August Underground's Penance Reboot


REVIEWER RATING: 
4/10

DIRECTOR:

CAST:


The third installment of the August Underground found footage reboot is out now and I wish I had taken my lessons learned after suffering through The Human Centipede: The Final Sequence several years ago.
The takeaway?
Avoidance.

Once again, we are submerged into instant chaos, filth, and brutality through a bound man, struggling after a torturous session of mutilation in the basement of Peter Mountain and his girlfriend, Crusty.

Although the imaging has incredibly improved since it’s debut in 2007, the bouncing camera angles from these characters will still entice major nausea, causing it to still be unwatchable. Not to mention the lack of development, script, plot, or overall point to this farkakteh “story”, there’s just nowhere to go but down. Like bury this garbage deep into the ground so no one will be subjected to this shock schlock anymore.  

I’ll do my best to share the tale of Penance with you in simple terms… Peter and Crusty once again scream incessantly, curse to no end, and parade through town breaking into houses, beating on the homeless and (somehow) kidnapping and tormenting more victims in vicious ways to escalate sexual gratification.  

So, in other words, more paltry nonsense. These degenerates continue to have no point or reason to their madness, and it only builds upon my own anger, having wasted my time and patience in hoping this trilogy would improve.  

There were several highlights, though few and far between:
  - Peter running around in saggy tighty whities, only adds to the disturbing images – this was a welcome laugh.
  - Peter uses a ketchup bottle to write out “I love you” on the ground – so touching.
  - Peter gags from disemboweling a body which means either he is human, or the body has a god-awful stench. I’m going with the latter.
  - Special appearance by the Murder Junkies!
  - When the camera is steady, the seasickness disappears!

And although some of us horror addicts have become desensitized to most disturbing cinema, there was still a very uneasy feeling during the Christmas home invasion scene that featured a young couple and their daughter enduring horrific acts of violence for the pleasure of two maniacs.

All in all, Penance is more snuff fluff for hardcore AU fans. I am clearly not one of them.

OVERALL: 
Many people view the August Underground trilogy as brilliant and cutting-edge filmmaking in extreme cinema. Groundbreaking? No. There’s nothing groundbreaking in following the antics and explorations of two idiots, rampaging, and pillaging their own neighborhood for fun. Not to mention, it’s boring as fuck to watch. Someone once described Tom Six’s work as “Repulsion with a Purpose.” Vogel’s work should be “Repulsion for No Reason.”


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