I was 18 when I first saw this in 1984 and my brother was 12. We rented it on VHS because Elvira was the hostess and because I was a big fan of 80s gore effects (Dick Smith, Rick Baker etc). This film deeply disturbed me at the time and, while I more or less forgot about it eventually, I never forgot the hot summer afternoon my brother and I sat and watched as much of it as we could (I think we finally turned it off after the "Driller Killer" segment, agreeing we'd Seen Enough). This thing popped into my head recently and I decided to check it out again when I saw it online and found it both dismaying and fascinating.
I've seen most of the films on display (and far worse stuff) and agree with other reviewers that these condensed versions might be the best way to view them, if you feel the need to see them at all (with the possible exception of "Texas Chainsaw" and "Driller Killer," which are, by contrast, legitimate films worthy of a closer look). The films in question are a motley lot and the reproductions for this compilation are appropriately muddy and dark, exactly what you'd expect from such sleazy product. The tacky 80s videography of the titles and the presence of a young, luminous Elvira doing her typical rubbish-jokes routine is completely out of step with the humorless material presented and so barely worth a mention.
What sets this one apart is a grisly, unrelenting 5-minute montage, a preview of the films to be covered. It isn't so much that the grue is remarkable...it's nothing true horror fans haven't seen before and is often done with cheaply-produced effects work. It is the simple fact of the onslaught of images that is noteworthy. Whoever put this montage together did a remarkable job of producing something so unrelenting and incomprehensible (and violent) it befuddles the brain. It is the literal equivalent of a car accident, something difficult to look away from even as you wish you could avert your eyes.
The montage begins with an otherwise campy moment from Drive-In Massacre that ends in a long, loving close-up look at the remains of a man slaughtered as he reached out of his car window. From there we are treated to flash-cut moments of all the "good parts" from movies sacred and profane (see the list in the synopsis). Individually, these movies are generally poorly made, slow and laughably cheap. Taken out of context and mixed together at random, the violent death moments from these films, focused on without any build-up of story or dramatic tension and no artistic merit whatsoever, become like a forensic cattle-call of atrocities, a snuff circus geek-show act. This is no "roller-coaster ride," where there is a slow build up and release. In fact, after watching the opening montage in 1984 I came to the conclusion this stuff was, in essence, "gore porn." One can say, "It's all fake, it's only a movie" but after a while, particularly if the filmwork is reasonably effective as the editing is here, the mind doesn't discriminate; we watch as people are repeatedly torn asunder and suffering on screen and we see images of explicit violence hurled at us at a breakneck speed with no motive, no compassion, no plot and no release of tension, and confusion sets in. It's unpleasant and depressing, but it's also marvelously visceral and effective, predating the "torture porn" wave of the 00's by many years.
That there will always be an audience of creeps that get off on this sort of thing is a given; there will always be people looking for "extremes" and nowadays you can find all manner of atrocities online if you are looking for them. That there will be disaffected teens or lonely, de-sensitized souls looking for a quick thrill is also obvious. For my part, I still find the opening montage of this cheap compilation project repulsive, sickening and soul-deadening and I'm glad I feel this way. I wish I'd never seen it, I wish I hadn't seen it a second time some 36 years later and I'm still perplexed thinking about it a day later. That being said, the fact that the montage still works means there's a kind of brilliance there. I just don't want to know much more about it.
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