Absurd (1981)

Best movie of this year hands down!

Film Perfection

Best movie ever!

The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

I just managed to sit through "Rosso Sangue" aka "Absurd" aka "Antropophagus II" aka "Horrible" (add to those about 10 other aka-titles -- surely this should already tell you we're not dealing with an excellent picture here).So D'Amato delivers a straight-up horror movie this time. Is it any good? Barely. It is a relaxing film, though. Because between the handful moments of gore, you'll have plenty of time to doze off & catch a nap since there's hardly anything going on.The mighty George Eastman wrote the script and I'm sure it must have read a little something like this when he handed it over to his buddy D'Amato: "I say nothing in this film, I'm indestructible and I kill everybody". Now you just figure out how to turn this into a movie, Joe.And so did Joe, being the talented man that he is. Also, some distributors tried to market this as a sequel to D'Amato's "Antropophagus" aka "The Grim Reaper". But it's not. Just because Eastman looses his intestines again in this film, doesn't make it a sequel.D'Amato pretty much turned it into a plain slasher flick. In a way, "Absurd" is like John Carpenter's "Halloween", only with Eastman's evil bearded face to scare you instead of a masked Michael Myers and without the likable Jamie Lee Curtis to root for. Eastman escapes a hospital, kills his way through a whole town, eventually ending up in some house to do some more killing. All this while a priest & a cop are on his trail, blabbering on about Eastman's character being some ultimate creature of evil. So, it's more or less the same movie. Plus, it's a lot worse too, of course. Still, as far as slashers go, there are also a lot worse out there.Now I was under the impression that this was supposedly one of the goriest & most demented horror efforts ever to come out of Italy. Sadly, it's not all that exciting. There's a handful of gory scenes, yes (drill through the head, saw through the head, etc.) and they are amusing to watch, but nothing we haven't seen before. All the rest of the film, is just plain dullness I'm afraid. The climax features a blinded Eastman (his eyes stabbed out) versus a physically disabled teenage girl. You can imagine how exciting them two stumbling about in a darkened mansion turns out to be. The ending tries to be shocking, but it's basically just a happy end.I remember once being impressed with "Beyond The Darkness" aka "Buio Omega". Maybe I should re-watch it to see if it still holds up well, because D'Amato is rapidly loosing some filmmaker credit with the stuff I've recently seen by him.

Another in the list of infamous banned Video Nasties, Absurd(or whatever you wish to call it) is in many ways similar to Halloween and Halloween 2(the originals--not the Rob Zombie visual abortions). Of course, you could say Halloween is a rip-off of Fright(1971) with more of the "babysitter-in-peril" theme being explored. However, Absurd only involves the babysitter(s) to any serious degree more than halfway through the film. In the meantime, we get a few of the best kills of the film, with hulking George Eastman sort-of reprising his role as an indestructible Greek man with rather unusual healing abilities.I enjoyed the score, though it got annoying at times. Something like Carpenter's score for Halloween, it was more akin to the intro music to the Incredible Hulk TV show with a repeating piano tidbit. The direction was adequate. I enjoy a lot of Joe D'Amato's work. Compared to it's sort-of predecessor, Anthropophagus, this film is actually tame. There are no scenes of fetus ripping or self-mastication. On that front, Anthropophagus really excels, but as story lines and pacing go, I feel Absurd was better. Oh, there are a few gratuitous scenes of a televised football game(and I was rather surprised they used the actual game's announcers instead of dubbing something else) that kill some time between scenes.Really, I only have a few beefs with this movie, overall. First, I didn't much care for the oven scene. It took forever! And it was a very sloppy way for a maniac to dispose of someone. And when she was stabbed with the shears, you don't get to see anything good. I was expecting a little more from Eastman's fight with the priest.The best moments, besides the kills, are during the "chase" sequence at the finale. This is probably the best part of the film.If you like Italian splatter films, hunt down this gem which has only just now become available on DVD under the title Horrible(one of many confusing titles, I assure you).

