Cruel Movies

Audition- (1999)

Dir- Takashi Miike


Girl Next Door- (2007)

Dir- Gregory Wilson


Ilsa, She Wolf of the SS- (1975)

Dir- Don Edmonds
Well, the Nazi's were not known for being real social people, and we must wonder what sort of woman represented the true Nazi ideal. Buxom blonde Dyanne Thorne plays Ilsa, the sadistic chief torturer of a Nazi death camp where all sorts of cruel and evil experiments are carried out. In the evenings are when the real fun begins, Ilsa entertains Nazi high command with scenes of women getting tortured and killed, she then makes love to any man worthy of her talents. She then castrates those who fail to satisfy her insatiable sexual appetite. Eventually, her high command kills her out of fear over her crazy antics. The special effects are not only well done but are very unsettling, scenes of torture and sex are played out in full detail, and nothing is left to the imagination. Voice over mentions the events were based on true stories, but even the Bitch of Buchenwald Ilsa Koch was not this cruel. What makes the film even more creepy is that is was filmed on the set of Hogans Heroes. This film was quite a cult hit and led to many sequels featuring Thorne as Ilsa in some unique locations.

Maniac- (1980)

Dir- William Lustig
Being that many movies have used this title, I must explain that this one is not only the real deal but the vilest of the pack. A low budget gore flicks with no moral perspective that its makeup artist wanted to be removed from its credits. Tom Savini would later become famous for his award-winning than nothing more than his perverse sexual pleasure. He is suffering from the torment of an abusive mother and longs for her love. Pity, because the audience is treated to little more than the graphic scenes of murder and the mutilation of the victims shown in bloody red detail. Like many other slasher films, this one displays strong anti-woman feelings and the attitude that woman are only good for killing and raping. Displaying little if any value this film only seems to sink into the abyss of cheap slasher flicks, yet its overt immoral tone and downright negative feelings towards woman in general place it in the hall of the disturbed. Carolyn Munro appears very much against type as a woman who is drawn to this sicko, will he do her in. Who cares!!! Luckily the producer/writer/star Joe Spinell died before making Maniac 2.

New York Ripper- (1982)

Dir- Lucio Fulci
Not quite a shining jewel in Italian gore master Lucio Fulci's resume, New York Ripper is both an intensely graphic slasher flick and a very cruel film. A crazed maniac is slicing up woman left and right in the mean streets of New York. With a hard edge detective at his heels, the killer quacks his way from victim to victim; I kid you not the killer sounds like Donald Duck. Like any standard Fulci film, we get plenty of guts and gore but only this time the deaths are much crueler then his earlier works. The film also has a strong anti-female message; one woman has her eyeball and nipple sliced off in the cruelest fashion. Unlike some of his more impressive zombie films, this one has awful dubbing, some bad cinematography but the gore is very realistic and downright vicious.

Pieces- (1982)

Dir- Juan Piquer Simon
This is one of those horror films that teetered on an X rating. Your standard mad slasher film begins with a little boy putting together a puzzle of naked women circa 1945, only to be caught by his mother. He then dispatches his mother in a hideous way. Years later we are on a college campus, and we see many brutal deaths and mutilations, all young women with big breasts and shapely figures. All in an attempt to piece the perfect woman, a la Bride of Frankenstein. The standard who done it with a lot of gore and some graphic violence. The conclusion is most tacky as they try to make it into a double twist style ending that is most unconvincing. A Spanish production which is at times unintentionally funny while being very brutal in its violence, we also see a few major goofs like a touch tone phone in 1945?? Only for those die hard gore fans who may like the chainsaw scene in the women's restroom.

Requiem for a Dream- (2000)

Dir- Darren Aronofsky


Sleepaway Camp- (1983)

Dir- Robert Hiltzik
I included this evil little film not because it is unique in the slasher genre; it is a typical cookie-cutter slasher flick and very similar to Friday the 13th. Then again most of these films were, often trying to cash in on this exploitation horror cliché. What makes Sleepaway Camp different is that the ending is one of the most shocking conclusions ever filmed. I will not give it away but let us just say that it left me in a freaky state for the next few days. So go out and rent it, fast forward if you wish but watch it and try not to freak out when they show the last scene. I swear that this film shocked the hell out of me, even to this day it gives me the willies!

Street Trash- (1987)

Dir- James Muro
One of my favorite splatter movies and one of the grossest films to come from the eighties. We get a bad neighborhood, killer pimps, drug-crazed thugs, ugly prostitutes and some crazy winos who get a real treat when the local store sells a newly found box of cheap wine for a buck. The stuff is so hot that it eats you up. Not much plot except for some cruel deaths, some necrophilia, a few violent shoot-outs and a really funny keep away game involving bums severed penis. Another memorable scene has a wino melting into a toilet and flushing himself literally down the can. One of the best sick films and a real treat to all bad movie gore fans.

Welcome to the Dollhouse- (1995)

Dir- Todd Solondz
Imagine the worst time of your life; it is usually that period in-between the sixth and eighth grades when you are not quite a kid and not yet a full teen. Director Todd Solondz effectively destroys any warm nostalgia we might have about our youth in what can be best described as the "Unhappy Days" of a young girl's life. The winner of the Grand Jury Prize at the 1996 Sundance Film Festival, Welcome To The Dollhouse is the life of one Dawn Wiener (Heather Matarazzo). Nicknamed "Wiener Dog," she is a shy girl who faces daily taunts and harassment from her fellow peers because she is not pretty enough or normal looking. At school she faces spit balls and cruel epithets from her classmates, is accused of cheating by her teachers and when at home is the neglected middle child who lives in the shadow of her nerdy older brother and ballerina sister. Her only friend is a sickly fifth grader who faces similar taunts, yet the two find solace in her backyard dollhouse where she can escape her life and imagine herself as anyone but herself. In the face of this Dawn seems to accept her lot in life, she does find some relief when she can get back at her sister by cutting her Barbie dolls heads off or when she accidentally allows her sister to be kidnapped. What makes Welcome To The Dollhouse stand out are some pretty notable scenes involving Dawn's world, this is not the Wonder Years and the cruel life she lives often makes you laugh and cringe at the same time. This is pretty much what life is like for many kids today, memories of happy times or those warm fuzzy moments that fill many teen shows are just not as real as we naively thought. Heather Matarazzo is outstanding as Dawn, and we feel for her as she struggles to be normal and well liked. Welcome to the Dollhouse is the darker version of teens angst films like Angus or Lucas but lacks the happy endings and personal triumph which make those films seem more mainstream. Solondz direction is so on the mark it is a wonder that we can sit through without being made uncomfortable by her struggle, we often laugh at her but then realize that we are guilty of the same crime as her classmates. You may not want to long for your youth, but you will be glad you did grow up. As teen films go, this one could easily be titled MY LIFE SUCKS!