onsdag 28 november 2012

Abolition (2011)

 
Abolition - Mike Klassen (2011)

Joshua, a thoughtful and nice person who only wants everyone well get fired one day from his job as property attendant of a small apartment building. He trudges to an abandoned building where homeless junkies reside. After a fight about food, he wakes up and discovers that only he and his junkie friend are alive. He really have no idea what’s happening around him and he desperately heads off in agony and pass out outside a church, he wakes up at Matthews apartment who offers him shelter and work as property attendant. Something lurks in Joshua's past and soon, it occurs to him that he is the one who will decide the world's fate.

I like Andrew Roth's performance as the shy, thoughtfully and kindhearted Joshua, who slowly becomes aware of his call. I scream out loudly when Reggie Bannister who plays Matthew pop up on the screen, a well known name which featured in the legendary Phantasm series. Many of the actors are very experienced actor with many films behind them, so you would think it could have been a really good movie, but no. The movie feels a bit too slow-paced, and you have to wait too long for it to really kick off. It is a pity because the story is sometimes mysterious from time to time and you wonder what it really is all about. The film has a significant religious undertone about taking care of those who are good-hearted on earth and destroy the evil minded souls. It could have been pretty good, but with a very low budget, it is not all that easy.

Abolition is Mike Klassen's first feature film and is produced by a relatively new company called SKG Films with films like “48 Hours in Purgatory” and “Stripped!”. They also have two new films in the works for 2013 with Jason Armstrong that looks promising.

Skeleton Key Film, IMDb

torsdag 22 november 2012

Petter Baiestorf Part 2

”The Crazy World of Petter Baiestorf” Part 2
 
Arrombada (2007)
 
In this part two, I have taken a look at Arrombada. Even this time, Petter gave me the plot but the movie had English subtitles.
 
A State Judge senator who has been elected by popular vote twice (Coffin Souza) and his perverted friends, a priest (PC) and a doctor (Gurcius Gewdner) blackmails an arrested trafficker so he must take the freedom from a girl (Ljana Carrion) for their horny perverted sex games. They masturbate and rape the girl with cruelty several times. Only after delivering the girl, the dealer is weighing in and solve conscience go free her. At the same time the girl runs away from boring perverts the right eye of Judge (and shitting on his face) and to find the dealer sorry kills her thinking he was helping perverts. The girl still manages to kill the doctor, but then is re-captured by the priest and judge who kills and eat her flesh, leaving her in the middle of a road, in Brazil because "power is synonymous with impunity" and the double 's authority, ie, there is no law for authorities and powerful.
 
I must admit that I was a bit shocked after seeing this tale of weirdness. I had hard times to really grab my feelings for the content I just have seen. Arrombada is very brutal and disgusting, but also entertaining in a bizarre way. The movie stretches only about thirty-nine minutes but Petter has used every second in a remarkable way without bullshit and unnecessary babble. If you look behind the story and the content visually, you discover that the Arrombada has a clear message. This is definitely a political movie about the abuse of power among "Authorities and powerful people" and Petter wants to show this in his very own special and disgusting way. For me, the woman who is raped in the movie is a symbol of raping the citizens of a nation.
 












TL: Any comment? Can you describe your point of view of the story, what symbolize the State Judge, the Priest & the Doctor?
 
PB: When I wrote the "Arrombada" I was angry with a case involving a corrupt state judge here in Brazil who had embezzled millions of dollars of construction of a building of the judiciary. My initial idea was to shoot a feature film, but could not raise enough money to produce and had to choose to do it in the format of an average film. The State Judge of the film, which is played by actor underground Cult Coffin Souza with a mustache style Adolf Hitler (I hate Nazis and fascists), is also a senator elected by popular vote twice in history, it is the law and the political class in this story, drawing a parallel with the corrupt politics of my country, which is supported by the church (so the priest played by PC) and the Brazilian middle class professionals, represented by the figure of the doctor played by Gurcius Gewdner also editor of my films. In place of the doctor I could have put the military, which would crack the holy bastards here in Brazil, but I decided not to be so obvious and wanted to talk about supporting "civil" and not military corrupt politicians get here. It's a plot that the Brazilian public understands, "Arrombada" was released in Brazilian theaters and some had a public performance, but do not know if it is easy for Europeans to understand that here in Brazil's leaders, rich with people and studies in most cases, takes advantage of this "superiority" just to take advantage. And here in Brazil, and the people being screwed by political, military, religious and rich, also live hostages crime! I do not know if the European people know this, but here in Brazil we live an undeclared civil war with drug dealers organized criminal gangs who run the Brazilian favelas where the state does not get involved, so I added a "fourth power" in script "Arrombada" which is the figure of a drug dealer making alliances with the powerful. Everything could be solved with quality education, lower taxes (the tax burden of taxes here in Brazil is one of the highest in the world and this money is diverted, mostly by corrupt politicians) and jobs that pay a living wage, but, Brazilian politicians prefer the people living in complete darkness, ignorant and poor, fighting for soccer teams and praying in churches!
 
