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Capone reviews the disgusting, filthy grindhouse-esque flick CHAOS!
Ahoy, squirts! Quint here with Capone's take on a nifty sounding genre film. Usually I wouldn't even consider seeing a horror film if I heard the following: "cautionary tale of two college girls who go to a rave in the woods" however Capone's got me convinced that this one is worth a look, especially with the comparison to LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT. Also, having Sage Stallone in it is almost a stamp of approval... that man knows his horror after sinking all his DAYLIGHT money into restoring and re-releasing Fulci classic THE BEYOND. He's earned some respect in my book. Here's Capone with the nitty-gritty as they say! Enjoy!
Hey, everyone. Capone in Chicago here, with a review that is both an
endorsement and a strong cautionary warning. I first heard about Chaos when
the organizer of the Chicago-area horror convention/drive-in event Flashback
Weekend told me he’d booked the film for a special screening at this year’s
event (Plug: July 29-31 at the Crowne Plaza Chicago O’Hare,
www.flashbackweekend.com : End Plug—more
from me on this event in the coming weeks). Not actually having seen it, he
said he’d heard it was incredibly controversial, brutally violent, and had
caused quite a stir at every screening to date. Naturally, I assumed this
was all hype. Now I’ve seen the film, and I promise you it’s not. Chaos is a
well-crafted horror film, in which the only “monsters” are some truly sick
fucking human beings, beginning and ending with director and co-writer David
DeFalco.
An unofficial but barely veiled remake of Last House on the Left, Chaos is
about brutality without the theatrics (as compared to something like House
of 1,000 Corpses, which is almost entirely theatrics). The film is not
wall-to-wall killing or raping, but those are certainly some of the sadistic
elements to this cautionary tale of two college girls who go to a rave in
the woods, go off the beaten bath to score some ecstasy, and are taken
captive by four of the nastiest motherfuckers on the planet. Chaos is the
worst nightmare you’ve ever had; what is inflicted upon these women is
degrading, humiliating, and terrible on every level. And to give you any
more details about the plot than that would be doing the highly effective
film a disservice.
As much as the bad guys in this film (led by Kevin Gage’s terrifying
character named Chaos) seem to revel in their depravity, I don’t get the
sense that DeFalco is celebrating their behavior. If anything, he’s shot
this film in a very neutral fashion, neither celebrating moments when it
appears the women might escape, nor dwelling on the evil deeds of the
captors. Perhaps the biggest surprise about Chaos is the acting. It’s pretty
good, particularly the performances of the two girls (Maya Barovich and
Chantal Degroat), whose fear and pain seems all too genuine. Another shocker
is the appearance of Sage Stallone (Sylvester’s son) in one of the
villainous roles as Swan. I didn’t realize he was in the film until the end
credits, but since he’s one of the founders of Grindhouse Releasing (which
restores and preserves exploitation films), I guess I shouldn’t be that
surprised he’s in this.
The suspense and violence of Chaos builds slowly over its barely 70-minute
running time. For the first 15 minutes, I thought this was going to be
another violence-tease film where the bad guys would jump up and down waving
knives and screaming “Ooga Booga” for most of the film without doing much
killing. I almost regret being wrong. Although I’ve seen far more graphic
killings in even mainstream films, the murders in Chaos are so painful and
difficult to watch. I wasn’t a big fan of the scenes involving one of the
girl’s parents, who sit at home worrying about their daughter missing
curfew, but their little cabin in the woods serves as the setting for the
film’s bloody climax, so that makes it easy to forgive these otherwise
boring characters.
The primary reason that I’m ultimately recommending Chaos is that it
delivers exactly what it promises: grindhouse cinema in its purest and most
ugly form. A few scenes here repulsed me, and I’m pretty sure that was the
intention. A title card at the film’s opening almost convinced me that this
movie is meant as an educational tool to teach pretty young women not to
walk in the woods alone. On a certain level, that’s exactly what Chaos is.
