DEVILS EXPERIMENT (1985, 43 mins)- Opens with a car driving through the woods. Then we see a girl trapped in a hanging net. Cut to three guys leading the girl into a basement, the floor covered in plastic. A title card pops up: HIT- the girl sits in a chair and is repeatedly slapped by the men. Next: KICK- the girl is blindfolded and kicked and berated by the men, who keep telling her to get up only so they can knock her down again. The rest include, SKIN, CLAW- where she is pinched with pliers, UNCONCIOUS- spinning her in a chair, SOUND, BURN- she's laid out o a table and oil at varying degrees poured on her, WORM- dumping maggots on her, GUTS, and finally NEEDLE- where they insert a needle into her temple and poke it through her eye.

Well, the first thing that struck me was wonder at how anyone could believe it was real. The matter of fact presentation and low rent nature does lend itself to being more raw and it probably looked more convincing on grainy bootleg videos with less clarity, but it didn't strike me as the slightest bit true. First of all, when the guys are slapping her, they are mainly doing that old trick where you hold someone's head with one hand, slap them with the other, only you cheat the slap by grazing the persons face and actually hit your opposing hand, making it seem like the 'whack' noise is coming from the persons face. Second, the first time she seems to be convincingly acting in pain is during the SOUND segment, where headphones playing loud industrial white noise are strapped to her head (I thought polka or "You Light Up My Life" would be more torturous, but I guess that will be saved for my Guinea Pig movie). Until that segment she just moans and is obviously not someone who has really been abducted and is in a panic. The only reaction that seems the slightest bit convincing is in GUTS, where basically, they throw guts on her. So, how fake is that? She's been kidnapped by strangers, slapped, kicked, spun, pinched, burned, and such, but she really only freaks out when some chicken livers are tossed at her? Plus, the burn she gets on her arm disappears after the WORM segment, a nice big continuity error.

At first I thought writing that paragraph of why you can tell it is fake may just be a guideline for faux snuff guys to make better videos, but honestly its not a big market, and even the Guinea Pig film makers realized the heat that rained down on them was too much and quickly switched the series to narrative horror tales. Still, despite spotting the stumbles that betray its reality, it is quite disturbing. The premise itself, this straightforward torture of a nameless victim, going from segment to segment of increased brutality, is hard to watch. Hard, because it is extremely degrading that anyone would want to make or especially watch this junk. But, there are people that get a kick out of it, and in a fairly repressed society like Japan, it was a smash video hit. It says a lot about human nature and the sadism that exists in people, the perversity of anyone getting a kick out of watching torture even if they know its fake.

In the Directors Cut of Scream, Drew Barrymore looks out at the patio and sees her boyfriend tied to a chair, gutted, and his intestines spill out onto the deck. This is a scene nearly as visceral as anything in Guinea Pig (nearly because it is edited quick and framed far away), but it is an acceptable and effective piece of gore because of the set up. Before that scene we've had a protracted conversation between our victim and the killer, and after she says her, "My boyfriend will be here soon." threat to the killer, we then see not only was she telling the truth (playing on the fact that in most horror films its a lie), but we further see this horrifying way in which her boyfriend has already been disposed. Olga Viarlatos getting a splinter through the eye in Zombie is slow, close up, and graphic, but made more so because of Fulci's brooding direction throughout the film, the violence reflects the languid tone he has already set up (plus by this point we've seen a zombie fight a shark, so its not exactly a documentary) . You throw away any attempt at a narrative and all that you are left with is an unintelligent work of pure shock that is catering a sick voyeurism- and that is DEVILS EXPERIMENT. There is something to be said for the unflinching- or less flinching- eye of films like The War Zone or Requiem for a Dream, movies that don't tap dance as much around subtle ways of depicting harsh circumstances. And there are times when forsaking stylization and sophistication can hammer home an idea much more effectively. But, minus any narrative and character, DEVILS EXPERIMENTs "point" is bold but also utterly deplorable.

Once again, I don't mind DEVILS graphic nature. For a time, I considered being a forensic photographer and have a fair stack of books featuring explicit crime scene photos. Its not that I am thrilled by the morbid, I just accept it as a factor of life and, although still disturbing, it probably doesn't bother me as much as most people. So, I disagree with the insensitive context. There is room for perversity in art, be it graphic or tasteless, after all, its part of the human condition. But, I did not get the sense that the intent of DEVILS perversity is some artistic exercise to reveal something about humanity. Instead, the perversity is there merely to exploit a part of the human psyche that is totally without merit.

ANDROID OF NOTRE DAME (1988, 52 mins)- A mad scientist dwarf, Dr. Karazawa, has been performing illegal experiments, trying to devise a method to save his sister who has a terminal heart problem and is at Death's door. A scientist (?) named Kato has been tracking his transactions and knows about the illegal experiments. Kato begins to aide Karazawa, as well as extort the tiny mega-brain, threatening to reveal his experiments, crash his computer and such if he doesn't pay up and share his success. Karazawa gets a corpse supplied by Kato, and experiments on it, failing, determining he needs something fresher. When Kato shows up at his house and threatens further blackmail, Karazawa lures Kato into a booby trap, and, faster than you can say Jan in the Pan, Karazawa has Kato's severed head re-animated so he can prod and experiment on it and taunt the unfortunate blackmailer. When Kato's girlfriend shows up, Karazawa finally gets his fresh heart donor, but his success still doesn't get the results he was hoping.

ANDROID OF NORTRE DAME has a very classic sci fi cornball feel to it. The mad scientist. The low budget laboratory. Bad acting. His computer readout says "BRAIN SENSALING SYSTEM". A laboratory set that Roger Corman would giggle at. And, you know, he's a dwarf. The story lapses into ludicrousness. The inexplicable booby trap is a flying buzzaw, oddly at knee length, which if I were a dwarf mad scientist, I'd make my booby trap at a normal persons chest level, thus ensuring I didn't accidental fall prey to my own trap. Such a big deal is made out of his trying to re-animate dead corpses, making one assume he would use that to help his sister, revive her or put her into a healthy body, but in the end he just performs what amounts to a heart transplant. And that heart transplant, the films big fx payoff, is pretty weak, completely fake, silly, and unconvincing, whereas the fx before was graphic, just as fake, but fun because of the unrealistic circumstances. Overall it just feels like an extended unrated episode of Tales From The Darkside.

The DVD: Unearthed Films.

Picture: Full-screen, 1.33:1 standard. Both were shot for and on video. Because of it being the first and a faux snuff film, DEVILS is much, much cheaper, grainy, badly lit, but the transfer looks good despite the aged low quality source. ANDROID is much better, more clarity and an attempt to look like a normal production. DEVILS- 2/5 stars. ANDROID 3/5 stars.

Sound: Basic Dolby Digital 2 Channel, Japanese. DEVILS audio is almost an afterthought, very minor and minimal, which adds to the rough reality nature of the presentation. ANDROID is a bit more sophisticated, but not much. Cheesy synth score, plain dialogue mix, but free of any distortions or defects. Both segments feature clear, yellow English subtitles. DEVILS 2/5 stars. ANDROID 2.5/5 stars.

Extras: Zilch... static menu and chapter selections.

Conclusion: Funny, although I found the first film to be garbage and the second film low rent cheese, I can still say GUINEA PIG Vol. 1 is worth giving a look. For horror cinema fans, it is an interesting watch in an academic way both for its notoriousness and its fx (the needle through the eye is impressive). Due to its high MSRP, the lack of extras, combined with the fact that most people (including horror fans) will find that the content and replay isn't going to be very strong, I'll say it is better as a rental.

For a review of Vol. 2, click here.