the mix...

The thing I loved about this movie – not to mention the one before – is just how fabulously weird it is. The cast of unique individuals (that's how the movie describes them, in case you're wondering why I keep using the term) give everything a totally chaotic edge, and the visual effects make for some really delirious viewing. Like the finale of something like Society, you might find yourself wondering if you really saw it in places or if you've managed to slip into some sort of waking dream. It's helped by the effects, which barring one or two cases look really good here – a big advance on the first movie for sure. Basket Case 3 revels in its own madness, and has so many of the components that made the series a success – the bizarre look and feel, some creative death scenes, Kevin van Hentenryck's Duane Bradley still being as totally clueless about the real world as always, Annie Ross having a ball as the upbeat Granny Ruth, and plenty of scenes to make you smile to yourself if not exactly laugh out loud. It has that Henenlotter edge for sure – manic, energetic, wild and just plenty of (and I know I've used the word a lot) fun! It's been a pleasure looking back at these three, because I don't always get to have much fun reviewing these movies. I'm sure next week normal service will be resumed and it'll be back to something significantly more unpleasant and harrowing...

As a trilogy this was an interesting watch, and certainly changed tack after the first movie – but why not? With better effects and I'm sure a bigger budget to call upon, there was always scope to do more, and Henenlotter really doubled and tripled down with the pure oddness of the sequels to the grimier original. This only leaves me a couple of Henenlotter's movies to review – and it'll be a slightly sad day when I've concluded them all....

RATING: 8.5/10. Probably my favourite of the set, this one leans more and more on the comedy than the shock, although it still has its moments now and then. While it's pretty different in tone and look than the first, I'd take your feelings about Basket Case 2 as your ultimate cue – if you enjoyed that one, then you're almost bound to get a kick out of this one. If the sequel left you cold, then this is in many ways more of the same and you might be better checking out after the second film. But if you like strange humour, grotesquerie and the sort of off-the-wall zaniness that is the trademark of this director, then you should find this one well worth your while.

Last time around we took a long, lingering stare inside the basket with the first part of this trilogy, which came eight years prior to this sequel. Part of me thinks that's no bad thing – all too often sequels can feel a bit thrown together and rushed out if they follow a year or so after, and what's interesting is that Basket Case 2 feels far more a piece with Basket Case 3 than its predecessor. We'll get to that final component of the trilogy, of course, but for now let's get on the case (get it?) with Henenlotter's sequel to his debut picture.

We pick up here right from the end of Basket Case, with Duane and Belial Bradley in hospital after the fall they suffered at their hotel. Of course Belial has his concerns about being there, with his long-standing hatred of doctors, so it's not long before he takes control of Duane in order to make his escape. If I was really picking I don't remember Belial doing this before or since in the trilogy, but it's a way to get the beleaguered brothers out of hospital and into the loving arms of Granny Ruth and her assortment of unique individuals. I will use that term a lot in the next two reviews, because it is what the movie states and frankly I rather like the concept and the way the group sees each other. Duane and Belial try to settle into this unorthodox new environment, but it's not long before once again the attraction of the Bradley boys' story is attracting interest, this time from a prying journalist and the team around her. And prying really isn't welcomed in this community...


As much as I liked the more urban, gritty feel of the previous movie – although even that had plenty of silly moments – with this and the final part of the series we do slip into full-on horror comedy mode. The deaths are typically overblown and extravagant, and the cast of the movie is sort of fascinating to watch, with some incredibly inventive and creative make-up involved – I have to give plenty of credit to the team involved there. Annie Ross deserves a lot of kudos as Granny Ruth, and when she really lets fly as a character she hams it up absolutely beautifully. Belial himself looks a much better model than previously, and I feel like Kevin van Hentenryck as Duane serves up a far broader performance here, leading to a pretty unforgettable finale. While I did recall the unfortunate ending for Duane's own love story, what has haunted my dreams for many years – and knowing my luck will again now I've rewatched it – is the closing sex scene between Belial and Eve. As I type this I feel like I want to bleach my eyeballs just to get rid of it.

You have been warned folks...