DeFalco has created his monster, grabbing pieces from other films on this
subject and surgically removing the best bits. If you consider yourself
someone who can watch just about anything on screen, you’re about to be
tested by a vile little creature called Chaos.
Capone
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+ Expand All
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Take that, inbloom.
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third!
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(i think i stole that from a previous tb) AHOY SQUIRTS!! what happens to this site after quint starts "writing scripts" or "producing" movies like harry and mori?? what happens if quint breaks HIS leg? if herc the jerc becomes the driving force behind this site I'll vomit with rage!!
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That was a nasty little movie.
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Jun 17, 2005 8:46:28 AM CDT
Sounds like a Snuff film(?). What was redeeming about this film
by so sorry
It sounds like no campy/fun/stupid violence, which means it sounds gross and disturbing. Is it really grindhouse then?
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http://www.onlyamovie.com/trailer.html
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Jun 17, 2005 8:55:25 AM CDT
Nothing says a good time at the movies like a story about rape a
by lance rock
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Jun 17, 2005 9:05:30 AM CDT
"what is inflicted upon these women is degrading, humiliating, a
by clubby
....so they sleep with harry then. The horror!
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If this film keeps the wretchedness of "Last House" and does away with the Horrible-with-a-capital-whore campy soundtrack it has a fighting chance of being good.
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Just felt like posting something. This post has nothing relevant to say about this topic.
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Jun 17, 2005 9:58:02 AM CDT
Should read "go off the beaten bath and into a psycho-like showe
by cookylamoo
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I'm not opposed to seeing movies like this made, I'm just opposed to seeing them.
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It's almost as if they either have to make a really disturbing sickening film or go out and commit the crimes themselves. Argento and Fulci also fall into this category, the end results are usually either Interesting or just plain madness (Cat in the Brain i'm looking at you, God that film is fucked up)
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they are engaged to be married! omg
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Is it a Wiggles movie? I'm sure it's good and well paced and everything. But that's barely worth my 10-11 bucks. Honestly I hate short films, I wish everything was around 2hrs20mins. I mean Batman Begins was around that long, felt like ten minutes. 70 minutes of good film would be like... a flash. But, if it floats around my area... I shall see it! I promise. -- http://www.cafepress.com/thenewpulp
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OK, let me get this straight, two girls go to a rave, leave to the dark woods for ecstasy, run into crazy psychos? They still have raves? I guess it is easier to show torture than actually use imagination and creativity to score scares. Um... in this scene we torture, next scene we torture some more, now in this scene we really,... really... need to torture. Maybe Im crazy but being a Horror Fanatic I have no desire to see two teenage girls being slowly tortured to death. Gore and violence for the sake of being uncomfortable? Grindhouse? Wait a minute...maybe they get naked too before running into those crazy backwoods fellas that live in prime rave real estate, or at least have decent headlights exposed for us married men. Ah what the hell, I'll put it on my Netflix Que when it comes out.
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A movie that claims a lineage to Grindhouse and may actually deliver. True Grindhouse cinema is an accquired taste, and even then it should still leave and unsettling taste in your mouth. The films are not meant to ellicit slobbering, yelps of glee, but rather to make the veiwer wrestle with what they're watching. It should be unsettling, and one of the ways the best grindhouse flicks accomplish this is by viewing the proceedings with a cold eye. Neither condeming the "evil" or rooting for the "good." But never, ever flinching or turning away from the carnage, depravity and terror. And the viewer must decide whether they'll turn away or not. And when it's all over, we question. The director. The writer. Actors. Ourselves. Everything. Real Grindhouse offers a visceral viewing experience found no where else. Certainly not for everyone, but it can be a wild ride for those adventurous enough to delve into the genre.
