Ruptured Review: She Who Must Burn

Country of origin- Canada 
Year of release- 2016

Director- Larry Kent

Stars- Jewel Staite, Sarah Smyth, Missy Cross, Shane Twerdun

 

The film follows Angela, a former nurse at a Planned Parenthood clinic and a councillor, who now offers help to women from her home after the local government forced the clinic to shut down. Believing that Angela is coercing women to get abortions, the Baarker family—a small group of dangerous and fanatical right-wing Christians - lead by the menacing figure of preacher Jeremiah, seek vengeance. They claim that God has ordered them to cleanse the land, and the sin that Angela represents is first upon their list.

Angela decides to stand her ground against the church along with her police officer boyfriend. When Jeremiah receives supposed word that a young girl has had an abortion after consulting with Angela, the Baarkers start to hunt the child down. Angela takes her in and vows to protect her. But as the tension between the two sides mounts, the Baakers' zeal and crazed fanaticism turns murderous and the rule of law decays into a brutish mob mentality, leading to a horrifying and utterly brutal series of events.

This film despite having a moderate budget, manages to create a bleak, hopeless and downright terrifying atmosphere right from the opening scene which hits the viewer like a brick to the teeth. She Who Must Burn excels at utilising a good script with surprisingly good acting to make the scenes of tension (of which there are many) all the more nerve racking by making us actually care about the characters on screen, something most low budget films simply fail to do.

The film also has great success in its visual aesthetics and practical visual effects. The whole film has a washed out look that adds a great deal of grim atmosphere to the entire film. The film is wonderfully shot, and its style of cinematography in many parts reminded me of something we might see in Red Hill, Dead Mans Shoes or possibly a Field In England mainly bleak, drab and utterly miserable. This brings me on to the violence in the film, and the presentation of that violence. This film does not flinch away from some truly harsh and brutal scenes. Including the murder of a child, rape, domestic abuse and a very graphic scene of a stillbirth. The film presents these without showmanship and without sensationalising them. There are numerus scenes of brutal, extreme human behaviour in this film that are presented to the audience with such force and artistic vigour that they cannot help but shock or disturb at times.

My only complaint about She Who Must Burn is its ending. I found the way the film concluded to be perhaps a little ham fisted, a little rushed and even possibly the only lazy element of the film. Other than this however, this really is a superb film. It is stripped down, harsh, brutal and unflinching in its presentation of hatful ignorance and madness. I would highly recommend She Who Must Burn and I am going to happily give it a 7.5/10.

 

Ruptured Review: The Mutilator

Country of origin- USA
Year of release- 1984

Directors- Buddy Cooper, John Douglass

Stars- Matt Mitler, Ruth Martinez, Bill Hitchcock   

The film opens with a young boy (Ed Jr) accidentally blowing away his dear old mother with rifle he was cleaning as a birthday present for his father, who doesn’t react too well to his wife being shot dead. The father never forgives Ed, and years later, sends him a letter telling him that he needs to go to their beach house to close it down for the winter. Ed decides this will be a great get away opportunity for him, his girlfriend and two other couples, all of whom are more annoying than genital crabs. However once at the house Ed’s father begins a gory rampage against his son and his friends with an array of gardening and fishing instruments, along with a few casual medieval weapons.

It would be easy in many parts of this film to fool yourself into thinking you were watching a shitty 80s teen comedy featuring the usual cavalcade of bad acting and dialog that reads like nails on a chalkboard. This is helped along by the absolutely cringe inducing theme song “Fall Break”. Because of how sickly and forcefully ‘humorous’ much of this film is, the transition to the scenes of gore and bloodshed is quite stark. One moment we will be watching teen hijinks on a beach played out by actors who are mostly in their early 30s, the next we might be watching a battle axe decapitation.

This strange juxtaposition can be found throughout most slasher films of the 80s, although it seems particularly prevalent in The Mutilator. This might be down to the amount of gore this films throws at you. I watched the most complete version of the film ever released in the UK, which was recently put out by Arrow Video, whether this version of the film is the infamous ‘Unrated’ version I sadly cannot tell you. I can however say that it doesn’t skimp on the gore. Sadly however between the scenes of splatter and dismemberment I found myself being very bored by the seemingly endless scenes of teen bullshit. This really made the film drag, and meant that the only reason to watch this, at all, is for gore. There is literally no other reason to expose yourself to The Mutilator. I would recommend this one to most slasher fans, and based upon the gore we see on screen, most gore hounds as well. This film may mostly be shit, but it does have its moments, so I am going to give this one a 4/10 for its only redeeming factor, gratuitous gore and violence (I.e the bread and butter of this blog).            

