Tag Archives: 2016

List Candidates

APOCRYPHA CANDIDATE: ANTIPORNO (2016)

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The fifth installment of the Pete’s Perverted Pix series.

DIRECTED BY:

FEATURING: , Mariko Tsutsui,

PLOT: A pair of actresses enact a sadomasochistic relationship within a film but switch roles when the cameras are off.

Still from Antiporno (2016)

WHY IT MIGHT MAKE THE APOCRYPHA: The manic, scene-devouring energy of the motor-mouthed lead actress is at least enough to place this deconstruction of pink films and media celebrity culture out of the ordinary, but then we slide down a hyper-surreal rabbit hole between the actresses in character and the actresses out of character, and their dreams, hallucinations, flashbacks, re-shoots of scenes, and existential reality riddles.

COMMENTS: Animal lovers beware: when our main character, Kyoko (Tomite) first opens her eyes in the morning, it’s to the sight of a large lizard kept in a glass bottle, clearly now imprisoned in there after having grown too big to crawl out, entirely dependent on outside forces to keep it alive. If you’re thinking this “bird in a gilded cage” metaphor might apply to our protagonist: ding, you are correct. Kyoko is a celebrity porn star and “artist” in Japan, kept in a brightly-colored but sparsely furnished apartment, where her existence as a performative sex object under the stress of Japanese idol culture has driven her well past barking mad. Not only does she dance and caper while hallucinating her dead sister playing the piano, she screams, throws tantrums, barfs, skips like a schoolgirl, and prances like a ballerina—mostly while stark naked. Kyoko is soon visited by her personal servant, Noriko (Tsutsui), and Kyoto shifts into alpha-bitch mode. She is cruel and humiliating to Noriko, and her abuse takes on an increasingly fetishistic nature. Kyoko humiliates Noriko, forces her to crawl and bark like a dog, forces oral sex on her, and sticks in a good belt whipping. When fashion model photographer One Hundred (Fujiko) and her posse show up, they only join in Noriko’s torment.

Just when Noriko is getting gang-raped, a director yells “Cut!” Ha, gotcha! This was just a scene these actresses were filming, and though they keep the same names, their personalities switch. Noriko is now an insufferably egotistic and unhinged diva, and Kyoko is a nervous understudy who trembles and grovels submissively. Yes, it’s one of those kinda movies. As subsequent scenes are filmed, the two lead actresses’  personalities each ramp up the sadism when it’s their turn on top, in a vicious game of humiliation tag. In between, we get treated to a snarling satire of the porn/film industry, as even the director treats Kyoko like a slave and the whole film crew pressures Kyoto to submit. I should add, all this is taking place in a few stylized sets given to bold primary colors and pop-art props, making for candy-sweet viewing.

If you think this movie is out of rug-pulls now that we have that movie-within-a-movie bit revealed, you’re mistaken. We slide back

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Capsules

CAPSULE: VISIONS OF SUFFERING (FINAL DIRECTOR’S CUT) (2006/2016)

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Visions of Suffering is available to watch on video-on-demand in either it’s original 2006 version or the 2016 “Final Director’s Cut.”

BewareWeirdest!

DIRECTED BY:

FEATURING: , Anastasia Asafova, Andrey Iskanov

PLOT: A necrophilia-obsessed man is haunted by demons.

Still from Visions of Suffering (Final Director's Cut) (2016)

COMMENTS: Ominously titled, as if to warn potential viewers, Andrey Iskanov’s Visions of Suffering is available both in an original 2006 cut and in a shorter 2016 “Final Director’s Cut.” Given the option of watching both, it seems obvious that 90 minutes of Suffering is preferable to 120 minutes of Suffering. Without having seen the original, I feel confident in saying Iskanov made the right decision to cut out 30 minutes of Suffering.

While the movie is extremely abstract and opaque in its details and methodology, playing like a feature length music video for an industrial noise/death metal crossover band, the basics of the thin plot are not especially difficult to comprehend. Sasha, our bespectacled protagonist, wanders through a misty yellow forest until he encounters a guy wearing a burlap sack on his head (the synopsis explains that this is a shaman and that Sasha interrupts an occult ceremony, perhaps thus bringing a curse on his head). Of course, it was all a dream, and Sasha wakes up and immediately screens a necrophilia porno flick before discovering that his phone is on the fritz. He leafs through books on Jack the Ripper and an anthology of murder scene photos while waiting for the repairman to arrive. While the repairman fixes the phone, they talk about dreams, and the guest casually drops some vampire lore. Phone fixed, Sasha calls his girlfriend (?) Vika, who’s busy shooting lesbian cutter porn. After hanging up, Sasha sees some vampires loitering about outside, and one of them stabs him in the earlobe through the keyhole. Then Sasha has some visions of suffering, and Vika’s car is possessed as she drives to his apartment while wearing iron cross sunglasses. Sasha has some more visions of suffering and calls an exorcist type (played by the director), who explains that Sasha has likely riled up some demons through his desecration of the dead. The director offers to fix the problem for 7000 euros, but that’s too steep for Sasha. So he has some more visions of suffering until the demon Golgatha shows up in his apartment with a sword and starts hacking up the furniture. Then he wakes up, and everything’s OK.

It’s a familiar old story, but Iskanov films it with some genuine style, if not taste or discipline. Much of the film is shot through hazy green/yellow filters that turn cheap costumes and effects that would probably look ridiculous in the full light of day into creepy nightmare fuel. (At times it’s like a less-effective Begotten, without the mythological resonances.) The sound mix is thick, dripping with ooze, spooky noises, and shrieks and moans off one of those atmospheric Halloween sound effect compilations. There is a lot of shock imagery: mutilation, autopsies, explicit sex, implied necrophilia. There are also a lot of superimposed image, especially in the fast-cut opening credits sequence that shows off Iskanov’s gift for montage. But all of this artistry is in service of a juvenile morbidity that seems to arise from listening to too many Marilyn Manson albums under the influence of too much hashish.

Suffering earns the rare and, in some quarters, coveted “” + “” tags. That’s not a recommendation for most folks. The Beware is for content—explicit sex, grotesque real autopsy footage, and some sick stuff that made even me cringe—but even excepting those, the film will prove a bit of a slog for most viewers because of its nonlinearity, tonal monotony, and humorlessness. Still, although it might have worked better chopped up into a series of easily digestible shorts, thanks to some memorably spooky imagery and resourcefulness in disguising his budgetary limitations Iskanov’s movie is not as much of a trial as it sounds like on paper. Fans of experimental extreme horror will eat it up. But please, don’t force me to watch the 2-hour version.

WHAT THE CRITICS SAY:

“The movie is really about an endless stream of colorful cinematography and visuals, head-trips, nightmares, atmosphere, bizarre creatures, etc… the plot and characters never really develop. In other words, too undisciplined.”–Zev Toledano, The Worldwide Celluloid Massacre

(This movie was nominated for review by “Josh.” Suggest a weird movie of your own here.)