Cryptic Plasm

Tonight's viewing pleasure the extremely gory "Cryptic Plasm" only recommended for the hardcore gorehounds. Brian Paulin certainly has his hands around making the goriest of the gory.

Not much story, if fact, I have no idea what the plot or story was, but who cares about such things, with pure gore films. I never have at least.

This was very well done, with amazing practical effects. Gorehounds, unite, this is a winner.

I would give it a strong 8/10 for the gore effects alone.

It's hard to imagine what Paulin has in store next, but this is what I call a gorehounds delight.

Brian Paulin's Cryptic Plasm stars Joe Olson as David Gates, a documentarian who reports on the strange and unusual. Gates convinces a producer to finance four episodes for television, but delving into the unknown has terrible consequences for the film-maker and his cameraman Brian (played by Paulin himself).

Independent horror director Paulin is known for his splattery special effects, and Cryptic Plasm certainly has its fair share of very messy gore, but it sure takes its merry time getting to it. For a long while, the film feels a lot like The Blair Witch Project, David and Brian investigating various mysterious phenomena, with plenty of shaky found-footage style action. I'm not a big fan of this type of horror, so I found it all rather unimpressive.

Eventually, David and Brian are given permission to film an exorcism, and this is where the film starts to deliver the goods, the ritual resulting in plenty of juicy gore. As with other Paulin films, when the blood is flowing, the plot tends to make little sense (the overly ambitious, Lovecraftian, cosmic horror storyline has something to do with an interdimensional rift) - but at least it's not boring. By the time David turns into an Evil Dead style zombie and Brian becomes trapped within a wall, I had completely lost track of what was going on, but there's so much slime and claret being splashed across the screen that I really didn't care... messy special effects and an even messier plot are exactly what I expect from a Paulin production.

5.5/10, rounded up to 6 for IMDb.

Another atmospheric, creative and original gem by my favorite horror director of the 21st century, Brian Paulin. More of a slow build experience than his last three movies, so be patient with this one. It contains stronger performances than in his previous outings (both Olsen & Paulin) and a stunning end sequence.

Like other Paulin movies, Cryptic Plasm is a DIY confluence of Italian Horror (especially Fulci), the Guinea Pig series, Tetsuo: Iron man, anime, and 80s horror, but in the end, his approach and varied influences yield a very distinct art. Nothing else feels quite like a Brian Paulin movie...except other Brian Paulin movies.

Like Blood Pigs, Bone Sickness, and Fetus (which is my top favorite Paulin movie), Cryptic Plasm shows things that few micro budgeted movies would dare attempt and for me these achievements in scope and vision overwhelm any and all technical flaws...and often enhance the atmosphere and personality of the piece.

Recommended to people who want to see distinct, homegrown, creative indie horror.

I know the director Brian Paulin, I know him generally from the movies Bone Sickness and Fetus, he is a director who generally uses horrifying effects but has a bland plot that doesn't go much beyond that, although this movie is like that too, he made this movie feel special compared to his previous movies. Paulin also enters the found footage genre in this movie and tries to be familiar with it, from forest areas to home scenes, it goes all the way to spiritual realms, then our movie accompanies various gore scenes, especially the last 15 minutes are something incredible, the blood will flow in front of your eyes, on top of that if you're going for a cosmic horror movie, let me tell you this: don't expect too much from the movie, it will offer you that and then have some boring moments. But if you're curious about a few gore scenes from Paulin, I would say watch it but don't expect too much.

There is no plot. The acting is on par for a student film. It's quite evident that they spent 80% of the 10s of dollars of their budget on the special effects. Which I will say, the special effects are quite good. I'm not kidding, you really only need to watch the last 15 minutes. You will understand the same amount of the movie and you'll get to see all the cool special effects.

I applaud these guys for trying to make a movie. But between the Dutch angles, the shaky hand-held camera shots, and the unfiltered, natural lighting, I was feeling nauseated by about 20 minutes in.

I rated it 2 stars because of the special effects.