Absurd (1981)

Good movie but grossly overrated

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

Recently, I've been trying to catch up on all the "Video Nasties" I never got a chance to see when I was younger. This time out we have the sort of unofficial sequel to Anthropophagous - The Beast. I say unofficial because there's no actual continuation of the story here, it just happens to have been directed by the same guy (one man Italian movie conveyor belt Joe D'Amato), and written by the rather large George Eastman who also plays the hulking great monsters in both films.So, in Absurd, we start with big George running away from a man in a black coat. Trying to escape over a pointy metal gate, he winds up being impaled on the spikes with his guts dribbling out of his tummy. After being taken to hospital, he undergoes surgery on something that looks like an overcooked sausage, and the doctor notes that the big man can quickly heal himself, effectively making him immortal. Well, that's handy isn't it. Oh, but he can be killed if you destroy/remove his brain. Not quite so handy.Anyway, after a quicker than average recuperation period for someone recently wearing his insides as a fashion accessory, ungrateful George kills a nurse by drilling a hole into into her head and then, for reasons best known to himself, heads back to the house where his intestines made a bid for freedom, killing anybody that gets in his way. A priest trying to be Donald Pleasence in Halloween tries to track him down, an old cop tries to help but doesn't really do a lot, and the married couple who live in the house are out watching an American football game at a neighbour's place, leaving their curly headed little boy and their invalid daughter alone with the babysitter and a sister with a baffling and intermittent Irish accent.Although Absurd isn't brilliant, it's gore scenes are better than most low budget horror films (the band saw to the head, and pick axe through the head scenes are quite impressive), and there are some quite suspenseful scenes in the latter half of the film. Unfortunately, a lot of those scenes are ruined by an over-insistent Halloween inspired theme tune obliterating much of the tension, replacing it with a mild irritation and an aversion to keyboard driven soundtracks. It's also quite fun to see, from the film's more than obvious nods to Halloween, how it seems that in turn the makers of Friday the 13th Part IV took their influence from Absurd. The indestructible killer begins his rampage in a hospital, moves to the woods, and then ends up in a house and a final battle with a vulnerable child.Where I've struggled to see why some of the other films I've watched were banned by the BBFC in the '80s, it's not too difficult to see why they didn't respond well to Absurd. It's not the nastiest thing you'll ever see (although the "acting" by the kid might very well be), but there's enough in it to see why it would have caused the censors back then a bit of concern."There's something I have to tell you". "Okay. I'm all ears". "It's about Thelma Gardelli up at the hospital. I'm afraid she was brutally murdered by that man we were operating on this morning".

Luigi Montefiori aka George Eastman is definitely one of the scariest movie villains I've ever seen. His sheer size alone just makes him creepy. He obviously doesn't mind being violent; it seems to come naturally to him. If you've ever seen Bava's "Rabid Dogs," you should know what I mean. His role in "Rosso Sangue" is no exception. He delivers the goods here.Transformed into an unstoppable machine by an experiment gone awry, the bad guy makes his way through the countryside in search of his next victim. His next victim is basically anyone who gets in his way. He eventually lands at the home of a family and stalks them down.For the gorehounds, there will be a lot to love here. The scene with the band saw was sweet. For the lovers of Italian shock, there will be little we haven't seen before, but it is still worth a viewing.Ultimiately, this one could have been as triumphant as "Buio Omega" if there had been a few added killings. There are really only a handful. I wish there had been twice as many. I would have given this one at least a nine.Aficionados of Italian horror soundtracks will recognize a few of the tunes from other flicks.Worthy of a viewing for fans of D'Amato. Also recommend, if you like this one: "Tenebre," "Anthropophagus: The Grim Reaper," and of course "Beyond the Darkness." 7 out of 10, kids.

Well, story-wise this is just a very weak. Funny enough it got written by George Eastman, the man who plays the killer in this movie and it's predecessor "Antropophagus".Yes, despite the many titles this movie is known under, this movie is still really being a sequel to the 1980 movie "Antropophagus", which also got directed by Joe D'Amato. "Antropophagus" was truly one of the nastiest movies I've ever seen because of two very memorable gory moments. While this movie is also being gory and got banned at many countries at the time of its release, it's lacking really in the atmosphere and memorable moments of the original movie.This is not really an horror, it's merely a movie with some gory sequences in it. The movie never gets tense and it will never scare you in any way. Still for the fans of video nasties this remains a good watch, especially if you want to see more after watching "Antropophagus". The movie does really feature some gory moments and original nasty killings in it.The movie mostly remains watchable because it features the same maniacal killer as the original did. He's just one of those great genre characters that can really make a movie work out, even when everything else about the movie is done quite poorly.Just some good simple old fashioned Italian nasty fun.6/10http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/

Absurd (1981) ** (out of 4) Here's yet another bizarre one from Joe D'Amato, which has George Eastman playing a psycho who due to a blood clot can rejuvenate himself. Soon he escapes from a mental hospital and goes on a killing spree while a priest and some goofy detectives search for him.For some reason this film was often considered a sequel to ANTHROPOPHAGUS, which never made too much sense to me. Yes, both films feature the same star- director team but the comparisons pretty much end there because there's no other connection from this film to that notorious one. ABSURD is known under countless other titles including HORRIBLE and the end result is something slightly entertaining as long as you don't take it too serious.This here is mainly going to appeal to those Italian horror fans who enjoy seeing little plot but plenty of gore. The film manages to be slightly entertaining thanks in large part to a nice music score as well as some memorable gore scenes. I'd be lying if I said the special effects are good because they're actually pretty cheap and far from the type of effects that we were seeing in the works of Lucio Fulci. The special effects are all obviously done but that doesn't mean you can't enjoy the splatter that follows. With that said, some of them are rather silly including one where a woman gets a drill all the way through her head yet she's still able to scream.There's also quite a bit wrong with this picture including the fact that it's story rarely makes a bit of sense. As usual, D'Amato's direction certainly isn't the greatest and I've always said that pacing was never his strong point. At just 90 minutes this film seems twice as long because it just takes so long for everything to happen and it usually gets dragged out to the point of boredom. Just check out the final chase, which seems to take up an entire movie. Never mind the fact that it appears to have lifted the ending to HALLOWEEN II but considering they were both released in the same year, perhaps it was just a coincidence.