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"Grindhouse Grindhouse Grindhouse.." Sorry, I find myself just saying the word over and over nowadays. Thanks Quentin, for another fuckin contribution to our pop culture (yeah I know he didn't create the term but he's infecting it into our lives)
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Jun 17, 2005 12:17:53 PM CDT
"grindhouse" -what a retarded buzz word for everyone to repeat o
by watashiwadare
herd
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Jun 17, 2005 12:33:55 PM CDT
Oh by the way, this buttplug directed a movie called The BackLot
by chickychow
anyone see it? it took place at fuckin Universal Studios, it uses the Psycho house, sets from ER, and the raptor house from The Lost World... I dunno how this guy got access to all that, but he botched it bigtime, as it was a movie well worthy of MST3K...
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TOM AND KATIE ARE ENGAGED!!!!!
AS A TRIBUTE, EVEYONE JUMP UP AND DOWN ON THEIR COUCH!!!!!! -
As a film nerd you ought to know that, Capone.
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...I won't be watching this 'un. I love moody, disturbing, pessimistic, nasty pictures - I love the heaviness of Fincher, and the sense of humour of Chainsaw Massacre - but watching girls being raped and tortured isn't exactly something I want to see. Call me weird, but there you go.
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I'm there.
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I swear i wasn't going to post anything because i didn't want to be the one poster that said "Watching two girls get raped and tortured for an hour or even three minutes isn't my thing". Turns out it wasn't just me. I like horror movies and films that make you think and even feel kind of strange after watching them but movies like Fight Club and 12Monkeys did that to me,i guess i'm a light weight. You gotta worry about the people that write,direct,and even star in shit like this.Pure vomit with piss on top.
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for me, it all comes down to script. Are the characters interesting enough to watch for seventy minutes? What do they want? Does the film have an intriguing point of view? Is it technically accomplished enough for the sound to be pristine and the images to be clear? I have liked many films trading on scenes of rape and torture. LAST HOUSE, to my mind, is technically poor, but it has a rough edge that makes it interesting, but it is also quite slow at times. William Fruet's THE HOUSE BY THE LAKE is superior to LAST HOUSE and occupies a similar genre, but it is mostly unknown. Then we have Aldo Lado's NIGHT TRAIN MURDERS, another flick trading on rape and torture that is about so much more and gives us an uneasy, nerve-wracking experience with a spare Ennio Morricone score. The Japanese ASSAULT! JACK THE RIPPER is one of the greatest rape and torture flicks ever made and will, mark my words, be widely appreciated WHEN it is finally given a wide release on DVD one day. The Australian DEFENCELESS also trades on rape and torture but does it brilliantly for 98 minutes without a word of dialogue and is also about so much more and is truly disturbing, brutal and beautiful. US material such as AUGUST UNDERGROUND and its MORDUM companion are more like boring freak shows with no context or shading. They are failures in my book because they are just ABOUT the torture. The successful flicks employing these inflammatory subjects explore the consequences and motivations behind abherrant behavior. I have not seen CHAOS, so I am in no position to dismiss it. I hope I like it very much. Finally, such extreme subject matter was rendered totally uninteresting by Joel Schumacher with 8MM. Contrast that with similar indie-produced material such as the Japanese MUZAN-E, the exotic THESIS and the American GOD'S LONELY MAN and you have an example of (to paraphrase R. Ebert): "It's not WHAT it's about, it's HOW it's about." I concur completely.
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Oh- well, that's okay then. Kurt Vonnegut: "We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful what we pretend to be." Fuck movies like this.
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Jun 17, 2005 6:00:18 PM CDT
Yeah, from the pics and bits I've read it's not my thing
by neosamurai85
Me and liljuniorbrown dissagree on many things (to avoid confusion, I do love Fight Club and 12 Monkeys though) regarding film ethics and effects, but this looks like porn... like, really nasty not fun porn... Give me something more to work with and maybe I'll change my mind, but for now I think I'll pass.