Like I say, it is a very different movie from the first, and liking the original certainly doesn't mean it's a shoe-in you'll go for this one. Everything is far more direct, and the oddness of everything is incredibly in your face. It is more fun than the first, which I enjoyed fine, but if you like things a bit more straight-laced then the odds are you're in the wrong place. Personally I did think this was a riot, and is probably more emblematic of Henenlotter's later work in its absolutely bizarre visuals and over-the-top dark comedic flourishes. If I were picking at it, the pacing isn't what it might have been, with the ending feeling a bit rushed and a sort of 'mini-ending' before that feeling like a bit of a dummy, and one or two plot elements do feel a bit half-cooked. With all that said, this was an enjoyable time all round – if you're into this sort of thing...

RATING: 7.5/10. Probably the weakest entry of the three, but still plenty to give credit for in its own right. It's bold to take a series in a new direction, and Basket Case 2 certainly does just that. But what was still there was the energy, the enthusiasm and the imagination that the director and indeed the acting team seem to have brought to this one. It's hard not to enjoy a film when the people involved seem to be having fun, and the 90 minutes once again shot by here, so a very creditable 7.5/10.

The words 'cult classic' tend to get thrown around a lot, but the movie Basket Case and its sequels are probably well deserving of that status. The first movie from popular horror and exploitation director Frank Henenlotter – who in time would also bring us the delights of Brain Damage, Frankenhooker and the bonkers Bad Biology – was a hit on home video on its release and has maintained an audience even thirty years after the final film. But is it worth all the fuss? Well, starting today and spanning the next couple of weeks, we're going to look at all three of these films to find out.

Basket Case is the story of Duane Bradley, a shy young man who arrives at a sleazy hotel with a basket in tow – the refrain 'what's in the basket?' is a cute running gag that occurs many times throughout, sometimes paying off and sometimes deliberately not. Said receptacle contains his 'brother' Belial, a hideously twisted, violent creature who was born attached to Duane's side and later separated against his will. All this we discover in a flashback later on, with the main thread of the story being Duane trying to get revenge on the doctors who traumatically pulled the two of them apart. We see some moments of Duane trying to have some sort of ordinary life – even with a murderous, telepathic sibling in tow – drinking with some of the residents of the hotel and even finding a blossoming romance with doctor's receptionist Sharon. This is probably what makes Belial most unhappy of all, and the fear of his brother leaving him forces him to extreme measures...

Like all of Henenlotter's movies, there's nothing high art here, and very little to truly tax the grey matter. But – to repeat the refrain, like all of Henenlotter's movies – this one is mightily entertaining. The movie slides along at a good pace, and has plenty of imaginative kills throughout. Kevin Van Hentenryck is wonderfully cast in the lead role as the naïve, wide-eyed Duane Bradley, dragged along by Belial's malice while seeking something else entirely. He certainly adds to this role in the sequels too, and here I feel like I have to give some extra credit just for that hairdo. The relationship between Belial and Duane is generally pretty well-conveyed – even if there's not necessarily the acting chops to really deliver anything Oscar-worthy – and while the effects on the whole aren't that great, if you can switch off that part of your brain and just enjoy it for what it is then this is plenty of fun. On top of that, the cast of the hotel around Duane contains some quirky, oddball characters, and for all there's nothing all that meaty here the 91 minutes of this movie will just fly by.

Strangely enough, it'd be a long, long time before we got a sequel – which is a little surprising, but it's entirely possible that the legend of Basket Case grew with time rather than it being an immediate smash hit. Next time around we'll be delving into the delights of Basket Case 2, which is I movie I certainly do have some vivid memories of... I wonder how it will still hold up today...

RATING: 8/10. Sure, I've praised it a lot, and it's a fine example of the 80s creature feature that was so prevalent at the time. It's not always a subgenre that I love to bits, and honestly not all of them look that good when you check them out in retrospect. However Basket Case held my attention all the way through, and while it may not make you laugh out loud it'll certainly get plenty of wry smiles. For everything there is to like here, I can't go too nuts because the effects did look hokey at times, the acting wasn't always what it might have been and it looks very cheaply shot – I'm sure it was, but sometimes movies are able to hide that fact (although not here). With all that said, if you like your horror bloody, outrageous and even a bit sill, then Basket Case might just be worth checking out.

Just think very carefully before you decide to look in that basket...

