August Underground Trilogy - Part 2

Last night I wrote about the first in the trilogy of the extreme indie movies, August Underground. Not one to turn down an opportunity for something to actually effect me it only felt right to give the second a look!

August's Underground Mordum. 

Vogel returns as the sick and twisted camera killer with two new buddies. His girlfriend who can only be described as a complete fucking psycho and her brother a long haired man child who takes sexual violence to a whole new level. This time around Vogel has something to really show us. While the first wasn't all that violent or visually disturbing and relied on humiliation to really unsettle us, Mordum is out there. It's again presented as a degraded VHS tape that's been way over used, we still get mundane stuff, the trio with their mates drinking and being stupid, going to see gigs, getting piercings, messing around together. This time however, it's more chaotic. The girlfriend who is unhinged and to be honest a ticking time bomb, her brother a simple mind. Childlike and obviously disturbed. I really cannot imagine what their back story would be if they had one. As well as being in a relationship with Vogels character, the girl is having sex with her brother! Disturbing enough for you?

Violence in this one is stronger, and more sexually motivated. Simulated blow jobs with severed penises, necrophilia, rape its all there and it's not pretty. One scene involving the gaping stomach wound and the brother's weird fetishes almost made me vomit in my mouth a little! A very late scene involving a small child is pretty nasty. The dialogue during was sickening and indicated there really is more to why they are like they are, the girlfriend in particular. One thing is, this will offend people. Not everyone but the majority of people, even a lot of horror fans will be upset by this. Children, babies and animals are killed even though this is mainly off screen and to avoid the animal death just don't watch after the credits.

Again the effects are spectacular. Realism is achieved perfectly. It's exciting as a horror fan to see such amazing effects even from 2003. If they can do it with barely a budget then Hollywood certainly can! The characters are realistic. I've met people like them, probably don't go around kidnapping and killing people but on the outside these characters are people we know and are generally normal apart from their hobbies.

I was disappointed in a few things. I thought sometimes it was too chaotic. Everyone these people know are killers of some kind. A guy later on in the film has quite the party piece in his basement and we are treated to witnessing his own sick killing. There is a real escalation from 2 mates pissing around to 3 people who are now seasoned killers. I don't know how much time is supposed to have passed between the first film and the second. I think it concentrated too much on the two new faces I kinda missed seeing more of Vogel! It isn't until the end when he quite obviously loses it with his girlfriends brother we see him properly or at least his other scenes just weren't as memorable as the other two. I also thought the sexual element was too much sometimes. However, Vogel and co wanted to gross me out and appall me and that they did. Again.

While I "prefer" the first, again I didn't enjoy it but this one is certainly more effective in what it sets out to do and hasn't put me off finishing the trilogy.... Part 3, August Underground's Penance coming soon.... Watch this space!