TL: What do you mean by Land of Impunity?
 
PB: Welcome to Brazil! Land where politician no goes to jail, where people fight over football, where children do not receive quality study, where artist (mostly filmmakers) dreams of living with money the state makes the law and outlaw! At this time the supreme court ordered some Brazilian political party of President Dilma by corruption, were to be in jail, but have not been arrested yet, Zé Dirceu, one sentenced to 10 years in prison spent this past weekend at the beach. Also right now a politician who was mayor of São Paulo called Paulo Maluf was ordered to return to public coffers more than $ 22 million and, until now, was not arrested! The state Judge that inspired the screenplay for "Arrombada" was arrested in 2009, but it was not for a prison, this law judge fulfills his sentence under house arrest, you know? Brazil is the land of opportunity ... of corrupt!
 
The movie is packed with loads of violence and obscure incidents like sexual abuses, cannibalism, necrophilia & beatings of defenseless women. Petter has taken everything to the limits in order to show his clearly distrust to politicians, to the religion and to people who have a respected work in high positions. I do not want to ruin all the fun for those who might get the chance to see this flick in the future, by telling everything that happens during these thirty-nine minutes of seriously provocative and humiliating fun. A thought I get is why anyone would like to be so extreme in its creation of such an important message?
 
PB: Yes, I agree Larsson, I should have addressed this issue in a more serious and less violent, but my school of filmmaking is Troma and Jesus Franco, ie, can not address these issues in a way that is not full of debauchery, sarcasm and absurd violence, so overreacted at all! I know that the film could have raised in a clear way that everyone wanted to discuss these issues here, but I'm not the director appropriate to make conventional films! I'm quite a fan of the films of Costa Gavras, for example, but I could not do films with the content of seriousness that Costa Gavras's films have. I have a bizarre sense of humor too, I did "Arrombada" thinking it would be seen as a comedy and gore I was surprised to see that the public was shocked when I launched the film. Here in Brazil the film was censored in many places, but still has a career and raised some interesting discussions. In fact, I consider myself a comedian, but I think the public does not see me with a comedian because comedy has become harmless. Unfortunately we do not have more political comedians like John Waters (70s), Monty Python, Buñuel or Pier Paolo Pasolini, the current comedy is harmless!
 












To mention one scene that got me laughing uncontrolled, yeah I must be sick. After the remorseful trafficker are killed by becoming impaled by a stick through the ass, the priest passes by and sees the possibility of a little extra pleasure and sit down on the stick for a ride. Haha,,,
 
TL: What do you have to say about this scene?
 
PB: This scene illustrates my sense of humor, I think that a scene can be even more absurd nonsense forever. Here in Brazil is large number of priests pedophiles (the Catholic church and pastors from other churches), mostly cases involving homosexuality, so it seemed natural to think that if a priest stalker find someone impaled on the stake he would sit down and have fun anal sex (laughs). Maybe my sense of humor is too bizarre, but I like to tackle serious issues in a more stupid!
 
Next part in this series will be Vadias Do Sexo Sangrendo.
 

 

 

fredag 16 november 2012

Petter Baiestorf Part 1


”The Crazy World of Petter Baiestorf” Part 1

First I want to warn all readers because Petter's movies are definitely not for the "good taste mainstream" horror fans. His movies are very brutal and probably highly offensive for many viewers. Violence and sex are mixed in the most obscure way, so to all of you who are still with me, sit back and continue read ”The Crazy World of Petter Baiestorf”.
Tomas Larsson: Who is Petter Baiestorf? He is a fascinating, bizarre indie director from Brazil you should not miss in your life. This is a really odd director who in many ways shocks its viewers with both sex and gore in his own bizarre way. Titan Video will soon release some of his movies and that is awesome. DO NOT MISS THIS.

