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Ten splatter flicks you can't live without... (updated!)Aug 04 '02 (Updated Oct 23 '02) Write an essay on this topic.The Bottom Line If you're looking for something new to watch, check out one of these films. You won't be disappointed. I'm writing this as kind of a follow up to Mike Bracken's "Pass Me the Barf Bag--My Top 10 Gore Flicks of All Time" which I highly recommend reading. While Mike's list dealt with the extremes of on-screen carnage I'm going to list films that I found to be gory, yet well made and fun to watch. Note: I have nowhere near the authority on the subject Mike does. These movies aren't for everyone, if you are offended or grossed out by graphic violence and gore then don't watch them. Here they are: 1. Braindead... Peter Jackson's tour de force of black comedy, mayhem, and relentless monumental ultra gore. It's an extremely fun ride, while there is an onslaught of gushing blood and flying body parts, there is also tons of humor thrown in to balance it out. The lawnmower scene alone outdoes the gore in nearly every other horror film combined. It results in a virtual mountain of splattered body parts and spilled blood. Excessive? You might call it that. But it will provide lots of laughs and dropped jaws. See why it's been called the goriest movie ever created, and witness Jackson's unique splat-stick approach. A must see! 2. Riki Oh, the Story of Ricky.... Gross, hilarious, extremely violent, inspiring, shocking, all at the same time. Possibly the bloodiest martial arts film ever, and that's saying something! Ricky is thrown in prison for taking revenge on the goons who killed his girlfriend, and once locked up, he is exposed to cruel atrocities of the prison system. He becomes a one man killing machine, punching his way through bullies, disemboweling, crushing, and mutilating thugs and prison guards. The last 10 minutes give Braindead's finale a real run for it's money, as there is an incident with a giant meat grinder. The avalanche of shredded flesh and eruption of gore is almost unbelievable. The flow of grue reaches a staggering level. You will rise from your seat and cheer. Not to be missed. 3. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre... Although not the goriest movie on the list, it packs a heavy punch. The atmosphere is great, and the plot has a nice twist towards the end. The visual elements are very surreal, it still has an impact nearly 20 years after it's release. The psychos in this movie are so fun to watch, they are really messed up and give the movie it's edge. One of the first hardcore slasher films, and a real gem compared to the mindless teen drama "horror" movies like I Know What You Did Last Summer and the Bland Witch Project. One of the best horror movies ever. Some call it terror, I call it fun. 4. Return of the Living Dead... A classic 80's zombie comedy. A personal favorite. It has an original plot and some decent gore too, as a couple of medical supply warehouse workers accidentally release a zombie from a sealed barrel (supposedly left from Night of the Living Dead). The vapor from the cannister gets out and brings the dead back to life. Features some of the coolest scenes from any zombie movie (this time the zombies can think for themselves). The sequels fall short of the original sadly. 5. Re-Animator.... Experiments that bring the dead back to life, tons of spastic revolting zombies, great acting, writing, sets, score, etc. If you haven't seen it go out and find this movie as soon as possible! They really knew how to make them back then. The best character of this film is a demented doctor who is decapitated by a shovel when he attempts to steal the secrets of re-animation (bringing the dead to life) from a medical student. For the last half of the film, his corpse walks around carrying his severed head plotting revenge. The highlight is the chaotic ending, with zombies on a rampage and fantastic gore. Some hilarious and disgusting moments, including a brain removal, a head squished and thrown against a wall, bonesaw through a zombie's chest and an exploding corpse that shoots intestines across the room. Very intense and memorable. 6. Starship Troopers.... Ok, it's technically a sci-fi, but it can be classified as a splatter film as well based on hundreds of torn apart corpses that litter the screen. It's a great film on it's own, but the over the top violence makes it a real winner. Directed by Paul Verhoeven (Robo Cop, Total Recall), the plot is about several friends who join Earth's galactic military force to go and battle giant fire breathing bugs. It sounds like a b movie, but the effects are top notch and the gore is plentiful, trust me on this. Soldiers are burned alive, get cut in half, are decapitated and dismembered, get their brains sucked out, etc. Awesome movie!! 