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Jun 17, 2005 6:11:38 PM CDT
The Marquis de Sade once made an interesting defense of his wo
by neosamurai85
In response to accusations of glorifying rape and torture, responded by asking how they could think that when he had gone out of his way to make the torturer the most detestable person he could imagine. Of coarse he actually did torture prostitutes in his spare time
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Jun 17, 2005 6:21:16 PM CDT
liljuniorbrown - Not enjoying watching girls being raped and tor
by scarranhalfbreed
Fight Club was contraversial for all the wrong reasons, but it's a damn violent film. Irreversible was violent and horrendous and not enjoyable, but it showed how rape can ruin lives, was in no way titilating and was shot in a way that didn't show a "neutral" perspective from the director. Just what is THIS film trying to say? Making films where girls are being mutilated makes money?
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Usally... I'm the one brings up Irreversible. ScarranHalfBreed, I'm a little confused at where you're going with that post. Something about thw wording isn't processing for some rason. Maybe I'm tired or been online too long today, but what are you getting at? Is THIS film Choas or Irriversible? I can't tell if your attacking liljuniorbrown or supporting him or... AAAHGAAHHH! Rabid opossums! Aggah! It's not supposed to bend that way! NOOOOO! Don't put that baby grabboid in my ear! OH TAP Dancing Christ on a trampoline! Holy chestbusters of Gene Kelly impersonating Leon's bull frog dancing on the dead belly of a speeling B runner up BATMAN! KAAAAAAAAAAHN! Peace.
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Jun 17, 2005 6:44:40 PM CDT
Director is a weird one indeed, check out these quotes from the
by john-locke
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That guys taken one too many tokes from the prairie dog's anus. Peace.
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Yeah, he did. If you go kill your next door neighbor, you didn't invent the idea of murder, but you are responsible for your own little atrocity. Again: fuck movies like this.
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...I would never attack anyone on this site because you lot say "Fuck" a lot and scare me. I think the point I was trying to make was that you're not a wuss if you can't watch this stuff. And that the "neutral" perspective of the director bothers me. Or something like that. But then, I AM a wuss. God, it's one o'clock in the morning and I really need to get to bed.
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That's cool. I too don't think there is anything wrong with not being able to watch this kind of thing. I for one have no desire to see this film. That guy is crazy.
I think the Irreversible bit was what through me off. So you were saying that was a good example of content being used in film? Or what? Also... fear not the opossums they mostly just nibble... mostly... Peace. -
chaos. the actor playing chaos was married to mrs travolta, he's now in jail, car trouble, a judge suicide, director banned from a gymnasium! wow, awesome dude...
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pull the shit out of girls asses and shove it down their throats. then cut off parts off themselves and force them to eat it. good fun
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I'd rather not use this computer to check it if not. Hard to tell if they are warnning you or trying to be all hardcore sounding. Hate that kind of stuff. "Most brutal film ever made" jeez hang onto your egos guys. Peace.
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The film sounds disgusting. I can
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You sound like an expert on the rape and torture film genre. I would think the phrases "character-driven" and "technically proficient" would be insignificant while watching girls getting raped and tortured over and over. DTS 6.1 anyone?
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Whoever he is, he gets blamed for a shitload of fucked up stuff.
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The director
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Seriously, dudes, congratulations for knowing before you've seen a movie that it's not for you. Especially to the point of saying "fuck movies like this" more than once. What do you want, a fucking medal? Yeah, and I don't want to see Dark Water. It looks boring and stupid and ripped off from a better movie in the first place. Huzzah, me.
Thank god the women of the world, and really the entire planet's population for that matter, have awesome and peaceloving dudes they can count on like you all, who just ain't into ugly, mean and disturbing movies. Word! -
Jun 18, 2005 3:25:06 AM CDT
I'm willing to say "fuck movies like this" without having se
by thirteen 13
Fuck movies like this. There I said it. And no I don't want a medal. There are just a lot of people that aren't into seeing graphic play by play depictions of two women being brutally raped and murdered. And in the future you may want to restrain yourself from ending your posts with "Word!". All that does is make you look like some kind of idiot misplaced Vanilla Ice wannabe.
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...I haven't read or seen anything about this movie before -only the brief review given here. We do need to be reminded of how shitty the world is, and we like being scared, repulsed and shocked in a cinema. But I don't go out of my way to see pretty girls being mutilated and tortured. Call me weird, but there you go.
