" .home .tv .hell "
" .home .tv .hell "
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Reviewer |
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Jonny Cage |
| Official Website |
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Year |
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2008 |
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Director(s) |
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Julien Zenier |
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Writer(s) |
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Julien Zenier |
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Actors |
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Zoe Berriatúa |
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Runtime |
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11m 25s |
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Categories |
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Psychological |
Synopsis
A young bald man sits in front of his television and flips through commercial after commercial promoting the Hollywood ideal of the “perfect body”. We see the man leave the room for a short time and come back with a retractable razor; something like a utility knife. He then proceeds to physically mutilate himself in some of the most horrifying way imaginable.
Review
Once again, thank you Julien for giving me the opportunity to view the film before most. Honestly, I can’t really remember how I came across this film. I think the director had sent me a friend request through MySpace and I decided to give the film a try. What followed was one of the most horrifying things I’ve ever had the ability to witness.
The story is one that should be heard world-wide: this is what our media can do to people. The more we promote body image, the more self-conscious the average viewer feels. The more we promote diets, the more we will feel guilty about eating fast food once a week. It is never going to stop. Here we see a young man who is probably insecure already due to his premature baldness (the character…not the actor). Throw in a constant barrage of “this is what you need to look like to get anywhere” adds and commercials and you have a recipe for some real disasters. Our media has the power to create wonderful things…then destroy them in the most fiendish of ways.
The acting was pretty minimal; no words, no script, not much else going on besides the story and the gore. But I was hoping for more emotion from the character considering he is basically skinning himself without even a drop of alcohol or a single painkiller. It just seemed too…ehh…not-enough-ish. I liked the way he portrayed the character, please don’t get me wrong but, he just seemed too complacent at times to be peeling skin off of his exposed flesh.
The gore was so well done and so carefully crafted that if I was told that it was real…I would have believed it. You have to have a sick mind to do this kind of work; to come up with ways to make it look like your skinning your own body. Even though the torture genre is not my favorite, I’ve got to hand it to the entire crew on this film…you guys did one hell of a job! Only recently have movies been made that have had the ability to make me cringe or make me almost physically sick; like Barricade (2007) or 100 Tears (2007). This film goes above and beyond that point, right into the realm of darkness where most directors are not willing or even able to tread.
Wrap It Up
I think that the duration of this film has been the longest I’ve ever gone without blinking. I was so shocked and horrified by this film that I could not stop watching. This was partially due to the audacity of the director to make such a film and partially due to the obvious subject matter about some dude on a self-mutilation binge. I feel so many different ways about this film it’s not even funny. I loved it because of its blatant message and perfect gore (yes, I said PERFECT), and I hated it because torture’s not really my fortay and I was not really thrilled to see Zoe Berriatúa’s junk hangin’ all around in my face (no offense Zoe, just don’t dig the sausage). But overall this film accomplished it’s goal; to be so graphic and in-your-face that it spurs reactions like mine…and many others.
23/25