katharina

Not nearly as cult, gross, bad or ridiculous as the hype around it. And way funnier.

Production and actor are better than a typical Z movie. Though past a certain point, there's not much acting going on. But the mad scientist nails it.

Nothing much is shown, so it's not even that disgusting or disturbing, I've seen much worse in this kind of movies.

However, apart from the basic idea, (well yeah, that's pretty original, you gotta give credit), they haven't really thought anything out.
There's a scene where they're shown painfully going upstairs. However at this point in the movie they've been repeatedly show inside/outside, upstairs/downstairs, even on an operating table. So how did they move all these times ? I don't think the doctor carried them on his shoulders.

As often in this genre, they had to often be really really stupid in order not to escape. I mean, come on, having a scalpel, stabbing the bad guy, and not even finishing him ? It's not like they could run to escape, they knew it would be long and difficult, much more than what hurting his leg a little would provide. And abandoning the scalpel ? Worse, when the doctor was crawking, the japanese guy had a lamp that was enough to smash him. But no, let's just give up and kill himself (should have also kept the scalpel for that), and well, too bad for the girls behind.
Or even before the operation, I get she didn't want to leave her friend behind, but what did she think she could do dragging her around ?

So yeah, past a certain point it was mostly frustratingly stupid. The doctor and his obsession added an unexpected effective dose of humor. The ending might have been the most disturbing point (what will happen to the middle girl, she really can't do anything sewed to two dead bodies), but the situation makes it almost easy (two cops came there, in urgency, with a warrant. When there's no news from them, she probably won't have to wait more than an hour before help arrives.).

It's hard to really put my opinion about this movie into words.
Is it horrible? yes. Does it have a point or a message? I don't fucking know.
It is truly fucked up and without a doubt the most disturbing shit I have ever seen. I don't know what to rate this so I'll just stick to a 5. I've noticed some people either give this a 10 for the fact that it really is disturbing and sick (living up to the genre,I suppose)while some give it a 1 or a 2 because they think it's just gross and nothing else.

The thing is, it is gross, but there is a plot there and it's not just disgusting(unlike August Underground that lacks plot and is just gross for the sake of being gross). There is a story(how it all happened and why), character development(for the most part not in a good way,really,but still) and a turning point where he's just in too deep(is that inappropriate?)and just feels like 'fuck this,I'm done' and he decides that he wants to commit suicide(with the rest of his family), but while his life may be over,the disgustingness is not. They(the people that hired him,I guess,that company or those people ,whatever,you know what I mean) just take that opportunity and decide to rape them and film it,which you're obviously aware of if you've watched it.

I have thought about this movie more than I should have after watching it. I have gone to forums and interviews from the director trying to find out what the actual fuck this is, and why ,and if it really has any sort of point.
I do think that it is artistic in a way, it's also sadistic but the feeling I got after watching it was (among other things like extreme nausea)a feeling of what the fuck did I watch but more importantly why? , and that is the primary point that I found before all the research.
It is sick,twisted and completely nauseating but you wanted to watch it anyway. Why?curiosity perhaps.
Many people have said that this is the most disgusting movie they've ever seen and when people say that , you ask yourself oh really? , is it really that bad? and you feel tempted to find out, or at least I did, but I reckon many agree.

This review was not as put together as I had planned but it's the best I can do for this particular movie and I hope it all made sense.
(the word disgusting was was featured in this review way too many times but for lack of other words, that'll have to do, because there really isn't a more appropriate word to describe this movie.)