Torture

I Spit on Your Grave (2010) Review

September 10, 2013 by Eric S. Leave a Comment

Synopsis: A writer who is brutalized during her cabin retreat seeks revenge on her attackers, who left her for dead.

My Quick Review: Since the sequel is being released now, I thought it would be a good idea to revisit the remake of one of the classic of rape-revenge movies, I spit On Your Grave.

It’s amazing to think that this movie was directed by Steven R Monroe who also directed House of 9 for 4 times this film budget. The least I can say is that It’s a huge improvement.

I spit on Your Grave looks great, is well shot and scored, and the acting from all the cast is plain brilliant with a special mention to Andrew Howard who plays one of the most despicable character ever put on screen, and of course, Sarah Butler who plays her role as convincingly as possible.

The movie is divided into 2 parts, the rape and the revenge. And if the rape is already tough to stomach (not the worst put on film but still disturbing) the torture scenes that will follow when Jennifer is getting her revenge, are some of the most gruesome, and imaginative I’ve ever seen.

This was my second time watching I Spit on Your Grave and it hasn’t lost its intensity despite having seen numerous revenge/torture movies since.

I have to applaud the cast and crew of the movie to have make one of the best horror remake out there and I’m now ready to dive into the sequel, I Spit on Your Grave 2, still directed by Steve R Monroe.

My Rating: 7.5/10

Director: Steven R. Monroe

Origin: USA

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Art of the Devil 3 (2008) Review

August 21, 2013 by Eric S. Leave a Comment

Original Title: Long Khong 2

Synopsis: The youngster Ta returns to his hometown. He misses his mother Daun, who was poisoned by his father Prawase, and soon he learns that his family will use black magic to bring her back. However, Ta’s family will quickly discover the price of the black magic.

My Quick Review: I was a bit confused while watching Long Khong 2 until I realized this was actually a prequel to the first Long Khong (Art of the Devil 2).

The problem with a movie like Art of the devil 3 is that it actually deserved to be called a Torture Porn movie since we can actually fast forward through most of the movie just to watch the good stuff. With no characters to relate to or empathize with, and a messy script, Art of the Devil 3 only exists for its Black Magic scenes. And then again there is nothing we haven’t seen in Art of the Devil 2, and usually not as impressive or gruesome.

My Rating 4.5/10

Art of the Devil II (2005) Review

August 1, 2013 by Eric S. Leave a Comment

Original Title: ลองของ (Long Khong)

Synopsis: A group of high school friends reunite after two years when one of their fathers’ committed suicide. They all spend the night at their friend’s place. When darkness falls, strange things begin to happen to them one by one. It is as if someone is using the black arts on them in revenge for an act this group of friends committed together back in high school.

My Quick Review: Long Khong’s english name is misleading as there is absolutely no connection with the first Art of The Devil. Western distributors just named the movie Art of the Devil 2 as it does share common use of Thai Black Magic.

Art of the Devil II is a much more graphic movie than the first one and actually ends with one of the hardest to watch torture scene ever put on film (there are some similarities with Audition since we have the pretty girl inflicting pain here as well).

It is a pity then that the script is completely uninteresting and quite confusing in its plot lines.

What could have indeed been a Torture Porn classic ends up short of greatness because the gory/creepy scenes are surrounded by bland storytelling and poorly defined characters.

My Rating: 4.5/10 (5.5/10 for torture lovers).

Director: Ronin Team

Origin: Thailand

Invitation Only (2009) Review

July 29, 2013 by Eric S. Leave a Comment

Original Title: Jue ming pai dui

Synopsis: Five people arrive at a party, fully unaware that the special night is just a cover for an evening of torture and murder.

My Quick Review: I remember when Invitation Only was released in Asia a couple of years back, everybody was talking about the presence of Maria ozawa (one the most famous japanese porn star) in the casting. Many went to see the movie in the hope to see her naked (and rest assured, she is) while other (mostly women) complained that she wasn’t a good actress and not even good looking enough to play a model.

I had forgotten about all of this controversy when I started watching Invitation Only and it just came back to me when I first saw Maria Ozawa on screen.

But enough with the gossip. Is Invitation Only a good horror movie?

Unfortunately, not really. The script takes its inspiration from other torture porn movies such as Hostel (rich bored guys get their ultimate thrills by torturing/killing people) but never rises above its source material. The acting is pretty bad across the board and I was starting to be really bored past half point of the movie.

If you’re into gore though you’re in for a treat, Invitation Only never shies away from the grossy stuff. But apart from a few torture/kill scenes there is nothing noteworthy in Invitation Only (unless you’re a die-hard fan of Maria Ozawa ;-)).

My Rating: 4/10

Director: Kevin Ko

Origin: Taiwan

The Final (2010) Review

July 23, 2013 by Eric S. Leave a Comment

Synopsis: A group of high school outcasts get revenge on the students that torment them.

My Quick Review: The Final is quite similar to Truth or Die, another survival game that I watched recently, in a sense that it never really delivers on what is an exciting pitch.

Here we have a bunch of school outcasts who decide to take revenge on their bullies by kidnapping and torturing them, mostly using horror movies for inspiration.

Alas, if you were expecting graphic torture scenes and other bloody humiliation, you will be sorely disappointed as I was myself.

What you will have though is endless speeches from the main outcast (and for the first 20mn using an annoying voice box), below average acting by 25 year olds pretending to be 17, bad editing, pointless B-plots and characters.

There could have been a nice little gem hidden within The Final; I really would have loved to see more reenactments of cult horror films (the audition inspired torture scene was one of the highlight of the movie), but it mostly falls flat and favors pretentious sermons over thrills and gore.

My Rating: 5/10

Director: Joey Stewart

Origin: US

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