Ah, Japan. Probably the country that we’ve most visited within the five or more years of Film Gutter – there’s just something about films from that neck of the woods that can go very, very out there. And it’s back again for a film I’ve wanted to see for a long time in Naked Blood, another one of those 90’s splatter offerings that proliferated in the country at the time on the back of the infamous Guinea Pig movies and many more. It makes sense in a way – there was certainly a strong market at the time, looking for plenty of the crimson stuff, and these movies were not expensive to make. In fact I’d imagine most of the time, money and effort goes into the effects side of things in some of these cases.

Anyway, let’s zoom in on today’s particular offering, shall we? The story in Naked Blood follows Eiji, a talented young amateur scientist with a mother working in contraceptives. His father, who died a long time ago, was also a high-level scientist, so genius obviously runs in the family. And Eiji uses his smarts to develop a new sort of painkiller than floods the brain with endorphins whenever it feels pain – which he strangely dubs ‘my son’ – and he’s so determined to test it, he slips some secretly into three injections his mother is about to give. Eiji is dead set on capturing the results on his video camera, so he follows the three woman who have had his concoction around, striking up a particular relationship with Rika – a young woman who doesn’t sleep do to a medical condition. Sadly things are about to go deeply south, as the painkiller has rather unexpected side-effects, with those dosed up about to discover that pain and pleasure are effectively the same thing…

I can’t even remember where I first read about this one, but the concept of it always lodged in my brain, and the final delivery of it is pretty damn good for me. I can’t claim this one really rocked my world, but there were a lot more interesting concepts than I expected to go alongside some of the more stomach-churning moments. And it certainly delivers on that latter front – there were a good few scenes here that left me feeling a little bit woozy. The relationship that develops between Eiji and Rika was the bit that really caught me out – it was really intriguing and dark, and strangely enough had a cactus at the very heart of it. And only in Japanese cinema could I write that sentence…

Overall, I’d have to say it’s one of the better splatter movies I’ve seen. It has a lot more ideas behind it than many, and if anything the plot feels a little crammed in rather than having the same thin quality of numerous films of the stripe, which all too often pad runtime with excessive gore. While it has its flaws – the acting isn’t always all that, there’s numerous bits of the science that feel pretty half-baked and it is also a bit slow to get rolling. However this one had a bit of heart, and certainly went outside of the realms I would normally have expected, including some fabulously weird dream sequences. I’d say this is a movie worth your time – that’s especially true if you like splatter, but if you’re a fan of the more bizarre elements of Japanese cinema you could likely have some fun with this one too.

RATING: 7.5/10. Splatter has always been something of a mixed bag, but this one had some originality to bring to the mix. While it did deliver on the gore, it was a bit more sporadic and carefully-deployed and certainly not what the whole story depended upon. I preferred it to many movies in the subgenre, and it did enough to keep me on my toes and leave me guessing as to where it would finish off. This one scores a highly creditable 7.5/10 from me.

That sounds like a fun title, right? And honestly before I hit play that was absolutely all I knew about it – the description seemed to pitch is as a horror/black comedy, so sounded like it could be entertaining territory at least. In my experience it’s sometimes the case that these ‘sight unseen’ movies that produce the best results, so how would Violence Gives Him Hope stack up?

VGHH is presented as a sort of mock-arthouse piece, broken up into acts and chapters, with many of said chapters being incredibly short (literally a few minutes in some cases). It’s also shot in black and white – for the most part anyway – which adds to that sense of it poking fun at certain other movies that take on this style. The beginning of the movie follows Herman, a serial killer who is converted by a visiting Jehovah’s Witness to that cause – but sadly the stress and frustration of constantly having the door slammed in his face drives him back to his mass-murdering ways. This then loosely connects to the story of ‘Bone Man’, who is our main character for the majority of the movie. He’s an aspiring talk show host, particularly notable for the skeleton mask that he wears at all times. But things start to go pear-shaped for the Bone Man when he finds a dead body in the trunk of his car, as well as when he invites ‘Time Travel Bill’ onto his show. After that, he decides to get out of the cable access game and decides to work for the mafia and in particular his good friend Handsome Riggs…