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Jun 18, 2005 5:50:44 AM CDT
Sounds like something a group of 15 year old 'filmmakers'
by iammrmonkey
Let me think. Do I want to sit in the cinema and watch 70 minutes of what amounts to a serial killer's fantasy shot to film with as much story as an envelope or do I want to watch something like ROTS, Batman Begins or Sin City which actually features a progressive storyline and something that makes me think 'This is money well spent' and 'This film makes me feel glad that I'm alive'. I hate Chaos already and I haven't even seen it.
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Just for the record,i think i miss worded that earlier in my little rant.I was just using them as an example of how there is nothing wrong with a movie that will mess with your mind a little bit,But you shouldn't tap dance on the motherfucker and try and pull it out and stomp on it from all the twisted disgusting imagery you just seen. And Blue7 in case your wondering thats what the women of the world are into these days,guys who don't like watching women being murdered and raped.You can not like shit like that and still be a regular tough guy who is not above whipping somebodys ass if the need arises.
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Jun 18, 2005 9:18:43 AM CDT
Girls being dragged into the woods, brutalized and murdered?
by burnhollywood
Done before. A more original show would be Zed and The Gimp dragging "Powermetal 1" into the back room by his mullet and having their way with him for two hours. Now THAT would make your typical male grindhouse fan squirm, for sure...
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I started off by saying we don't agree much then I was trying to make clear that Fight Club and 12 Monkeys are films I like too despite that. Actually it's not that we disagree on films and issues as much as what they lead to. Even there we don't disagree much. I just find that you generalize things and work in absolutes, or at least too close to them for my taste. Some absolutes I don't actually find bad, like rape always being wrong, but when you get to things like human nature and what equals what... I think you can get into trouble. No formula has ever be made that perfectly covers the bases and exceptions of human nature interacting and reacting in this complex world. Point of fact, I would not think highly of someone who got off to tentacle porn (referring to an old debate we had on this site) and would even be suspicious of them. That said, I would not brand them a rapist with ONLY that. I basically don
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Neosamurai85 says he wants to fight you. He says you're stupid and you've got a stupid face.
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-take your civilized discourse somewhere else, son. We don't appreciate that sort of talk 'round these parts.
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Oh yes
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what mainstream movies have worse deaths than this i wonder?
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...devote most of their running length to the sexual humiliation and tortuous deaths of women?' Answer: none. Granted, lots of mainstream movies have stories that are poor excuses to show a lot of stuff blowing up. Lots of mainstream movies gloss over or trivialize the deaths of incidental characters, or kill off sympathetic characters to achieve cheap dramatic effect. I would make a distinction between stuff like that and a seventy-minute commercial for rape and murder. If your point is that it's an arbitrary distinction, you're entitled to your opinion. In conclusion let me say again: fuck movies like this.
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no one cares about your rant. yeah, fuck movies like this, yippity skippity. i asked a serious question because im curious about a frame of reference for a movie that this idiot director claims is the most horrible hardcore film ever. or whatever the fuck he said.
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"no one cares about your rant." -No, nor yours. I wasn't ranting, though, just expressing an opinion, but if I mistook your meaning and gave offense I apologise.
