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August Underground(2001)
Director: Fred Vogel
Writer: Fred Vogel Allen Peters
The Story: Two sick and twisted individuals record their exploits and killings.
Gore: The gore in August Underground is top notch. Even for a low budget movie, they obviously worked on their gore. The dismembering scene in the bathroom, and the torture of the bound girl stick out as some extreme gore. The shit I could have done without, as it was done well( as well as Shit can be done) but there is no need other then to fill someone's fetish. No gore scene made me sick or turn away, and in fact the most grossed out I got was when the bound girls shit was on his hand.
Cinematography: The movies shot on a video, and is supposed to look like the deranged videos of some crazed lunatic so it isn't supposed to have amazing videography. That being said Man Bites Dog was made in the same vein and it is more visually pleasing then August Unferground. Granted that was supposed to be a documentary crew and this is supposed to be a serial killer filming a murder spee, but it can be taken care of more.
Storyline: August Underground holds its roots soley in Man bites Dog, but is a more brutal and visceral story. Where as Ben in Man bites Dog is a serial killer, you as the viewer still kind of like him. There is no like for the killer or his video taping buddy, because they are just sick individuals. They both show the stereotypical homicidal killer symptoms: anti-social, masochistic, no love for women and makes them have no redeeming value. This goes along with the movie being more Brutal because why would you want to like these men. At times it feels like a couple friends filming Jackass Scenes ( though a little more disturbing) the scene when the killer helps an old lady with her groceries, before killing her off camera looks like any videos me an my friends filmed where we would play pranks on people. (though we didn't kill any old ladies)
Acting: Luckily the two main actors are playing normal everyday peole because the acting was so bad it is believable that these are real people. The bound girl does show some signs of acting, but if I was a naked
girl tied up with fake blood and shit on me, and those two waving a knife and camera in my face it wouldn't be so hard to act scared. But everyone else just seems fake and stale.
My Thoughts
I get that this is a bloodier, more disgusting version of Man Bites Dog but it is nowhere near as good of a movie. My biggest gripe with alot
Of underground movies is their elevating of gore and effects above the storyline. August Underground (other then one scene) doesn't do that. Instead it focuses the brutality and realism above the storyline because that is all that needs to be focused on in this movie. If we didn't focus on the brutality we would see this as a vastly inferior version of Man Bites Dog. It's a movie I'll never rewatch, not due to the material of the story or anything along those lines. It based on it soley being a terrible movie.
4/10(most of that for the gore)
Note: I started to watch mordum but fell asleep, once I finish that I'll review it as well.