Sounds odd? Well it is rather, and it’s hard for me to describe it in a way that isn’t. And I had to leave some stuff out above too. The movie beyond the point I described above sort of descends into a big old shoot out, which to me was less enjoyable than what came before it. In doing a bit more research into VGHH, I found out that movie was basically unscripted and filmed over a number of years – and it wasn’t a big surprise either. There were scenes and moments here that I really liked, but this film is really chaotic and the plot is prone to going off in very unexpected directions. It also seems to veer in style a lot too – the early running of the story is very heavily narrated (which I didn’t mind at all) before moving away from that for an awful lot, or trading the third person narrator for first person style. Sometimes the visual choices were a bit jarring, although of course I do fully appreciate some of those might have been due to the very low budget of the movie – around $2500 apparently. It’s extremely commendable to make a film for that sort of money, let alone something virtually feature length, so while I do tip my hat I can’t say I loved all of this one.

My overall suspicion is that you could have been improved by a few judicious cuts here and there, and maybe toning things down in places. But there were some laughs throughout, and some really interesting concepts to boot, so it certainly did what it said on the tin for me. It’s not an unmissable offering, but it remains worth checking out if you have the time and you like truly weird and wonderful dark comedy.

RATING: 6.5/10. It’s no secret that I love originality and creativity, and I also love ambition in low-budget film-making. Violence Gives Him Hope has plenty of all of those things, and though it doesn’t always hit its marks there was enough here to keep me watching and to leave me going away feeling as though I’d had a good time. It’s a surreal cast of characters embarking on a story that doesn’t always entirely hang together, all shot like an arthouse movie but with a tone and pace that sometimes flies in the face of that tradition. You can watch the movie for free on YouTube via Skyburner Films themselves at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9TPjkFP-YX0, and if you like it you can get a hold of the movie on DVD to support them.

Dir. Daisuke Yamanouchi, 68 mins

Japan has always had a healthy helping of splatter cinema to offer up, often tracked back to the infamous Guinea Pig films of the late 80s. But that tradition has continued on since, and Red Room is probably one of the most notorious of the movies to follow on in that wake. I have seen and reviewed the sequel here, so I did have some sort of idea of what I was letting myself in for – though the two films are a little different to one another. Anyway, let’s look at this one in isolation, then we can come to comparisons later.

Red Room is effectively presented as a sort of extreme gameshow, with four participants all having the chance to win 10 million yen (about 75,000 pounds so I gather) if they are the last person standing at the end of The King Game. The game itself is simple – there are four cards, three with a number on and one with a crown on. The person who gets the king card is able to order the other players to do whatever they like. This is all in an effort to get the other players to give up or get ‘eliminated’ from the game in some other way….

The cast of four are an interesting bunch – a husband and wife both struggling under the same crippling debt, a young woman whose motivation is never totally clear and a schoolgirl whose need for the money does become clear – but I’m not going to spoil that. Part of the interest in the movie is the whole business of guessing who the winner will be – my impression on this changed a few times throughout, and I still didn’t get it right in the end. There are also some interesting reveals throughout, and I found the dynamic between the married couple particular fascinating – the environment here allowed plenty of old resentments to come out.

Like its sequel, I came to the end of Red Room not quite sure what to make of it. There are times that the tone and style feel almost comedic, deliberately overblown, then at other moments it turns absolutely brutal and becomes incredibly hard to watch. And make no mistake – some of this will prove upsetting for many. But by the time you throw in an ending that seems to barely chime with either of those things, it’s a little confused – although in a way I didn’t mind. In fact a straight torture/gore movie would probably have been easier to deliver – there are plenty of those out there, after all. But to actually make me invest in characters and come away with a sense that I liked it, despite all its horrific content, is something else entirely.

So how does it compare to part 2? I feel like this one benefits from a shorter run time – the sequel felt a bit long even at 81 minutes, and this is much more taut and pacy. Things escalate more quickly and move from relatively innocent horseplay to full-on violence and depravity in less time. There remain surprises aplenty in both, although the finale of Red Room 2 is probably even more confounding than this one. However I felt that the shortcomings in this one felt less pronounced – the acting is overblown, but less so, and the use of the multiple cameras in this one felt better deployed.

