H6: Diary of a Serial Killer (2007)

It's no definitive masterpiece but it's damn close.

hyped garbage

Fantastic!

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

As most of the other reviews here suggest, this isn't terrible movie, but it isn't a great one either. What I did like about it is the way it treats its main character. His serial killing is presented in a kind of run-of-the-mill way; like it's all just part of his day: chat with the wife, cup of coffee, maybe some ham, pick up a prostitute, torment torture and dismember her, then greet the wife when she returns. For what it's worth, I'm not sure if I've seen a psycho movie that takes quite this approach. Having said that, I did find it a tad dull. This pseudo-mundane, quotidian approach also tends to make everything seem a little unremarkable (outside the torture and dismemberment, that is). The killer's fascination with the diary of Landru, a notorious French murderer from the early 20th century, and his wish to emulate him, had the potential to be interesting, but nothing much comes of it, other than certain events at the very end of the film (which I won't give away; I'll let the viewer be underwhelmed without my *spoiling* it).The single most irritating thing about the movie--and this may seem really shallow and dumb--is that the lead character REALLY looks a lot like Brad Garrett (you know, the big dopey brother from Everybody Loves Raymond). He even kind of sounds like him! (in Spanish, of course!) Profile, hair, even certain mannerisms--Brad Garrett! As you may imagine, it's pretty hard to take 'Robbie' seriously as he wields a chainsaw over a strapped-down Spanish prostitute in a splatter-proof room.Overall, it's not SO bad a flick, but there's no way it belongs on your must-see list. 4 apathetic stars.

I thought that H6: Diary Of A Serial Killer was a good but brutal horror film. H6 tells the story of Antonio Frau, a serial killer set free after serving 25 years in jail for the murder of his girlfriend. After inheriting and old motel from a relative he never knew, he sees this as a place where he is able to do his tasks of relieving the grief of those who have lost the will to live. He takes his victims to room Number 6 in the motel where he 'purifies' them, while, at the same time, continues his everyday life next to his wife. I thought that this was a very brutal, but a good horror film. The film contained quite a lot of strong violence and torture.

A man out of prison for strangling his girlfriend inherits an uninhabited "guest house" that had been used as a house of prostitution. Inspired by the unexpected gift and by real life serial killer Henri Désiré Landru, he prepares room 6 to starve, interrogate, humiliate, rape, and kill prostitutes he invites in from the street. He thinks he can somehow purify them, but his motives aren't all "good," as he's interested in money and fame for himself as well. Like Landru supposedly did, he keeps a detailed diary with Polaroid photographs (now a thing of the past) as evidence of his crime, since he manages to destroy all the other evidence he doesn't care to have discovered.Meanwhile, he also manages to be a loving husband to his new wife, even tolerating her open affair with a doctor at her hospital where she is a nurse. The inspector who had arrested him for his first killing is the one who comes to suspect him of the recent ones.There is plenty of blood spray in the movie, and some cannibalism, but the cuts themselves are not shown, so if that's your bag, you'll be disappointed. I found the movie to be engrossing enough and very well-shot for it to hold my attention.

H6 - Diary of an Assassin opens with a dark screen. A domestic argument can be heard. Spilling out of the darkness of an apartment into murky, ochre light we see a man abusing and eventually throttling his wife. Hello Antonio Frau, before he learns the self-control needed to become a serious serial killer.Several years later and he's out of prison, inheriting an old empty building that used to be a brothel. He also picks up a wife, who has corresponded with him in the nick and believes he has reformed. He has. Gone is the anger, the violent reactiveness to situations he can't control. He now has a finely honed mind, free of any non-psychopathic tendencies, and explains to the audience his new calling as a serial killer. He obligingly plans a diary that will include before-and-after Polaroid pictures - for posterity, you understand. We survey his collection of chain saws and other necessary equipment.The portrait of an unemotional but ruthlessly clinical and intelligent killer hearkens to many movies of this ilk, or popular fiction such as We Must Talk About Kevin. It is not particularly new, but there is always room for a new approach and I was interested to see how the cinematography tackled the subject, whether the scenes of gore would be particularly extreme censor-bait, memorably artistic, or whether it would develop new psychological twists.Intellectually, the film is fairly shallow, but could still appeal to gore-buffs. Antonio Frau's main raison d'etre is the old 'cleanse humanity of the scum' motive - rounding up prostitutes and other undesirables and purge them with pain before ridding humanity of their presence (all in the name of the Lord). The psychology mirrors the witchfinders of Roman Catholicism, aided and abetted then by a string of ingenious torturers, sexual perverts and willing official and non-official helpers. That age having passed (or at least transformed - the Church no longer having such power in modern day Spain), poor Antonio has to shoulder the divine burden all himself. "The Lord has chosen me for this very special task," he proclaims. The similarity, and the fact that Church brutality against 'witches' was mirrored on Old Testament torture, raises the question of copycat violence for the weak minded.Antonio's preferred method is to seem kind and generous until he has his victims in his grasp. He has a special room in the old lodging house with a table where he binds women of the night spread-eagled (usually he feeds them first and explains his special sexual needs, offering lots of dosh). Once they are tied up, he rapes them repeatedly, starves them for days, and then (for the good of their soul) hacks them into bits and puts the body parts in black bin bags.For its economy of images, most of which are above-average though not quite outstanding, H6 - Diary of an Assassin deserves some credit. One of the victims puts in a remarkably good performance as she is raped - the expressions on her face are horrifying. But the film falls short of even its own modest ambition. The camera looks away as limbs are hacked off, and the blood spurts look a little repetitive from one dismemberment to the next. Even more worrying in terms of continuity is the explicit camera shots between the girls' legs that always show neatly arranged panties even as Antonio dismounts.This film will be offensive to many people for the subject matter. For some horror buffs it will, ironically, be lacking in sufficient realism, at least by today's film-making standards, but there is enough to slake the blood-thirst of most fans of the genre. Others should probably stay away.