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| Mary (Jessica Cameron) in American Guinea Pig: The Song of Solomon (2017) |
Based
loosely on the notorious video sensations Guinea
Pig (1985 – 1989) Stephen Biro’s Unearthed Films (the original’s U.S.
distributors) has created the American
Guinea Pig series of films (2014 – present), and here we present you the
two new installments.
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| American Guinea Pig: Sacrifice (2017) R1 BD. |
American Guinea Pig: Sacrifice
(2017)
Suffering
from a variety of psychological traumas (the most important being the death of
his beloved father), Daniel (Roberto Scorza, in his debut) goes on a
self-destructing binge, during which he will torture himself in a variety of
ways that will supposedly enhance his enlightening (one of them involves a
symbolic drill to his head) and will all make sense (in some sort of way) in the
film’s finale, which I won’t spoil.
Shot on
video, which is quite problematic, especially during close-ups and daytime
shots, but is also totally understandable due to the film’s nonexistent budget,
this is an exercise in violence for violence’s sake, as all we get to see is
torture for a brief 63 minutes.
You are
obviously here for the practical gore effects though, and you should be assured
that those are top-notch. Also, Samuel Marolla’s debut screenplay is offering
some attempts at poetry, that surprisingly do work most of the time. An
interesting rant about Trump building walls, Britain’s Brexit, and the
suffering of refugees is so much to the point as it is uncomfortable. And
speaking of uncomfortable, the set-pieces involving the protagonist’s nails and
penis are a bit too hard to stomach.
Essentially,
director Poison Rouge’s [A Taste of
Phobia (2018)] film is about the journey of a paranoid man, and as such, it
works in spades.
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| American Guinea Pig: The Song of Solomon (2017). |
American Guinea Pig: The Song of Solomon
(2017)
Upon his
suicide, a middle-aged man is transferring the demon that was possessing him to
his daughter Mary [Jessica Cameron from Camel
Spiders (2011)]. After science (i.e. family counselor, psychiatrist, and
the like) is deemed incapable of doing anything about the young girl, help is
asked by the Catholic Church, who in turn see that this case has much more on
its plate than a simple demonic possession.
Stephen
Biro wrote the screenplay, which is predictably too similar to The Exorcist (1973), as you know, all
scripts about demonic possession must be, and what really sets this apart from
this classic and its myriad copies is the extreme gore special effects by
Marcus Koch (again, an expected standard from an Unearthed Films production).
But aside of all that Chris Hilleke’s cinematography is so slick that what we
have here is probably producer/director Stephen Biro’s most mainstream-looking
film ever. This may help it go places (it played a few festivals already), but
unfortunately takes a lot away from the Guinea
Pig experience, which is about more raw aesthetics. However, although this
is never a positive experience (there are several splatter scenes on display
that are difficult to stomach), it is a very entertaining film that gore-hounds
should not miss.
Afterword
Unearthed
Films just added those two worthy releases to its long catalogue of violent
relics, and accompanied both BD releases with impressive packages that include
tons of extras, so gore-hounds should give away their cash immediately!
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