7. Night of the Creeps... More low budget 80's cheese. This one concerns some over grown alien leeches that bore into unsuspecting victim's brains. They then become zombies, and turn the town into a chaotic death trap. This flick actually contains some pretty good splatter, although it takes a while for it to get rolling. Lots of college girls running around and a flame thrower massacre at the end. This and Re-Animator were clearly inspirations for Braindead, as there is even a scene in the end where a zombie is run over by a lawnmower. Hilarious, harmless fun here. May have to do some searching to find it, but it will be worth it. 8. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2... Not everyone loves this picture, look at what it had to follow the success of. Yet it has a lot of charm in my eyes. The sets are particularly amazing, in fact they are some of the best sets in any horror movie. The family that's "always been in meat" is back, and they are more efficient at meeting their award winning meat demands. This time they got a huge underground lair to hide in, and you get to see some startling butchery by Leatherface himself. Faces are peeled off, guts sawed open, heads split in half, etc. Tom Savini shows why he is a master of fx. 9. Blood Diner... The follow up to Blood Feast. Two restaurant owners go on a mission of bloodshed and dismemberment in order to create a pieced together female body for an ancient goddess called Sheetar. Hilarious stuff, lots of cheesy gore and a rip roaring climax in a night club where dozens of people take part feasting on the flesh and blood buffet. A late night treasure. ***no thinking required*** 10. The Beyond... Italian director Lucio Fulci's gore filled nightmare. One of the most mean spirited, hopeless and bloody films I've seen. The gate to a different dimension (Hell I guess) is opened and innocent people start dying in horribly gruesome ways. There's acid melting faces, eyeballs torn out, throats ripped open, heads blown apart, etc. Not for everyone, dark and ruthless. What's so enjoyable about this film you ask? The atmosphere, the zombies, the effects, and the creepy sets. Very underrated. Others: The Evil Dead Hellraiser From Beyond The Toxic Avenger A Nightmare on Elm St. Bad Taste Pieces From Dusk Till' Dawn Night of the Living Dead (the original and remake) the Thing (remake) For those with a strong stomach: -Black Past- Olaf Ittenbach's first film is a real trip through Hell (literally). For those who haven't seen an extreme gore flick you're better off starting out with something a little less intense. While Black Past has poor production values and amateur direction and acting, the gory torture, self mutilation and murder scenes are some of the most brutal ever put to film. I'm warning you now. In a gory dream sequence, the protagonist slices himself up head to toe (even his tongue), then in another dream has his dick nailed to a table (very hard to watch), while he is slowly disemboweled and hung upside down to "empty out." If that's not bad enough he then peels off his own face in bloody detail before going on a rampage of dismemberment and butchery. Black Past is one of the goriest movies of all time, but it's really the multiple scenes of ripped open bodies and spilling guts that push the limit. Very good effects too. Hopefully this will be released in the U.S. but don't hold your breath. Various bootlegs are available. -Cannibal Holocaust- Infamous Italian gore flick that contains footage of many vile and disgusting acts. After some fairly boring plot building and dialog (what film doesn't have that?) the viewer is subjected to some pretty sickening acts. Don't let the reputation of this film fool you though, the violence and gore isn't as shocking as advertised in my opinion. It's the manner of the mayhem that makes it unsettling and disturbing, the loss of control, helplessness and feel of realism. Or maybe you side with the cannibals and root for them to get revenge. Despite some shakey camerawork (intentional), we get some nasty animal slaughtering, raping, entrail eating, butchering, and ultimately decapitation; note the victory celebration by the cannibals after dismantling their victims (nice touch). The close up gutting of a large turtle is what earned the film a spot here though. NASTY. -House By The Cemetery- Fulci's haunted house tale provides one heck of a cool watch. (Note: repeat viewing helps). I won't give the story away, but I will reveal the gore highlights to get your juices flowing if you haven't seen it yet. In the first scene we see a knife plunged completely through an unlucky victim's skull, out her mouth. Later, there's another victim that is polked full of holes and we are treated to a closeup of the gushing blood spurting out. This is one of the most brutal deaths I've seen. You will cringe. Another victim has their throat slashed (more blood spurting) and eventually beheaded. Another victim has their throat ripped wide open and blood literally floods out. As cool as all this is, the real nastiness of the flick lies in the multiple shots of gory corpses and the pieces of them that remain. You see, in this house the bodies start to really stack up. The