           

 

          

Ruptured Guest Review: Top Sensation

Country of origin- Italy  
Year of release- 1969  

Director- Ottavio Alessi   

Stars- Rosalba Neri, Edwige Fenech, Eva Thulin

Top Sensation/The seducers is the definition of exploitation, hot females, murder, hot females, outrageous plots oh and some hot females. The film centres around a group on a small cruise, sounds like a rather average set up. Wrong. The cruise is centred around the plot of mother attempting to cure her son’s (Tony) mental illness by surrounding him with prostitutes, as what better solution to a mental illness than a good old cherry popping? Am I right? Surprisingly he hates his mother… strange, because I think she is doing a swell job. Now I can hear all you pre-pubescent boys praying for your mum to take a leaf out of that character’s book.

Anyway I digress, so this voyage of taking advantage of the handicapped, stumbles across a strange deserted island, except it’s not actually deserted, it’s inhibited by a man and wife (Beba). A wife which is way out of his league, but hey choices are limited when you’re the only two fucking people.  So Tony randomly escapes to the island, and manages to bump into Beba, and well the two kind of hit it off. So the crew of the ship see her as a way to cure Tony, because you know as I said before what’s better medicine than sex. So the crew take Beba on board and treat her like the guest of honour, and have an overall swell time. Oh, and a casual lesbian threesome? Did I forget that minor detail? What unfolds after this a situational plot device of them attempting to get Beba alone with Tony, while distracting the now present husband. But while everyone is distracted with this lumbering fool of a husband they forget to notice that Tony has killed his new love interest. I hate when I by accidentally kill my crush. This is the catalyst to spin the film into a dark spiral of murder.

Overall the film is average, its plot is ludacris at the start and makes little sense. But the last act of the film (when the murder kicks in) is actually rather dark and interesting, and the last shot is damn creepy. This is the perfect film to watch with a friend and have a good laugh, but it is not by any mean a masterpiece to sit and have an intellectual discussion on the plausible use of sex as a mental illness cure. Overall I give this film a score of 4/10.  I do have to give props to Shameless Cinema though, for releasing this film especially with the amount of scenes they have restored, and recommend this edition over any other way of watching it. 

This review was kindly contributed by my good friend Robert James, to see more of Robert's work see his YouTube Channel     

 

Ruptured Review: The Guard Post

Country of origin- South Korea  
Year of release- 2008  

Director- Su-chang Kong 

Stars - Ho-jin Chun, Hyun-jae Cho, Kyoo-Hwan Choi  

The film follows a team of soldiers who are sent into a guard post on the borderline between North and South Korea. Upon entering Guard Post 506 the team find only two survivors out of the last inhabitants, one of which is soaked in blood and carrying an axe. The government and the military are keen to cover up what actually happened in the guard post to save face, so the investigation team has only a night to uncover what went on and what led to the deaths of 19 of the soldiers formally stationed there, and what caused one of the soldiers to take an axe to his comrades.

The film is told in an immensely unpredictable non-linear narrative, which cuts between the team in the present investigating what happened, and flashbacks of the gradual development of what happened to the previous occupants. This does take some adjustment especially as I was expecting a standard military horror/mystery storyline with a short linear narrative. There are times in which the flashbacks and the present become muddled, which is more due to the increasing similarities they display as the film progresses than poor direction or filmmaking.

The acting is very good throughout the film, and as unit and team dynamics begin to break down as the film moves forward it would have been easy for the cast to go overboard with panic and anger, but everything was kept to a bleak grim pace, with almost no over acting. The cinematography and lighting is without a doubt what gives this film its generally chilling atmosphere, the majority of the film takes place underground within the guard post, and is shot in a very bland, washed out manor reflecting the increasing hopelessness of the both the characters in the present and the characters within the flashbacks.

In terms of gore and bloodshed, this is no slacker. Almost right from the get go there is more than enough practical gore and bloodshed to keep the hounds happy. This is a trend that thankfully continues throughout the film. There is also a considerable amount of well executed gunfights and other similar action scenes that are wonderfully shot and make full use of the practical effects. My only complaint about this film is its 120-minute run time, which does lead to some clock watching and a feeling of the plot dragging somewhat in the middle act.

