Violent and that's it: Violent Shit (1989)

Violent Shit (Germany, 1989)
rating: *
starring: Andreas Schnaas, Gabi Bäzner, Wolfgang Hinz

I'm pretty aware on the controversy this underground indie has made for itself; I'm also fully aware on the impact and strong cult following this title (and its sequels) has for a lot of horror fans. For me, I wouldn't really mind a bad, tasteless flick every now and then, given that it hit me right. Sadly, when I mentioned that, I'm actually saying that I would at least like to have some story in said "Bad and Tasteless" flick, and I'm pretty much sure you can guess where I'm going for in this review.

Meet Karl, a deeply traumatized maniac with strange oatmeal treats growths coming out of his face. Abused as a child (if that's what you wanna call it), he grew up as a mentally handicapped mass murderer who lately escapes during a prison transfer after one of the guards needed to drain his dragon. Karl murders his way out of the three (T-shirt wearing) guards, began another killing spree and hallucinate Christ-like figures in the deep woods for him to hack open and go inside to. (Yes, that last line makes very little sense to me, too)

I'll be very, very honest here; at some point, I enjoyed Violent Shit as a nonsensical splatter movie . I can't really call it a true slasher film, since it focused too much on Karl's homicidal rampage, but it does have its influences and styles so, I dunno. It has a bodycount, yes, chock full of blood even to add in that case, but the film is really nothing more than a collection of Karl murdering a random individual with no story to tell whatsoever. I would like to call this movie the Maniac (1980) of the very desperate, trashy people, as it shares the "reverse focus" it has on the killers while still showing some slasher film background, only here, it's practically cheap death porn.

The producers tries to put some class to this film, even. Every now and then, we got this sort-of photo-effect on some of the scenes which actually just adds some unnecessary padding and shows how really cheap it is. These effects also prolonged some of the kills, making some of them too overdone even for my part. We got this one scene where Karl cuts and pulls a guy in half with a hedge trimmer, which should have been more believable if it wasn't for the fact that the guy's torso seems to have doubled in length. Now, for my end, cutting a guy in half with a powertool is an awesome kill, but do we really need to watch him cut off the corpse's head and then proceeds to slice it in half even? I'm up for long, gruesome murders, but the guy's dead by the time he was cut in half! What was the point of the other slices?

Other artistic attempts would include adding some religious imagery in Karl's rampage, such as his flashback involving him meeting up with Satan, who claims him to be his son (that might explain the ending. I think), and the sudden appearance of a crucified Christ-figure in the woods, which Karl proceeds to hack open and crawl into. (Some sort of allegory on how he tries to be "one with Christ", as in to change his murdering ways, but obviously fails) I don't really see this to be very shocking, honestly, as I'd seen enough religious horror flicks to desensitize me otherwise. For me, that was just plain funny and desperate attempt for a shock. (plus the shot of Karl's leg dangling out of Christ's belly was just hilarious.)

Gore is apparently the film's only aim, and even though I'm the kind of guy who'll spend a buck or two to watch a movie that mostly involves killers hacking up a group in very bloody ways, Violent Shit's cheap budget really hindered a lot of big opportunities and the lack of direction and plot made all these kills to be completely pointless. (And no, I don't think watching a woman get disemboweled through the groin up for four or five minutes would reconsider this claim otherwise)

The underground audience, though, clamored for more and here comes a sequel or two following Karl's adventures (well, actually his son's adventures), and Schnaas somehow got the reputation to be one of the more well known cult fave of the German Underground industry. Not entirely sure if I want to see more of his movies, but it definitely has an audience, and you're reading this paragraph from a guy who vows never to watch another Full Moon movie after Puppet Master went downhill, but ended up seeing all three Gingerdead Man films, much to his regret.

For lovers of bubbly pink-orange projectile blood, unconvincing special effects, death porn and underground indie flicks.

Bodycount:
1 female hacked with cleaver
1 male killed offscreen
1 male throat bitten open
1 male hacked on the shoulder with cleaver
1 female gets a breast cut off with cleaver, hacked to death
1 male hacked on the chest with cleaver
1 male hacked on the head with cleaver
1 male dismembered with hedge-trimmer
1 male repeatedly hacked between the legs with cleaver
1 female disemboweled by the groin with knife
1 female hacked on the neck with cleaver
1 female hacked on the neck with cleaver
1 male disembowels himself
total: 13