barf factor comes into play at the end though, we're talking maggots. Lots of em'. I don't know about you but I am grossed out when I see maggots eating rotten flesh, well how about maggots pouring out of an already foul, rotten corpse? You get the picture. Fulci has really outdone himself here, maybe his goriest masterpiece. -Guinea Pig: Mermaid in a Manhole- From bad to worse in the gross out dept. Close your eyes and run and hide if you think HBTC was puke worthy. We've got worms, thousands of them emerging from rotten sores on a mermaid that a messed up artist has brought home. Man, this is a gross movie. By far the most disgusting movie I've seen. This mermaid not only rots and produces worms, but pukes them out by the bucketful. And oh yeah, she gets hacked to bits after she dies and a fetus is pulled out of the bloody slop. I am not joking. Only the Japanese could make something so twisted. One of a kind entertainment. -Premutos- Read my review if you want the details. Ittenbach strikes again. This time there are hundreds of zombies and boy do they get reduced to pieces. This one went all the way with the gore factor, blood vomiting, dismemberment, sword hacking, chainsawing, blasting, decap, you name it. A grand display of sauce chugging by one of the modern masters. Improved direction, acting, effects, and overall production. Premutos rivals Braindead as the king of gore movies. Ittenbach is severly underrated. -Violent Sh*t 2- Wow, this is one demented gore flick. Probably the sickest movie I've seen. Much improved over the first installment, VS 2 has the son of Karl the Butcher taking his father's place killing anyone who happens to be in his way. A real extravaganza of cliched killing methods and over the top gore similar to Premutos. Karl the Buthcher Jr. is the German equivalent of Jason Voorhees, only Karl takes pride in decorating the woods with the body parts of his victims as well as putting them through perverted acts of torture and degredation (ie you're not gonna believe some of the stuff he does, totally hilarious one minute the next vomit inducing). After decapitating a female, he uses her head to get "head". Karl smears the poop of one guy on his face and then proceeds to mutilate his genitals. Hooks tearing through testicles is a rather painful thing I imagine. Another girl is tied up between two poles and has her vagina stapled. Somebody give this guy an award, lol. After feeding his crazy mother the flesh and blood of one victim, she spreads her legs for Karl's "treat." Later on there's a jogger that is ambushed and completely dismembered, decapitated, and disemboweled and a fisherman who's head explodes after being shot. When Karl enters a movie theater the people begin to laugh at him, like he's something out of a horror movie. They think it's a joke until he pulls out his gun and opens fire on the lot. That's only a sample of how sick, violent, (and funny) this one gets. These things are so absurd they become somewhat humorous due to the distastefulness. Expect lots of gory slashings, stabbings, shootings, impalements, guttings, and even a xxx bedtime story. Oh yeah, there's quite a bit of nudity too if that even matters. The first Violent Sh*t is along these same lines but contains many boring parts (yet it's just as gory, memorable scene award goes to a guy that gets cut to pieces with a tree saw). As with any stupid low budget splatter film, fast forward the slow parts and get to the goods! -Aftermath- I'm not recommending this short. It's gorier than hell, but not in a fun way. Because it's so disgusting I thought it would be worth mentioning here. Basically if necrophilia and graphic autopsies are your idea of enjoyment then "dig right in." Anyone else should stick with the films listed prior. Aftermath would make a good double feature with Nekromantik or Beyond the Darkness, or maybe Faces of Death. Very realistic effects, sick stuff. -Naked Blood aka Splatter- Kind of an odd film. Not a typical horror production, Naked Blood is about 3 Japanese girls who volunteer to be guinea pigs for a new drug experiment. Little do they know their ivs' were spiked with a very powerful, yet untested pain killer that turns pain into pleasure. Once the effect of the drug kicks in, all heck breaks loose. Gore highlights include a girl eating herself to death (nasty eyeball removal), a body piercing session that gets out of hand and a literal bloodbath that results in split open guts and arteries. Really strange film from the land of the rising sun. That's all for now. Hope you enjoyed the list and check back for updates as I am always watching more films. Know of a movie that deserves to be mentioned here? Email me at shredfreak@aol.com I also recommend Chas Balun's book "Gore Score 2001" for tons of obscure splatter movie reviews. Special thanks to Mike Bracken and Stephen Biro of Video Mayhem, go and check out his site if you are looking for obscure gore films! http://www.fm3d.com/videomayhem  |
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