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http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1266073/
Director: Domiziano Cristopharo
Horror/Gore
House of Flesh Mannequins incorporates elements of surrealism and exploitation. Its set up into three acts. It starts out with Sebastian taking graphic photographs of accidents, murders, tortures, and a variety of other human sufferings. He apparently works for a deeply disturbed man that uses a newspaper stand as a front to peddle a wide variety of vile and illegal photos, magazines, and videos. It's not really clear as to whether or not Sebastian enjoys his work. He is clearly not well and as the story unfolds we learn enough about his childhood abuse to see what is driving him. Then we meets Sarah. A tenant in the same apartment building that Sebastian lives, she is intelligent, beautiful, broken, and desirable.
Once Sebastian and Sarah begin their "friendship" things get really, really odd and perverse. He begins to share his "work" with her, Sarah herself begins to show a more sinister side and gives in to the violence and snuff-like world that Sebastian lives in. There's all kinds of really sick dialogue and situations. It should be noted that professional body modifiers and fetishists were used during the torture scenes. Much, if not all, of what is intended to make the viewer squirm is really happening. So that means that the cutting, filleting of skin, puncture wounds, and the like are all live and "in the flesh." I didn't care for this ''real footage'' added to scenes. You could really tell the difference. It upset the flow of this film.
The newspaper man, Cannoluti, is downright painful to watch. It's hard to tell if his awful delivery is deliberate, or if the actor is just terrible. That being said, the first 70 minutes were filled with just enough quirk and creepiness to pull me along to the sick brutality that is the third act. It's an odd combination that doesn't always make sense and didn't always keep me engaged. However, it's just original enough for dedicated sick gore fiends (like myself) that are always looking for something different.
7/10
Trailer:
http://www.horror-movies.ca/horror_17423.html