Asian Cinema Scene: Korean 'Butcher' Does Snuff
Filed under: Foreign Language, Horror, Independent, Cinematical Indie
For my money, the scariest butcher in horror film history was Leatherface in The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. His brute force, his sharp-edged implements, his bloody apron, even his height, combined to make Gunnar Hansen a frightening, lethal monster. Of course, any profession in which a practitioner is expected to slice up meat makes an irresistible subject for a horror movie, and many flicks have featured meatcutters as mad villains.The latest example is an independent production from South Korea that will be screening next week at the always reliable New York Asian Film Festival. Directed by newcomer Kim Jin-Won, The Butcher puts a pig mask on the titular character. "A team of snuff film producers are discussing their gruesome handiwork," according to the festival's program notes, "torturing their captives to death, one by one, and selling the tapes overseas to foreign audiences hungry for footage of Koreans murdering one another. " It's told entirely from the point of view of two video cameras, one for the hapless victims and one for the perpetrators.
So we've got torture porn crossed with a shaky cam aesthetic. What's not to love? Fangoria got the tip on a teaser trailer (NSFW, unless you're a sadistic butcher). Rodney at Twitch posted a review and says that The Butcher boils "horror conventions down to a raw, wet core ... using the agility of video to furiously rub the audience's face in it. " You have been officially warned.
Black Friday Movie Deals: Best Buy
Sex and Nudity Don't Draw You to the Movies?
What Makes a Real Vampire?
Robert Downey Jr. Wants to Retire?
Jaycee Dugard's Horrific Story to Get a Sleazy Adaptation
_thumbnail.jpg)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
6-12-2008 @ 8:42PM
John said...
Thanks but no thanks. I'll stick to the masterful work of the recent Spanish Auteur Ghost stories, Devil's Backbone, Orphanage. The Others. Acting, directing , writing, atmosphere, and psychology. They may be similar, but so are all the torture porn movies.
All it takes to do torture porn is prosthetics, red corn syrup and the capacity to think as sadistically as possible. No real talent inherent in that.
Reply
6-13-2008 @ 9:31AM
Peter Martin said...
That's pretty much where my tastes lie, John. I was intrigued until I watched the trailer.
Still, I admit to a degree of fascination with the way that different national cinemas churn out their own versions of familiar themes.