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| Welcome to the Sick-Films.com Reviews section. Here you will find a number of specially-written reviews of our favourite films - call these a starting point - each with links to discover more about the films, should you be so inclined. Scroll down for a list of our reviews, or use the links to the left. |
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Street Trash (1987)
SYNOPSIS: A close-knit group of New York bums discover a bottle of booze that makes them explode when consumed.
SICK LOWLIGHTS: People melting in a pool of pus and snot; naked woman gang raped by tramps; a guy deliberately vomits on another man's head; sharpening leg bone into knife; decapitation. |
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Bumfights
(2002)
SYNOPSIS: Underground film-makers
show the violent and seedy underbelly of a bored US middle
class. Jackass times 100.
SICK LOWLIGHTS: Real fights.
Tramps throwing themselves through plate glass windows, and
down steep hills. Crack dealer shitting on the pavement. Chicks
fighting. Pranks. "Wanna duckie?!" |
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Island
Of Death (1975)
SYNOPSIS: Young couple go on
the rampage on a small Greek island, torturing and killing
the locals.
SICK LOWLIGHTS: Man has sex with
goat. Man crucified to floor with nails. Junkie forced to
OD. Golden showers. Woman gets face burnt off. Leading lady
raped by shepherd. Then leading man! |
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House
On The Edge Of The Park (1980)
SYNOPSIS: Sadistic rapist holds
a party of yuppies hostage in their own home, only to have
the tables turned.
SICK LOWLIGHTS: Immediate rape.
Man repeatedly bashed into table. Girls forced to kiss. Humiliation
at knife point. Girl repeatedly slashed with straight razor.
Accidental disembowellment. |
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The
Evil Dead (1982)
SYNOPSIS: A holiday weekend in
a remote log cabin turns into a bloodbath when teenagers accidentally
raise undead monsters.
SICK LOWLIGHTS: Sharp pencil
stabbed into ankle. Woman raped by thick tree branch. Multiple
dismemberment with axe. Gouged-out eyes. Decapitation with
spade. Multi-coloured demon spew. |
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Cannibal
Holocaust (1979)
SYNOPSIS: Documentary film crew
go into jungle to film cannibals and don't come back. Discovered
film footage shows why.
SICK LOWLIGHTS: Live animal killings.
Ritualistic abortion. Three-man Rape in deep mud. Woman impaled
on stake. Decapitation, castration, disembowellment and mutilation
beyond recognition... |
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Re-Animator
(1985)
SYNOPSIS: Mad scientist invents
a drug that brings dead people back to life - as insane zombie
murderers.
SICK LOWLIGHTS: Syringes. Popping
veins. Exploding eyes. Bone saw through chest. Decapitation
by spade. Severed head goes down on naked woman! Flailing
intestines... |
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The
Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)
SYNOPSIS: Hapless teenagers stumble
upon house full of redneck cannibals. Only one gets out alive.
SICK LOWLIGHTS: Self-mutilation
with straight razor. Woman impaled on meathook. Off-screen
dismemberment. Man cut down middle with chainsaw. Old man
fed human blood from live girl. |
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Flesh
For Frankenstein (1974)
SYNOPSIS: Mary Shelley's infamous
monster story gets a splatter make-over, featuring lashings
of blood and semen.
SICK LOWLIGHTS: Bodily experiments.
Decapitation with shears. Fucking death in the gall bladder.
Old woman disembowelled.
Heart removed with a barbed spear. |
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Battle
Royale (2000)
SYNOPSIS: Unruly schoolchildren
are shipped to a deserted island and forced to fight it out
to the death.
SICK LOWLIGHTS: Switchblade between
eyes. Exploding neck collar. Crossbolt through windpipe. Throat
slit with sythe. Teen Uzi bloodbath. Severed head stuffed
with grenade. |
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The goriest zombie spoof ever made! |
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Funny, sick and stylish low-budget splatter |
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Very sick superhero movie: two-disc set |
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Wes Craven's first film: still uncompromising |
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House
By The Cemetery (1980)
DIRECTOR: Lucio Fulci, Italy
SYNOPSIS: A young family get more than they bargained
for when they buy a big house next to a New England cemetery.
SICK LOWLIGHTS: Woman stabbed
hard in back of head, through mouth. Ridiculous bat attack.
Woman skewered repeatedly with poker. Maggot-ridden body parts.
Kid scared by severed head.
OUR VERDICT: Unintentionally
hilarious, but great Italian cheeseball horror fun. If you
can put up with the paper-thin characters constantly shouting
out names you'll eventually be rewarded with some of the best
splatter FX from the Fulci era (courtesy of Gianetto De Rossi).
Defintely worth a watch if you've never seen it. |
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The
Toxic Avenger (1986)
DIRECTOR: Michael Hertz &
Lloyd Kaufman, USA
SYNOPSIS: A wimpy gym cleaner
turns into an avenging monster when he's knocked into radioactive
waste.