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You call that a rant? [Releasing the hounds!] That is not HURRCULEEEZ! Diz iz HURRCULEEEZ!!! HollAY Wood is a factory of SAY-TAN! PUMPING out TONS of tasteless filth in to the vast hungery rivers of our slaves *cough* Youths minds. Posioning them to shove there ding dongs into ping pongs and let sing-sings adventure in there wingwams. BUT THEY ARE NUTHING compapared to the ALL HORRID POWER OF THE DARK SIDE. Yes, I speak of that dastardly fiend... Peck Pinker! Pro-manhandler turned giant demonic hangmans stiffy that talka. For he will show us the horror that is true Kay-os. He will pullute are minds with the true evils of the world, and show us the light. Yes... the BLACK LIGHT! he will show us the lint on out black shirts and teach us the true meaning of hard core self whorshiping. HE IS THE ENEMEY and all that Question this should die. And all that approve of this should die too. Die slow death by kicking yourselves in the head... HARD! For this is a RANT and I have no Idea what I was talking about anymore because I'm RANTING! OOOOOW. NOW ALL OF YOU LOVE ME! BOW DOWN AND WORSHIP MY ALL IMPORTANT RAAAANT. FOR IT IS IMPORTANT... BECAUSE IT'S A RANT... AND RANTS ARE IMPORTANT... ... YOU ALL SUCK. FEAR MY LAME ASS SATIRE OF LAME ASSNESS! [And Lassie come home!] So yeah, that more or less is my idea of a AICN rant... or being an ass... or both... yeah... both... Peace.
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Maybe just being an ass... Back to you Stan. PEace.
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Jun 18, 2005 4:50:08 PM CDT
I think that people who queue to watch this FILTH are twisted as
by scarranhalfbreed
...but I have sex with stray dogs. And unlike my closet homosexuality, I'm proud of it.
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Jun 18, 2005 5:12:48 PM CDT
Why do assholes like this director try to justify shit like this
by totorosan
I mean really. All the pious bullshit about trying to "save lives" by glorifying homicidal sickos is just such utter crap. First off, the whole premise is absurd. The very girls that he supposedly are trying to educate aren't going to see this trash. Second, there has been, and always will be, stupid pretty teenage girls that will put themselves into stupid situations and end up dead. Want proof? That dumb blonde for Alabama gets herself offed in Aruba.
It's obvious that this guy just likes this shit, and probably would be committing it himself if he had the balls. By balls I mean that this guy fantasizes about it, probably wishes he could, but won't do it because he fears the retribution. So instead, he tries to pass off his obsessions as art. -
You missed my point completely. I am saying I am not interested in this subject matter for its own sake. That's why I criticized AUGUST UNDERGROUND. "Character-driven" is very important because it contextualizes the carnage and nastiness. WOLF CREEK is a good example of a film with quite disturbing subject matter but is also character-driven and technically proficient. No one here, unless they have seen CHAOS, is in a credible position to criticize it. As for the director's justification for making it, I also say "What a lot of horse-fuckin-eshit!" Saving lives? Give me a break. What's wrong with admitting that you made the movie to scare the crap out of people or shock the sensibilities of a small audience out there?" The guy, if he is quoted accurately, sounds like a major tosser. Still, I am looking forward to seeing CHAOS.
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Now that was exploitation!
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Jun 18, 2005 8:36:30 PM CDT
"No one here, unless they have seen CHAOS, is in a credible posi
by stan the bat
By the same token, no one here, unless they have eaten a shit sandwich, is in a position to say they don't like shit sandwiches. But many of us will go ahead and have our opinions anyway.
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...but I'm working on a case-by-case sandwiches here. Shit sandwiches coming up!
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I'm gonna need a lot of tabasco sauce, though.
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Tisk, tisk my good man. When taking on a shit sandwhich like this... you gonna need the real stuff. You need Sriracha. Everything is better with a little Sriracha... except for chocolat ice cream... take note, this may change your life forever. Peace.
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I bet those guys totally voted for Kerry LOL !!111one11! It's nice to know there's a businessman on the board.
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...but I
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I assume that means I can skip this movie and not miss anything?
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... why is it only MEN who think of making shitty, exploitation movies like this one?? Sounds like this guy should be in a psychiatric ward.
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That's a good point... Men make House On The Left and shit like this, where women make American Psycho and Annatomy of Hell. Actually, are you sure there aren't any female directed explotation films? Peace.
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For any of you into these kind of movies, here are some others you might like: The Daniel Pearl execution video, The Taliban Stadium executions, unedited 9/11 footage, Iraqi execution footage... and more! It's all out there on the web, guys. Enjoy!
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