Overall I really think that once again South Korean cinema shows the West how it should be done. This is a very downbeat, dark military horror/ mystery that doesn’t need tits or CGI to sell itself. I would say that this film will play well to fans of either gore, military horror or tense and mysteries Asian horror, furthermore even the most jaded horror fan (me) will get something out of this one because of the fairly unique plot devices throughout. I’m going to give The Guard Post 7.5/10, well worth seeking out!    

           

Ruptured Review: Lord Of Tears

Country of origin- UK   
Year of release- 2013  

Director- Lawrie Brewster

Stars - David Schofield, Alexandra Nicole Hulme, Euan Douglas 

 

 

The film follows James Findlay, a schoolteacher who inherits a vast Scottish mansion (Ardgour House as it is known in real life) after the death of his mother. After receiving news that he has been bequeathed the mansion James is then given a letter from his mother telling him to never visit said location. If his mother had not wanted him to visit the location, why the hell did she leave it to him in her will?! Of course James travels to the remote mansion and begins having fragmented memories of horrible events from his childhood there, along with nightmares, and visions of The Owlman which is generally interpreted as representing the ancient Canaanite god Moloch, why people have chosen to see The Owlman as Moloch is beyond me however as the origins of Moloch come from the Middle East, and not Gaelic folklore in Northern Scotland which happens to be where this film is set.

The references to Moloch also don’t make sense when you consider that classical representations of Moloch picture him as a Bull like creature, not a fucking Owl. So unless you prefer the internet conspiracy theory version of Moloch this film has got some major symbolism issues. James eventually meets a young woman called Evie who he forms a close friendship with, which begins at times throughout the film to burgeon into a near cringe worthy love interest. The two eventually try and unravel the dark secrets of the mansion leading to poor James going through hell as his past is uncovered.

This film was released as Lord Of Tears in 2013, however it was then re-released as The Owlman in 2016, it is under the latter title that I watched the film. It is also not to be confused with the 2009 Tim Roth TV film Skellig: The Owl Man, which is actually fairly good, and probably worth a watch.  

I will not deny that at certain times in this film there was genuine, taught gothic atmosphere, furthermore the cinematography is generally very good, which helps show off the stunning Scottish landscapes. Sadly, that is all the positive things I have to say about this film. This film really does try to be something more than just another cheap horror film, sadly that never comes to volition. The acting is terribly poor, the audio throughout the film is constantly at a level of student film quality – i.e crap. The film also uses a large amount of royalty free horror soundbites and sound effects that are so over used that they seem cringe worthy in a creepypasta reading let alone a feature film. The scrip is also far from what it should be for a film trying to be so aspirational.

The effects thankfully do not include CGI, so this film gets a pass on my wroth for that one. However, the practical effects that are used are a little strange. At a distance the effects used to create The Owlman are very effective, and the long shots of The Owlman are genuinely a little unsettling. On closer inspection of The Owlman however, the complete lack of articulation and general lack of movement, along with an unmoving glassy stare make this ‘terrifying creature’ look like someone left the Owl mask from Stage Fright (1987) in bad storm then stuffed it with road kill, before trying to cosplay as Slender Man in it. Overall this film deserves something for effort as budget was clearly an issue on this film, however that doesn’t excuse this from being an overly long (100 minutes) boring horror film that would be perfectly respectable as student film, but not a feature length film marketed multiple times in multiples countries. I give Lord of Tears/The Owlman 3.5/10, having good intentions doesn’t stop this film from being rife with problems and boredom.    

         

 

Ruptured Review: Bane

Country of origin- UK   
Year of release- 2008  

Director- James Eaves           

Stars- Sophia Dawnay, Lisa Devlin, Tina Barnes

The film focuses upon four women who wake up in a strange minimalistic looking prison style room, none of them have any memory of their lives before this room, nor do they know who or where they are. We instantly realise that each of the four women are essentially a standard character, we have the emotional one, the tough one, the sensitive one and of course heroine. The women begin to be subjected to various tests, which are conducted by a heartless and rather overly acted scientist, and his assistants who talk like robots and look like they belong in A Cruel Fucking Nightmare. The tests all seems to revolve around lots of poorly acted scenes of the women freaking out about their ordeal, being interviewed with electrodes on their temples and undergoing various experiments that are neither scary or particularly complex.