SICK LOWLIGHTS: Teen has head
driven over by car. Girls teased with hard drugs. Head split
with bench press. Man's hands fried in deep fat frier. Blind
girl's guide dog blown away with shotgun. Little old lady
is squashed in a trouser press.
OUR VERDICT: This absolutely
outragously over-the-top superhero comedy, though marred by
poor sound (not to mention poor production values), is a must-see
for any self-respecting gore hound. One scene, in which a
gang of hoodlums attack a blind girl in a fast food restaraunt,
is sure to go down in history as one of the sickest scenes
in motion picture history. |
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Braindead
AKA Dead Alive (1995)
DIRECTOR: Peter Jackson, New
Zealand
SYNOPSIS: The bite from a rare
monkey turns people into uncoordinated flesh-eating zombies.
SICK LOWLIGHTS: Dismembered ear
eaten. "Your mother ate my dog!". Multiple decapitation
and dismemberment. Face punched out. Everyone liquidised with
an upturned Flymo.
OUR VERDICT: Blood-drenched and
super fun, Peter (Lord Of The Rings) Jackson does zombie fans
proud with this cross between Monty Python and Zombie Flesh
Eaters. The ending is a tad on the over-silly side, but the
build up to the final Flymo bloodbath is gripping and hugely
enjoyable to witness. A must see. |
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Eaten
Alive AKA Death Trap (1979)
DIRECTOR: Tobe Hooper, USA
SYNOPSIS: Crazy hillbilly hotelier
kills his guests and feeds them to a giant pet alligator.
SICK LOWLIGHTS: Girl skewered
with a rake. Lots of ranting and screaming over insane country
soundtrack. Decapitation with sythe. Dog eaten. Man bitten
in half. Little girl terrorised.
OUR VERDICT: Slow, but terrifying
serial killer yarn with a grating country and western soundtrack
and lots of screaming. Thankfully, scream queen Marylin Burns
provides the yells, which makes the relentless misery of this
shocking movie more than worth it. Look out for Robert (Freddy
Kreuger) Englund in his acting debut as a rapist. |
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Re-Animator
(1985)
DIRECTOR: Stuart Gordon, USA
SYNOPSIS: Mad scientist invents
a drug that brings dead people back to life - as insane zombie
murderers.
SICK LOWLIGHTS: Syringes. Popping
veins. Exploding eyes. Bone saw through chest. Decapitation
by spade. Severed head goes down on naked woman! Flailing
intestines...
OUR VERDICT: A HP Lovecraft adaptation
and one of the best horror movies to come out of the States
in decades. Featuring the ample talents of Barbara Crampton
(at one point fondled by a decaptated ghoul), this zombie
splatter epic has been re-released with loads of extras and
in the definitive director's (un)cut. Re-Animator is a must-have
for any self-respecting gore hound. |
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The
Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974)
DIRECTOR: Tobe Hooper, USA
SYNOPSIS: Hapless teenagers stumble
upon house full of redneck cannibals. Only one gets out alive.
SICK LOWLIGHTS: Self-mutilation
with straight razor. Woman impaled on meathook. Off-screen
dismemberment. Man cut down middle with chainsaw. Old man
fed human blood from live girl.
OUR VERDICT: One of the eeriest,
darkest, scariest movies ever made, TTCSM is a triumph of
low budget film-making and it still packs a heavy punch. When
the killing starts things get really tense, and when scream
queen babe Marylin Burns starts flexing her tonsils the viewing
becomes a tad uncomfortable. Don't let anyone tell you that
this film is not scary. They are wrong. |
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Cannibal
Apocalypse (1982)
DIRECTOR: Antonio Margheriti,
Italy
SYNOPSIS: Vietnam veterans acquire a taste for human
flesh after years in captivity - with gruesome consequences.
SICK LOWLIGHTS: Cannibalism in
captivity. Explicit shotgun wound to the chest. Prolonged
bodily dismemberment by grind saw on garage floor. Tongue
torn out. Disembowellment by shotgun.
OUR VERDICT: John Saxon lends
this movie some gravitas - as do Gianetto De Rossi's excellent
gore effects - though little else does. A bunch of Vietnam
vets fall foul of the law when their urge for blood overtakes
their senses. The ensuing cop chase produces a few shocking
lowlights, including a garage mechanic torn apart by the vets
and (partially) eaten. The final chase in the sewers is standard
fare, except when lead veteran John Morghen takes a shotgun
shell in the guts and the camera gleefully peers through the
cavity to show his friends escaping. Fun and gory, but very
low grade. |
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Let
Sleeping Corpses Lie (1974)
DIRECTOR: George Grau, Spain
SYNOPSIS: 70s Manchester, England,
gets a rude awakening in the form of flesh-eating zombies.
Weird!
SICK LOWLIGHTS: Teen has head
driven over by car. Girls teased with hard drugs. Head split
with bench press. Man's hands fried in deep fat frier. Blind
girl's guide dog blown away with shotgun. Little old lady
is squashed in a trouser press.
