If you throw the name Fred Vogel into any conversation about horror films,you're liable to hear a lot of varying opinions.Fans and supporters will have nothing but praise for the former instructor at Tom Savini's FX school-turned-director,and rightfully so,the guy's damned good at what he does.So good in fact,that it has brought him notoriety on occasion,getting his ass arrested for "smuggling obscene materials" and detained for ten hours on the way to a 2005 Rue Morgue convention in Canada,and getting the contents of his van seized,which included the entry we're discussing here and its predecessor.Conservative Kiwis in New Zealand have effectively banned all three of his AU films to date.So what's the big deal,query several wopophiles from the peanut gallery.Well let me tell you,kiddies.Other directors have tried to pinpoint the pulse of the realistic slasher film,pick the brain of the violent sociopath,but Vogel's gone a lot farther than that.He's opened the veins of the slasher flick and blocked the arterial spurt with his grinning face,he's bashed the serial killer's mind in with his trademark claw hammer,shouting obscenities and mugging for the video camera throughout the whole ordeal.And in the end you'll be disturbed,disgusted,shocked,violated,and feel as though you've been privvy to multiple real crimes against humanity.I think that's what Vogel set out to do with these films,and in your humble N's opinion,he's accomplished all that and more.
Hang out with Fred,you're bound to get hammered.Really.
Fred barges in on Maggot fucking Crusty.Fred's pissed off because Crusty is his girlfriend.He's even more pissed off because Maggot and Crusty are brother and sister.Eh,no matter.What's important is that the trio doesn't run out of victims.You see,they're serial killers who videotape their murderous spree of kidnapping,torture,murder,necrophilia,paedophilia...hell,even necrophilic paedophilia.These kids have a LOT of problems.Wanna hear about them?Too bad,I'm gonna tell you anyway.Crusty,when not cutting herself open to the delight of her bellicose beau, forces herself to upchuck on two bound,hysterical kidnapped female victims while Maggot tapes and Fred jostles himself and screams a lot.Everybody screams a lot.Later they force another roped and gagged gent in a wooden box to cut his own cazzo off with cuticle scissors.Crusty sucks the disembodied dick before forcing the dickless dude's girlfriend to masturbate herself with it.Had enough yet?After disemboweling another poor girl,Maggot mounts her gaping abdominal wound and rides the grue to glory.Oh,those crazy kids!
You're gonna give yourself hemmorhoids,Maggot.
When the trio pay a visit to a guy that looks an awful lot like Necrophagia leadman Killjoy(I knew he had to be a sick fuck!),they're treated to an entirely new cocophany of corpses and vivisected victims that includes a plastic drum with a headless,rotting infant in it.Not one to be outdone,Maggot pulls a handful of the garbage worms from the putrefying neck wound and eats them.Ready for that bucket yet?It seems that somewhere along the line,Maggot is rapidly losing the fingertip grip he has on reality,competing for the alpha male status that Fred has cemented for himself with hammer in tow,and also the amorous advances of his own sister,Crusty.In the outrageously vile finale,Maggot finds himself nailing the body of a pre-teen girl in the bathtub,punching her corpse in the ribs in between pelvic thrusts.Fred's busy cutting the throat of another girl he's stripped,hung upside down and fingerpainted in feces in the living room.He manages to drink a bit of the spurting blood from the slit before another fight ensues between he and Maggot.In the struggle,Maggot manages to wrestle the knife from Fred's hand and cuts his own throat with it before the screen cuts abruptly to snow.I'll get that bucket for you now.You might wanna run the bathwater as well,but trust me,it's not gonna wash off.
...Speaking of maggots,here's one baby that probably won't be colicky ever again.
Between the startlingly realistic effects and the convincing performances given here,you will believe you've just been an accomplice to several of the most atrocious murders ever committed.The whole trilogy depends on those two factors entirely.If the effects fail,or one of the actors steps out of horrendous character even for an instant,the production takes a dump.As it stands,I might have happily reported that this occurs somewhere in the film,giving the knowing wink to its viewers,letting them rest easily.It doesn't.Once you've sit down to view for yourself,the images will follow you around for a good while afterwards.Vogel has created his own personal subgenre of horror film,and I can't honestly say it's at all an enjoyable one in any realm of good taste.He has since moved on to higher ground with "The Redsin Tower",which I'll inspect for you at a later date.As for this,it's totally awful.And brilliant at the same time.It merits:
What do you call THIS game,kids?
7 comments:
Gah, flash backs of watching this.. my first and only film watched by Fred(Hard to get a hold of and damn expensive for this unemployed miss). One of the first things I want to point out is how did you NOT mention the puking? I watched this movie in absolute amazement and could even stomach the dead children, but the one thing that made me click my >> button is when Crusty started puking down a victims ass/twat and started licking it and... oh god, I am gagging...
This movie did have some great highlights which have been pointed out by yourself, and a selection of gut wrenching moments that will make anybody turn a way for a brief break from the madness. And I didn't know until recently that Fred went to Savini's school. Lucky man to get some one on one with my stallion. Not to mention, great to see that Tom's school provided further guidance with Fred's amazing talent because the gore in this movie was phenomenal.
I can't wait until you update with his other work, I think I might have to break down soon and try and get my little paws on them
Yeah the puking is ultimately the grosses thing here. That and the fugly girls and the random scenes in the metal concert.
But having bought my copy of Mordum from Mr. Fred Vogel himself at a random Chiller, he seems like he needed the August Underground shock value to jump start his "legit" film career. Redsin Tower was the result and was a blah horror flick with gore.
If you call yourself an underground horror guru, though revolting AU trilogy is, if you can stomach that, you're in the pantheon of the sicko hall of fame.
I'll start out by NOT suggesting Lucifer Valentine's "Slaughtered Vomit Dolls",the first of the director's self proclaimed vomit-gore trilogy,to either of you!Most of the girls getting cut to ribbons here did indeed need a makeover.Perhaps we've uncovered a modus operandi for the three sickos afterall?They were targeted for being hideous?A lot harder to kill Dita Von Teese than it would be to snuff...say,Phyllis Diller?Thanks to the glorious internet,I've had the extreme displeasure of watching oodles of real-life murders,some snuff,some of the execution variety.What separates REAL abominations from Vogel's staged ones,is in the real thing,there are no camera tricks,no latex,no stage blood.Your subconscious mind waits for the moment when a cut cues the special effects team's handiwork,but there never is one.All you're left with is amateur anatomy lessons,and some poor bastard's last moments on earth.Vogel comes as close as anyone would ever want to,in capturing that feeling on camera.That said,I was downright enthralled that Redsin contained none of these elements,and was little more than a Western Pennsylvanian low budget mix of the Exorcist and the Evil Dead.It's probably a hard transition going from the kind of films he WAS making,to the kind of films he WANTS to make.Give him time,I'm sure he'll manage down the road.He seems like such a likeable guy.That,and that dadblasted hammer of his...
I am jaded of watching this sort of insane stuff, then I am leaving.
It is totally unacceptable as it may be that this stuff is still allowed after watching the slaughter and comment about "how good was the film" We continue to ask why there is so much violence and killings in schools and universities ... What do you think about that reaction? IS LOGIC..RIGHT??
I love this film, it is a fantastic type of film, the effects and the plot are awesome.
I love your site, so many great horror films from the old school that I haven't seen yet.
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