Petter Baiestorf: Thanks for the words! I try to be original (in my own way and within my extremely low budget), doing all kind of movie that can escape the commonplace (gore, sexploitations, experimental). Sometimes it works, so many times it's all wrong, hauahauaahauaahauaa
I would like to thank Petter for sending a bunch of copies of his movies and gave me the opportunity to enter into his crazy world of madness. The first film to go into the DVD is Blerghhh!!! and appears to be his first movie, but I put this question to Peter himself.

TL: Is Blerghhh!!! your first movie?

PB: "Blerghhh!!!" (1996) is not my first film. My first production called "Criaturas Hediondas" (released in 1993), then did "Criaturas Hediondas 2", "The Vegetable Monster from Space", "Detritos", "They Eat Your Flesh", "Caquinha Superstar a Go-Go" , "2000 Years for This?" and then "Blerghhh!!!".
"Blerghhh!!!" I have not launched here in Brazil on DVD (only VHS in the 90s), but I intend to subtitle it as soon as possible!

Blerghhh!!! (1996)
Because the movie is not subtitled, I leave over to Petter to describe the story.

Sid, Young addict (José Salles), and his bodyguard (Denise V.) are kidnapped by terrorists after buying drugs with your dealer (Petter Baiestorf). The terrorists are a group of young people who were inspired by terrorists who suffered from the 1964 military coup, as Cremado (David Camargo) and Rumba (Coffin Souza). Among the terrorist they fight for power between Rumba and Cruella (Madame X). Rumba takes the bodyguard of Sid and wants to make a snuff movie. Cruella and another terrorist (Marcos Braun) will ransom pro dad Sid and get nothing, then he decide to kill Sid (which is seen by a couple (Onésia Liotto and E.B. Toniolli) that needs to be killed as well), but Sid needs more and more drugs and come back as a zombie who wants more drugs to continue revived (re-animated). Rumba discovers later that if Sid is dismembered he will stop. At the end the sole survivors of the terrorist group kidnap someone new and still in their ideology and anti-military governments.
More or less this is "Blerghhh!!!".



Blerghhh!!! Is a 42-minute joyride into a madness of drugs, blood and tits. The opening of the movie is quite provocative with a baby getting shot because of its fucking screaming. Just one shot and they can continue taking their drugs in peace and quiet. It happens off screen so no baby goulash at this point. All this is done by atmospheric tones of a pan flute that quickly change after the shooting and becomes brutal Grind.

TL: In the opening of the movie you shoot a baby and I suppose that's very provocative in many ways. What has the reaction been around this? I believe most parents who have/had small children have at some time thought of the idea of throwing out their screaming baby out through the window, when the patience is tested to the extreme.

PB: When I launched the "Blerghhh!" here in Brazil, in 1996, the film was banned in almost all display channels. I made a distribution of this film independently, as I have done to date! I have no children and don’t intend to have, but I wanted a provocative opening in the film and the act of a junkie drug dealer killing a baby who cries seemed to me a good idea. I make small-budget exploitation movies, I need to make a difference and scene like that you will never see in common movies. I am an advocate of sex, but not violence, you know? I try to trivialize violence through exaggeration in my films because the human being is more and more violent and through my movies I criticize that! Now, I'm pre-producing the feature film "Zombio 2: Chimarrão Zombies," which is a movie about the undead (continuation of the first zombie movie made in Brazil, "Zombio", which I did in the 1990s. The Brazil has no tradition in film gore), where I explore all the evil of living. The zombies in the film are just an allegory, something that I’ll use to criticize the living and their greed, their weaknesses, etc., all wrapped with cynicism and sarcasm, my trademark!

The film has a comic undertone and I cannot help but laugh a bit of what´s going on between those wonderful tits that adorn the picture periodically. The movie is funny while the blood spurts across the screen and guts are dug out after the hunt for a bag of cocaine, which someone has swallowed. The flick feels a bit like Das Komabrutale Duell with Heiko Fipper from 1999, for no one seems to be able to die in the movie. They keep coming back even if you cut the head off or get a bullet through the head. Now Blerghhh!!! was done before Komabrutale Das Duell but I'm doubtful that Heiko found the inspiration through Blerghhh!!!, but who cares, both are crazy indie movies you must see. To put an end to this zombie like pain-in-the-ass character they cut him up in pieces and the movie ends, but not the story…

TL: The movie contains a lot of drug use; is this something that reflects the society in Brazil? Or is it just an important content of the story?