It isn’t long (although it feels as though it is) before the women start to be picked off one-by-one by a blood soaked surgeon ripped straight off from Hostel, and eventually the utterly bizarre and shockingly nonsensical reason the women have been brought to this facility is reviled. I won’t spoil the ending for you fine people, although I feel I should as it may deter you from subjecting yourself to this film, but let me assure this films climax is a bigger, more misery soaked let down than finding a blowjob voucher that is just one day out of date.

This film is the cinematic equivalent of black treacle, its dense, sticky and hard to move through. The pacing and story are all over the place, the first two thirds of the film dragged like a dead child jammed in bike spokes, and the final third beats you over the head with so much information that you need a flowchart to keep track. This is mainly the result of the film trying very hard to be original and inventive which has in this case resulted in a disorganised, slightly pretentious shamble’s that drags on for a tortuous 113 minutes. The viewer is intentionally kept in the dark about what the fuck is going on to try and ratchet up the tension, but this approach only works when the plot is fun and interesting to watch, so it’s fair to say that this approach doesn’t work here. The film is also let down by the acting, which could be far better even taking into account the low budget. Generally, the acting fluctuates from poor, to a point where the viewer is throwing their wallet at the TV in a desperate attempt to fund the casts acting lesions.

The film does however have two good features, three including the joy I felt when the end credits rolled. Firstly, the gore and splatter is pretty solid, whenever the odd occasion arises for someone to die we are treated to fountain of practical splatter. The film does however also feature one moment of unforgivably bad CGI towards the end. Secondly, Bane does feature some moments of pleasing editing that actually created a few fleeting scenes that gave me sporadic hope that the film was turning a corner so to speak, however these soon ended, giving way to the normal plod. Overall Bane is just a mess. It's not an interesting watch as it tries to incorporate gory, psychological, supernatural and Sci-fi elements all at the same time, and fails miserably at nearly all of them. I cannot recommend Bane to any of you, it simply isn’t worth it, I am giving this one a 2.5/10, and frankly that’s generous.    

             

Ruptured Review: Demonic Toys

Country of origin- USA   
Year of release- 1992  

Director- Peter Manoogian                                         

Stars- Tracy Scoggins, Bentley Mitchum, Daniel Cerny

The film follows Judith Gray (played by Tracy Scoggins) an undercover cop who after a botched bust of a couple of arms dealers finds herself trapped in a semi derelict toy warehouse with one of the criminals in cuffs. It soon becomes clear that this is no ordinary warehouse, as the death of one of the arms dealer’s accidently results in the raising of a demon with the power to bring toys to life as his personal minions. I should point out however, this is not his sole power, because frankly if it was, who would really give a shit. The rather pissed off demon is searching for a body to inhabit so he can increase his powers and once again have a physical form, and it just so happens that Judith is pregnant with the ideal host. 
 

You would think by now, I would have learned my lesson when it comes to films made by Charles Band’s Full Moon Features, but apparently that just isn’t the case. Yet again I found myself watching a Charles Band film and thinking to myself ‘why am I doing this?’ it’s as though I suddenly expect that a film called Demonic Toys made the company that has brought us so many cinematic turds (such as Evil Bong 3D) would be anything other than painful to sit through.

The entire film feels as though it is the prologue to a different story, at no point are we given context, background or even a reason to care about the characters even slightly. The films throws you in the deep end of bullshit and then when it tries to explain itself it’s like being thrown a life raft made of led while drowning the aforementioned bullshit. Every attempt this films makes to do anything other than show off its fairly decent practical effects fails harder than a silent film festival for the blind. I do have to be fair however, this films does feature some pretty damn fun practical effects in the form of the possessed toys, and it also features more blood and gore than we usually get in a Full Moon film. However this are not enough to distract the viewer from the woeful plot, acting and attempts at dialogue and worst of all, humour.

If you are (as apparently I am) a fan of being mentally tormented for 83 minutes then definitely check out this film, it will reduce you to a sleepy exhausted wreck, and the only way to restore yourself will be a stiff Gin. That’s right folks, this films drove me to drink. I can in no good conscience give this pile of sewage a positive rating, but I must stress that the effects are pretty enjoyable, so maybe just fast forward to those parts. Demonic Toys gets 3.5/10 from me, it’s the cinematic equivalent of waiting room filled with annoying children.