Is it easy to watch? Good lord no. But I don’t think either of these movies are quite as grim as they’re made out to be – sure, it’ll prove too much for plenty of viewers, but I’ve seen plenty worse for utter twistedness and there is something more to both movies. In the case of Red Room, the bizarrely optimistic ending leaves a very different feeling to what I would have guessed. If you can handle the content, I’d argue this one is well worth your time.

RATING: 8.5/10. A truly odd movie, Red Room combines black comedy, deeply disturbing visuals and slow-burn character development to achieve something I don’t think I’ve quite seen done before. It does take its cues in a way from the latter parts of the Guinea Pig series, which often also threw seemingly incongruous elements together. Red Room will probably be too much for many, but the fact the tone isn’t entirely malicious does alleviate some of its darkest content for me.

Dir. Pollyanna McIntosh,
​100 mins

When I think of absolute favourite extreme horror films, Lucky McKee’s The Woman has to be right up there. As well as its brutal depiction of the feral lead character, it’s a cutting jab at the ‘All-American Family’ and just a mesmerising film to watch with an absolutely explosive finale. It’s always been in my mind this one would be hard to follow up on, but even with that said I was super excited when I heard there was a sequel in the works – directed by none other than Pollyanna McIntosh, star of The Woman. If anyone would get the character and the milieu of that film, it had to be her.
And I was just as excited to see this one spring up to watch on Sky Cinema recently.

In coming to this one, I had to remind myself to try not to hold it to the lofty standard of its predecessor. In fact this one effectively polishes off a trilogy that started with 2009’s Offspring – which was a good (if mighty hard to watch) film in its own right, but still not up to the par of The Woman.

(Note to self – I must rewatch and review Offspring).

So basically I’m doing my best to look at Darlin’ as a movie in its own right and not constantly draw comparisons to one of my top 5 extreme horror movies. With that said, on we go…

Darlin’ is the story of a young girl from the feral cult that the first two movies followed, who strays into the city and finds herself being hit by an ambulance just outside the hospital. Of course she then finds herself taken inside, and strikes up an uneasy alliance with Tony, a nurse who is the only person to manage to soothe her and get through to her. Of course the hospital can’t keep her long term, so Darlin’ finds herself taken in by a Catholic care home where she is looked after by an unflailingly confident Bishop and rather shyer sister Jennifer, who takes it upon herself to teach their new occupant to speak and show her the ways of the faith. Meanwhile The Woman herself is out on the streets looking for Darlin’, leaving a swathe of chaos in her wake.

There’s a lot to like about Darlin’ – the acting performances are generally strong, especially Lauryn Canny in the lead role, who not only depicts the savagery of the character’s early days but that gradual, uneasy journey towards becoming a part of mainstream society. On top of that. Pollyanna McIntosh effortlessly slips back into her role as The Woman. Some of the cast around are a little stereotypical as characters, although there’s no-one that stands out as particularly being a weak link in their delivery.

The story itself is enough to keep you interested, but for me it rather went in the direction I had expected and didn’t pack many surprises throughout. For me that was maybe my main complaint – I’m not usually the best for anticipating plot points, but I was largely able to do so here. Everything was solid, and well done, but it didn’t quite have the raw and uncomfortable quality of The Woman or the unexpected moments of its predecessor (I know I saw I wouldn’t compare, but just let me off one, OK?)

With that said, it certainly feels like a good way to wrap up the trilogy and a logical place to conclude things. I’m going to make a point of one day sitting down and watching all three back to back, to see exactly how they hang together, but despite the long break between the two concluding parts it almost feels necessary to draw things to a close here. I’d be hard pressed to see anything else coming after this, but this one is certainly worth the time if you’ve enjoyed the first two. While I’d argue having seen Offspring and The Woman is not an absolute essential, you’ll probably get more out of it with the past knowledge.

RATING: 7/10. Darlin’ was good, with particular highlights in some of the key acting performances, and the plot was engaging even if some of the events were pretty easy to see coming. It was maybe a neater, tidier and cleaner film than either of the other two parts of the trilogy, but even with that difference it’s a worthwhile watch in its own right. It certainly feels like the end of the road for these characters and the core concepts that have carried them, and when it came to a conclusion I certainly felt satisfied on the whole – despite a slightly odd post-credits dance scene… so overall it’s a 7/10 for this one.