Absurd. Apt title. But, still a slasher flick which delivers some potent violence. A seemingly indestructible maniac, portrayed by George Eastman in street clothes, whose cells regenerate(..this also causes an abnormally sized brain which makes him insane)at an accelerated rate, is attacking innocent people without reason. Out to stop him is Greek priest, Edmund Purdom, who understands his unusual condition and knows his weakness..if you damage the brain, Eastman's a goner. After being impaled on a spiked gate attempting to escape priest Purdom, Eastman is taken to a hospital where he's considered a lost cause, until the startled surgical staff recognize his amazing recuperative abilities. Escaping from the hospital, after using a drill which pierces completely through the skull of his attending nurse, Eastman takes it to the road, killing several innocent bystanders he comes in contact with(..some poor soul sweeping who shoots Eastman three times almost point-blank before being hoisted onto a table, his skull penetrated by a band saw;and future director Michelle Soavi, whose motorcycle stalls, seeing if Eastman is alright after he's hit by a vehicle, being strangled for his efforts)along the way. The car which hits him is owned by Ian Danby and Eastman soon finds his house, the vehicle in the drive way but he and his wife gone..the bulk of the remaining screen time is devoted to Eastman terrorizing Danby's kids, and babysitters. Purdom joins forces with Charles Borromel(..as Sgt Ben Engleman)in their search for Eastman.The film's strengths are Eastman's towering menacing figure and the ultra-violence with a particularly unpleasant fate for poor Annie Bell. Along with the aforementioned carnage left in Eastman's wake, he uses a pick axe, burying it into the skull of the babysitter, forces another victim's head into an oven(..protracted, disturbing sequence as we watch her struggle to free herself as the director often shows us the flames rising, eventually seeing the girl's face starting to burn)finishing her off by slowly jabbing her in the throat with shears(..she had stabbed him multiple times in the neck, before he seized her), soon setting his sights for the kids, Kasimir Berger(..in a dreadful performance as the obnoxious boy child, Willy, who is told to get help, with the damn stupid kid not leaving, instead re-entering the house!)and Katya Berger(..as seemingly invalid Katia, neck brace, strapped in place to her bed due to a spinal condition). The final set-piece is rather effectively staged as we follow Katya's trying to remove her straps in order to free herself as other activities occur outside the room such as her guardian Emily(Belle)trying to defend the kids against the gargantuan Eastman and idiot brother Willy crying for safety(..if the dummy had sought after help as Emily had commanded, then he might not have forced her from the room to find him risking her own well being in the process!). I agree with others that director Aristide Massaccesi has issues with the pacing as the story and characters outside the violent attacks themselves are nothing to write home about. But, one idea, the bedridden Katia having to defend herself against Eastman(..actually gouging his eyes with a drawing compass, putting him at a disadvantage)once she unstraps herself, works beautifully as a form of building suspense, although it also goes on a bit long in the tooth. The showdown between Eastman and Purdom isn't exactly a showstopper, although how Katya settles the score with an ax is quite memorable. Being included on the Video Nasty list helped earn it a reputation, but the slow moving plot will alienate a great deal of those seeking a wall-to-wall gore film. When the violence erupts, however, Aristide Massaccesi delivers the goods in detail, pulling his camera right into the bloody carnage as the victim shrieks in horror. A tighter pace, absent the kid Willy, with less drawn out stretches which cause the viewer to look at his/her watch wondering when Eastman might strike next, would've made a difference. There's nothing particularly stylish or atmospheric about this film(..it certainly doesn't stand next to it's distant brother, ANTHROPOPHAGUS), in my opinion, and the characters aren't that interesting, but when Eastman emerges, it picks up considerably.

This is one of the extremely hard-to-find films known as Video Nasties. It was released with two minutes and 32 seconds cut in 1983, and then withdrawn, and never re-submitted.The doctors are amazed when a patient (George Eastman) manages to survive an operation after being brought in with his guts hanging out. When he wakes, he does a little operating of his own on a nurse.We soon see that Mikos (Eastman) has superhuman powers, as bullets do not stop him in his second bloody kill. Even being run over by a car doesn't slow him down.The film features Annie Belle (The House on the Edge of the Park). Will she escape the boogieman, or become his 5th victim? Things get pretty heated before he is finished.Then he has a protracted battle with the injured daughter (Katya Berger), who managed to rise up despite her spinal injuries. In a miracle of modern medicine, she manages to swing an ax at him several times.Great ending!!