OUR VERDICT: This absolutely
outragously over-the-top superhero comedy, though marred by
poor sound (not to mention poor production values), is a must-see
for any self-respecting gore hound. One scene, in which a
gang of hoodlums attack a blind girl in a fast food restaraunt,
is sure to go down in history as one of the sickest scenes
in motion picture history. |
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Nightmare
City (1995)
DIRECTOR: Umberto Lenzi, Italy
SYNOPSIS: A radioactive spill
causes thousands of people to become blood thirsty maniacs.
SICK LOWLIGHTS: Stabbings. Knivings.
Hackings. Decapitations. Explicit headshots. Flesh eating.
More knivings. Limbs hacked off. More stabbings.
OUR VERDICT: Though laughable
in many places, Umberto Lenzi's Nightmare City is at least
enjoyable in it's relentlessness and audacity (the zombies
almost becoming rapists in some scenes...) The special effects
are crude, but the gore is inventive and non-stop. As a fun
zombie splatter romp Nightmare City is worth checking out
- just don't expect a masterpiece of horror... |
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Return
Of The Living Dead (1985)
DIRECTOR: Dan O'Bannon, USA
SYNOPSIS: Gas leak causes out-of-control
zombie rampage in a small US town.
SICK LOWLIGHTS: Head skewered
to floor with pickaxe. Bodies dismembered. Brains eaten. Chunk
bitten out of head. Unstoppable hoards of flesh-eating zombies.
OUR VERDICT: An excellent zombie
movie spoof, with lots going for it. A bunch of foolhardy
kids happen upon an accidental gas leak at a medical supply
store and end up having to fight running, screaming (even
talking) zombies. Dropping like flies, the desperate kids
battle their way to a nearby mortuary where they enlist the
help of an eccentric embalmer. The film's got a terrific ending
too. |
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The
Burning (1981)
DIRECTOR: Tony Maylam, USA
SYNOPSIS: Camp caretaker comes
back to take revenge on a bunch of kids that accidentally
burnt him alive.
SICK LOWLIGHTS: Man burned alive.
Nurse skewered with scissors. Fingers chopped off. Garden
shears in throat. Raft full of dimembered body parts. Various
killings. Axe in head.
OUR VERDICT: A classic one-off
(thank God) slasher film that is played for scares, rather
than for laughs. It's surprisingly gory too - with kids dying
at the ends of various garden implements at regular intervals
- previously earning the film banned status in the UK. An
uncut version is at last available on DVD - allowing us to
savour the unique squirms this great US slasher movie has
to offer. |
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Contamination
(1980)
DIRECTOR: Luigi Cozzi, Italy
SYNOPSIS: Un-manned cargo vessel
brings alien eggs into New York - with gut-exploding consequences.
SICK LOWLIGHTS: Exploding heads.
Exploding ears. Exploding chest cavities. Lingering, slow
motion shots of flying intestines. Man crushed and eaten by
alien monster.
OUR VERDICT: This relatively
interesting cheapo, sci-fi horror rip-off has been lovingly
restored by Blue
Underground DVD. Fans of 80s Italian horror will lap up
the Goblin soundtrack, and titter at the ludcrous dialogue
- not to mention the over-the-top cheat-bursting body explosions
(which are fun the first time around)... though the rest of
us will wonder what all the fuss is about. Nevertheless, Contamination
is eminently collectible and worth a look. |
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| He can smell your brains. He can also spot a
decent sick film at twenty paces. Thirty, even. "Brain Eater"
is the, ahem, brains behind this very website, and has been a lover
of sick films for over twenty years. His knowledge of the subject
is exceeded only by his enthusiasm for it. |
| The 'Grinder' specializes in mincing up his victims and feeding them to his cats Sutty and Patch. He also has a vast knowledge of twisted cinema and often watches sick films for inspiration for his own murders. |
| The Judge has sent more poor horror movies to
the gallows than anyone alive today. Legend has it it he once burnt
a pile of Vipco movies in protest at poor video transfer standards.
Likes Japanese horror and zombie movies. |
| "Cannibal Man" likes a good laugh at
cheesy Euro horror every now and then, but his heart truely lies
in the gutter. Give him the gilded edge of the US splatter industry
any day - particularly George Romero and Stuart Gordon. |
| Often found wandering the streets of SW1 looking
for crap exploitation films, "The Chelsea Ripper" is a
Jesus Franco connoisseur, and a fan of John Waters, which makes
him a valuable member of the Sick Films team. |
| Dropped into a smelting vat aged four-and-a-half,
"Burn Face" grew up - rather unexpectedly - with lots
of personal problems. His enthusiasm for Joe D'Amato movies is suspect
in itself, but his love of Mondo movies is nothing short of worrying. |
| So-called because of his penchant for trafficking
human body parts, "Body Snatcher" also finds time to write
for this website. When he's not quartering some old dear with a
surgical bone saw, he's perfectly at home watching his favourite
type of film: the cannibal movie. |
| A shambling husk of a man, "Death Warmed-Up"'s
role model is grandpa from The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. One day
he hopes to work in Hollywood as a zombie. Until then he's happy
to write for this website. His favourite films? Cheapo Italian horror. |
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