PB: In the movie "Blerghhh!" Drug use is intense because it reflects the Brazilian society. Here, we are experiencing an epidemic of crack cocaine, a whole generation turning zombie because of the drugs they use to escape the misery. Brazil does not invest in education and workers here are exploited by big businesses and industries. This generation of Brazilians are not just running away from reality with the use of drugs, but also escaping from reality through the religions. Here in Brazil you can open a church if you want. And there is a business involving religion and faith. Lack of education makes a people completely stupid, and because of this ignorance, we have sick people seeking healing in drugs or in religions! In the case of "Blerghhh!", The film also speaks about the Brazilian left (Communists) which is the same thing that's right, actually. In Brazil there was a violent military dictatorship in 1960 and 1970 and these military were supported by almost all Brazilian society, with a few focus of resistance left. "Blerghhh!" Talk about it, about the total lack of organization of the Brazilian left. Here in Brazil, much energy is left behind when the young leftists start consuming drugs! As a student of anarchist philosophy I think it’s regrettable!

 TL: I must admit that I am very fond of women's body, especially the boobs and you delivered that a few times. The woman who is chained to the ceiling is delicious. What are your personal thought behind such a scene?

PB: I love women, physically and intellectually. I think women are stronger than us men. And I’m a proponent of sex and nudity as artistic expression. In my films, I use sex as a way to break the Christian values of Brazilian society. Here in Brazil, if you walk naked in the streets you will be arrested for indecent exposure, but if you murder someone in the streets and if you be first offender (without having committed other crimes before the inept Brazilian justice), you can pay for this murder in freedom. Here, it is easier to be arrested for walking naked than to kill someone, you know? In the case of "Blerghhh!!!", I purposely created female characters stronger than men and nudity is part of their force! Women are powerful and I wanted to show it in the "Blerghhh!!!".

Definitely a fun, entertaining and totally insane movie in the land of independent obscurity. The next movie that I'm going to take look at is Arrombada, so keep your eyes open and watch out for part 2 in "The Crazy World of Petter Baiestorf".

söndag 11 november 2012

Blodspår (2012)




Blodspår - Jon Martin (2012)
 
First I would like to say thanks to Kriss who provided me this screener.
Two girls are brutally murdered at a Thai Kickboxer gym by a psychopathic maniac with a knife. Born as Peter Zättlin is caught and locked up in a secure psychiatric institution for treatment. To the police fear and incomprehension, after three years of treatment he will be moved to an open institution instead. Peter escapes and immediately he stab his knife into a woman and disappears into the night. Meanwhile, a bunch of girls has gone to a cabin in the woods for a course and soon our brutal psychopathic killer will use them on his pile of corpses.
 
It is with a bit of expectation I “put on” the movie (and not my girlfriend, haha I´m not sure about my English here) because I have heard a lot about the movie and not exactly positive reflections. Those of you who have read my previous reviews know that I let the viewer decide if a movie is good or bad. Technically it's no Lord of the Rings exactly, but all who complains should that. This is a zero-budget slasher flick in our elongated Sweden set in the forest somewhere and nothing else. I see those crappy indie movies as an important part in my viewing and definitely not as a waste of time of my precious life on earth. If I have to complain about something, I would have appreciated a bit more blood and guts. There are quite many who get their final rest during Peter's rampage as the Great Butcher, but with sparsely bloodshed.
 
The story is basically non-existent, so it feels a bit like watching a porn video. The talk is relatively unimportant, instead you´re waiting for the next chick to be killed. Since most of the actors are young babes you sit waiting for any cheesy sleazy moment. The best event in the movie is when a photographer brings a young, huge busted and sexy woman (played by Sanna Rough) into a creepy abandoned house in the woods, to shoot some pictures. You sit and wait for the bitch to take off her shirt and show her Godly creations, and sure she does. My eyes nearly pop out and this wonderful moment make the movie worth buying, because the screener I received is of very low quality. The proper DVD release is said to have a much higher quality so it is just to wait.
 
This is a flick for us indie geeks and it should have a place in your DVD collection, among other Swedish low-budget productions like Svart Död that I saw for not so long ago.