Film Retrospective- August Underground trilogy part 2

August Underground's Mordum (2003)
Director- Fred Vogel


After disgusting everyone with the original film, two years later Fred Vogel produced a sequel. This time Vogel brought some other people in, which meant that this time the chaos was twice as big. Although it uses the same formula as the original, it adds a little more in terms of narrative and a lot more in terms of shock. I may have said that the first one was the most extreme film ever made in yesterdays blog, but I really meant that in terms of this being its sequel. Lets face it, if your going to make a sequel to a film like that then its got to be something pretty well... memorable.


This time the camera man from the first film is gone and Peter is now accompanied by a girlfriend and her brother. They basically do the same thing as in the original, which is torturing and killing people in the worst ways possible. Within the three characters is something of a love triangle. Yes, the brother and sister are having an incestuous relationship which Peter is actually aware of. This is something that makes the film more fucked up in addition to the killing.


Even though it follows the same formula as the original the performance from Christie Whiles as "Crustie" matches Vogels performance in terms of general insanity which is something that stops it from being boring. Her character essentially make his even more intense than before. Micheal Todd Schinder also gives a decent performance as the brother "Maggot"  but is somewhat overshadowed by the other two. He does have his moments however, particularly at the end.


The gore is definitely stepped up from the original which is something of an achievement given this films slightly sharper looking video quality. As well as blood, there is puke and all kinds of other bodily fluids. Blood and Gore is one thing. Puking, especially when its on people who are already being tortured and humiliated is another. However, I pretty certain that it is not real. At least I hope not. I'm not going to spoil anything here, but there are several scenes where I am glad I was not eating at the time.


When I say this is the most shocking film ever made, I am not exaggerating.  I truly believe it is. This film is not mere torture porn. It has a scene of necrophilia which looks so real that the fact that it is not does not matter. It also features paedophilia which  personally feel is something that is a little over the line. This is the last scene of the film and personally I don't see how anything could ever top it. Even though its not real it gives you the same feeling as if it was. This kind of thing was used in "A Serbian Film" but it still doesn't quite compare to this. I'm not trying to put anyone off, but brace yourself for it. Everything up to that point is sick without quite overstepping the mark.


In conclusion, this film is repulsive but it features solid performances. One thing it lacks from the original is that this time people are sure that it not real. However, with that in mind, it outdoes the original. I would probably the original is a generally better film though.


See you in tomorrow's blog for the final entry in the series.


Nathan.