A doctor kidnaps a young couple and forces them into a game of torment that slowly extinguishes their hopes for survival.A doctor kidnaps a young couple and forces them into a game of torment that slowly extinguishes their hopes for survival.A doctor kidnaps a young couple and forces them into a game of torment that slowly extinguishes their hopes for survival.
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- TriviaDistributors of this movie had hoped to be given an 18 certificate for the film, which involves torture such as amputation and eye-gouging. But the British Board of Film Classification said the film featured sexual sadism for its own sake. Also stated that giving the film a rating would involve a "risk of harm" to those viewing it. Therefore no classification was given and selling or supplying the film would now be illegal.
- Quotes
Aki: I've seen your mother before. She's a prostitute in Okubo. A fat whore with caked-on makeup, right? A germ-infested swine. It's definitely her. You look just like her. That thing is the same, too.
The Doctor: "That thing"?... What thing?
Aki: So you're not aware of it?
The Doctor: I'm asking you.
Aki: So you really don't know. I pity you. You've never had many friends, have you? Am I right? Especially girls. They make faces and won't come near you. Only whores, like your mother, or gold-diggers would have sex with you. You've never had a single woman love you, right? Do you know why? Want me to tell you? It's hereditary, from your mother who's a whore. That old prostitute from Okubo who stunk like a skunk. That's why even the drunk wouldn't sleep with her. Get it? Seeing that the old hag didn't tell you, that means she didn't even know about her own stench.
The Doctor: I stink?
Aki: You and your whore mother. You have horrible body odor. Your armpits stink.
The Doctor: Body odor...
Aki: Your sense of smell is bad, right? Hyposmia. That's hereditary, too. You've got the most foul stench that you can't even smell. So there are people like you. The reason people didn't come near you is because you stunk. Even so, if someone really loved you, they would have told you. The fact that no one told you means you weren't loved by anyone. You're doing such idiotic things like this because you're lonely, right? Bull's eye? I pity you. Poor thing. How lonely.
- ConnectionsReferenced in My Pure Joy (2011)
When you watch extreme cinema, you have to know that the violence and imagery is, if used correctly, serving a purpose, which is usually to heighten your senses of pity, disgust, sympathy, repulsion, etc. Also, it's best if the film has some sort of purpose: Salo is a metaphor for how the upper-class treats and exploits those that they deem below them, Hostel is a satire on the image of the ugly American that has been experienced by other countries, and I could keep going.
This brings me to this film, Grotesque. Without ruining the film (it does that on its own), I will say that there is only the slightest bit of back-story (which is lazily done and seems it might have been an afterthought), and no attempt at putting any of this within context. Bottom line: a guy abducts a couple and brutally tortures them. That's it. No point, no reason, no character development, nothing.
Not only that, it's a technically flawed film as well. The cinematography is horrible: hand-held zoom-ins, overdone color filters, and an overall poor job. It doesn't help that the majority of the film is very dark and shot on digital video, so you get that annoying video blur whenever the camera moves. In terms of writing, for the most part there isn't any. When the film finally gets to a point when the characters are saying something other than "Please stop!" or "Why are you doing this?!", they act in a way that makes absolutely no sense. People that would have gone through what they went would never, ever, show the signs of acceptance or gullibility that they do. They would be hardened or almost catatonic. If that's not enough, the finale radically shifts the tone for seemingly a cheap laugh in a movie that hasn't earned or even tried to get that reaction at any time beforehand.
Whenever I see someone review a film with this level of violence and knock it, even if I think it's great, I understand. These type of films are not everyone's cup of tea. When they say it was just pointless violence, however, I usually check out of the movie and assume they did the same with the movie. With Grotesque, I guarantee I never check out of the film. I stuck with it. I assumed there would eventually be a twist or revelation that would give this film a reason to exist. I assumed wrong.
- BigDaddyWarbuxx
- Jan 21, 2013
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