The Legend of Red Room

Sometimes an underground film becomes legendary becomes it avalanches into something more.

During Insano Steve and myself's heyday of looking for the most fucked up films to watch, we'd have to make contact with horror traders to get our fix. I documented this in a post about Horror Trading circa 2002. It was a weird time and the standard protocol was this:

• You'd dub a movie on VHS in SP mode and make sure to tell your trading counterpart the quality (1st generation dub, 2nd, 3rd, etc)
• You'd trade lists and each person would choose what they wanted (this would entail 1 for 1's, 2 for 2's and sometimes 5 for 5's)
• Send it out as quickly as possible

Of course there were bad traders that burned you (you'd send them stuff but they wouldn't or take their sweet fuckin time to send the tapes to you), but your reputation grew on news groups and message boards if you were a prolific trader. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED was a term you wanted.

But this brings us to how we got two Japanese films called Red Room and Red Room 2. After searching for this movie at horror conventions, we met up up with a one GoreMaggot (a legendary trader) at Chiller. After getting his trading list, many trades were initiated. But I believe Insano Steve initiated a trade for the Red Room double.

Trade for a fucked up Japanese film we've never heard of? Yes we want that! The fact we traded for a movie with no subs and was only in Japanese made it exciting.

Here was my original review from my trading list:

you want underground mofo? this is it. straight from the motherland of sick shit...Japan. holy depravity batman! let's start off by saying this flick had no english subs, no dubbed version...just straight Japanese language. so this negates what i know of the real plot. the movie starts off with an extreme closeup of 2 women french kissing while a guy watches and you know what. anyway 4 people (3 girls and a guy) are trapped in a "red room" and seemingly are talking, arguing and playing a card game. the game consists of 4 cards 3 of which are numbered 1,2, and 3 and the 4th has a crown on it. they each pick a card. the person who selects the crown card gets to order 2 participants to do very sexual and depraved shit to each other. this is where we enter guinea pig territory.

***SPOILERS AHEAD!!!***

a woman is twirled on a chair until she blows chunks, a man has a hair dryer inserted into his mouth and hot air blows into his brain, the man inserts a screwdriver and bulb into a woman's ummm...well you know. guy beats the crap out of a woman and then rapes her. mr. wang gets separated from mr. rapist guy. and more fucked up shit then imaginably possible.

downright disturbing. totally fucked up. sicko perverted atrocities. the insanity of a movie with no morals. lowest common denominator appeal. underground, bootleg, cancerous disgusting. this is it. guinea pig is still the pinnacle but red room has its moments.

This was one of the movies that had THIS company send me a cease and desist e-mail! After I got this movie I had added it to my horror trading list which led to some bullshit copyright crap. In any case, the legend of Red Room was born.

A ridiculous Japanese gore movie, a horror trade, watching a movie without subs and a cease and desist letter. That is the Legend of Red Room.

Intrigued by this movie? Well here is the trailer and now you'll know why we had to see it!





Isn't that just uber fucked up?

Categories: gore, horror trades, japanese, japanese atrocities, japanese exploitation, japanese gore, japanese horror, red room, splatter, underground horror, underground horror movies, underground splatter

Shogun Assassin (Review)

Directed by Robert Houston, Kenji Misumi

Insano Steve says: Greatest samurai movie of all time, action-wise. Shogun-less samurai wanders countryside with infant boy in baby carriage in search of redemption, revenge and gore. Our samurai cuts and kills people with such efficiency, O.J. Simpson would be proud.

No samurai flick has as much splatter, not to mention the awesome killer cart the baby rides in and some of the coolest bad guys in any movie (3 badasses with pointy straw hats - there is no cooler accessory than a pointy straw hat). Shogun wants samurai dead and has hundreds of men, but samurai is a bad mother fucker with no conscience.

The benchmark to which all other swordplay movies will be judged.

HIGHEST RECOMMENDATION.

Rating:
The Trailer

Categories: japanese, japanese atrocities, japanese exploitation, japanese gore, samurai

Audition (Review)

Directed by Takashi Miike

Insano Steve says: Old widower decides he'd like to remarry now in his old age and has his friend (a movie producer) hold a bogus movie audition to find his perfect mate. Old guy finds woman of his dreams but low and behold, she's crazy. Very exciting ending and extremely well crafted thriller. Departure from the usual Miike insanity. Slow but worth the wait.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

Rating:

The Trailer

Categories: audition, japanese, japanese atrocities, japanese exploitation, japanese gore, japanese horror, takashi miike

Philosophy of a Knife (Trailer)

There's a debate on whether or not Philosophy of a Knife is worth the time, money and effort to watch what the horror underground is calling the first "Goreumentary". Though many would say Men Behind the Sun is the first (a film that shocked the fuck out of me) that movie was made 20 years ago and you figured somebody would take the goreumentary a little further.

That's where Andrey Iskanov comes in.

The Russian director of Nails and Visions of Suffering has decided to make a documentary about Japanese Unit 731, where a group of Japanese scientists performed biological medical experiments on Russian prisoners.

Here be the plot from Unearthed Films who produced the film with Iskanov.

The true history of Japanese Unit 731, from it's beginnings in the 1930's to it's demise in 1945, and the subsequent trials in Khabarovsk, USSR, of many of the Japanese doctors from Unit 731. The facts are told, and previously unknown evidence is revealed by an eyewitness to these events, former doctor and military translator, Anatoly Protasov. Part documentary and part feature, the story is shown from the perspective of a young Japanese nurse who witnessed many of horrors, and a young Japanese officer who is torn between his sincere convictions that he is serving the greater purpose, and the deep sympathy he feels for an imprisoned Russian girl. His life is a living hell as he's compelled to carry out atrocious experiments on the other prisoners, using them as guinea pigs in this shocking tale of mankind's barbarity. Philosophy of a knife is truly one of the most violent, brutal and harrowing movies ever made.

The gripes come in that's its 4.....yes FUCKIN 4 HOURS LONG!!!!

And that "starved" prisoners all look like Anna Kournikova. From what I've read in reviews and comments, the torture and gore are in peak form and are disturbing as fuck.

Hmmmm. We've got pros and we got cons. The DVD came out on July 8th and is available via Unearthed Films.

Many fucked ups scenes are up on YouTube. Check out the trailer below and decide if you're in or out.

Tags:
Philosophy of a Knife, Philosophy of a Knife trailer , Philosophy of a Knife unrated uncensored trailer , japanese unit 731, goreumentary, japanese atrocities, exploitation film, gratuitous nudity, top horror movie 2008, world war II, Andrey Iskanov, horror blog,unearthed films, the jaded viewer

Categories: Andrey Iskanov, goreumentary, japanese atrocities, japanese unit 731, Men Behind the Sun, Philosophy of a Knife, Philosophy of a Knife trailer, russian horror, unearthed films, world war 2