Subconscious Cruelty
- 2000
- 1h 32m
IMDb RATING
4.8/10
2.2K
YOUR RATING
An anthology of horror, consisting of four segments all themed around gory subjects.An anthology of horror, consisting of four segments all themed around gory subjects.An anthology of horror, consisting of four segments all themed around gory subjects.
Sophie Lauzière
- Woman On Slab
- (segment "Ovarian Eyeball")
Anne-Marie Belley
- Hand
- (segment "Ovarian Eyeball")
Brea Asher
- Sister
- (segment "Human Larvae")
Ivaylo Founev
- Brother
- (segment "Human Larvae")
Eric Levasseur
- Lover
- (segment "Human Larvae")
Janis Higgins
- Girl In Photo
- (segment "Human Larvae")
- (as Janice Higgins)
Nadia Simaani
- Female Performer
- (segment "Rebirth")
Anna Berlyn
- Female Performer
- (segment "Rebirth")
Nancy Simard
- Female Performer
- (segment "Rebirth")
Sean Spuruey
- Male Performer
- (segment "Rebirth")
Scott Noonan
- Male Performer
- (segments "Rebirth", "Right Brain/Martyrdom")
- …
Mitch Davis
- Male Performer
- (segments "Rebirth", "Right Brain/Martyrdom")
- …
Christopher Piggins
- Businessman
- (segments "Right Brain/Martyrdom", "Right Brain/Martyrdom")
- …
Martin Sauvageau
- Drunk In Bar
- (segment "Right Brain/Martyrdom")
Annette Pankrac
- Secretary
- (segment "Right Brain/Martyrdom")
Vince Sheffield
- Man On Television
- (segment "Right Brain/Martyrdom")
Karen Wiener
- Female Hand
- (segment "Right Brain/Martyrdom")
Sylvain Rivard
- Subliminal Body
- (segment "Right Brain/Martyrdom")
- (as Vainvard)
- Director
- Writer
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
4.82.2K
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
Featured reviews
Very extreme film.
"Subconscious Cruelty" has to be one of the most beautiful films I have ever seen.Still it's extremely grim and gory at times,so fans of politically correct mainstream horror garbage shouldn't bother.The film mixes many wonderful visuals with plenty of sleaze and gore.It is extremely odd,vicious and disturbing,so fans of bizarre cinema won't be disappointed. My favourite segment from "Subconscious Cruelty" is "Human Larvae" which shows us a twisted relationship between a young man and his pregnant sister.The birthing scene is particularly nasty and not easily forgotten.The last segment "Right Brain/Martyrdom" has to be seen to be believed.It's incredibly harsh and blasphemous with scenes of genital mutilation and grisly torture.We see Jesus Christ captured by three naked females who mutilate him,ripping flesh from his chest,licking a wound on his knee and pissing on him.There is also a Jesus statue with a projection of a swastika on it."Subconscious Cruelty" is a truly memorable film that should be seen by fans of extreme cinema.Check it out.
Gruesome, Gory, Sick and Disturbing
A couple of days ago, the censorship did not allow the exhibition of "A Serbian Film" in Rio Fan Festival 2011 in Rio de Janeiro. A friend of mine mentioned that "Subconscious Cruelty" was another polemic film and I decided to watch it.
"Subconscious Cruelty" is indeed gruesome, gory, sick and disturbing, and one of the nastiest and pointless films I have ever seen. The film is divided is segments and it seems that the only intention of the director is to shock the audiences with a confused narrative and disconcerting impressive images. Paradoxically, the music score is very tender and beautiful.
Ovarian Eyeball - In the first segment, a naked woman is sliced by a sharp blade and an eyeball is removed from her belly. This surrealistic short is absolutely senseless.
Human Larvae – in this second segment, a deranged man that hates his sister that is pregnant kills her newborn offspring and she during the delivery. This short is one of the sickliest films I have ever seen.
Rebirth – in this third segment, a group of naked people rolls around mud and blood in another pointless segment.
Right Brain/Martyrdom – in this last incomprehensible segment, there are the visible intention to offend the Christians with religious symbolism associated with gore and sex.
Considering that I did not understand three out four segments, I really did not like this film. My vote is three.
Title (Brazil): Not Available
"Subconscious Cruelty" is indeed gruesome, gory, sick and disturbing, and one of the nastiest and pointless films I have ever seen. The film is divided is segments and it seems that the only intention of the director is to shock the audiences with a confused narrative and disconcerting impressive images. Paradoxically, the music score is very tender and beautiful.
Ovarian Eyeball - In the first segment, a naked woman is sliced by a sharp blade and an eyeball is removed from her belly. This surrealistic short is absolutely senseless.
Human Larvae – in this second segment, a deranged man that hates his sister that is pregnant kills her newborn offspring and she during the delivery. This short is one of the sickliest films I have ever seen.
Rebirth – in this third segment, a group of naked people rolls around mud and blood in another pointless segment.
Right Brain/Martyrdom – in this last incomprehensible segment, there are the visible intention to offend the Christians with religious symbolism associated with gore and sex.
Considering that I did not understand three out four segments, I really did not like this film. My vote is three.
Title (Brazil): Not Available
Shocking, yes, but what else?
This was definitely the most graphically disturbing film I've ever seen. Apparently, the sole purpose of the film is to shock and outrage people (according to the Stockholm Film Festival booklet), and I guess it does, but it doesn't really go any further than that. Or does it? I get the feeling that Karim Hussain has something to tell us, but it doesn't get through very well. I understand the reason for showing the things no-one dares to show, and I think that's good. But it is not presented very well, so people will not get the picture. The last section of the film is clearly a statement against American double standard of morality, and the modern mans loss of spirituality, and it is also the most intentionally apparent section.
The 'sound design' is great, very reminiscent to Lynch's Eraserhead. The music on the other hand, is most of the time inappropriate. The middle part of the film where people are indulging in an orgy with Mother Earth, is so badly scored the scene becomes silly, which is a shame. Hussain should have chosen music in the vein of Ligeti and Penderecki for a film like this (like Kubrick did).
If you want to see a shocking film that is dead serious all of the time, go for this one. Not for everyone, though. Or maybe it is?
The 'sound design' is great, very reminiscent to Lynch's Eraserhead. The music on the other hand, is most of the time inappropriate. The middle part of the film where people are indulging in an orgy with Mother Earth, is so badly scored the scene becomes silly, which is a shame. Hussain should have chosen music in the vein of Ligeti and Penderecki for a film like this (like Kubrick did).
If you want to see a shocking film that is dead serious all of the time, go for this one. Not for everyone, though. Or maybe it is?
Bizarre and unique
Nothing else like it. Check it out. Pretty wild. Segment 3 is by far my favorite
Interesting art-house horror with plenty of WTF moments.
A gory, low budget, art-house horror with scenes of extreme nastiness, Subconscious Cruelty is not an easy film to watch for several reasons: it is extremely 'symbolic' (some might say pretentious); it has no standard narrative; and it features very unsettling imagery. It is, however, well directed and edited, and features some amazingly realistic effects and a pretty decent score.
Subconscious Cruelty starts as it means to go on, with a bizarre short segment entitled Ovarian Eyeball in which a naked woman on a table is sliced open; from her wound, an eyeball on an optic nerve is produced. It makes no sense (to me at least), but is certainly visually arresting.
And so the weirdness continues, with a second 'story', Human Larvae, about a guy who wishes to make a mockery of the miracle of birth by killing his sister's newborn child as it is leaving the womb. This one is without a doubt the vilest story I have ever seen committed to celluloid and should be seen only by those with a very strong stomach.
Part three, Rebirth, is less intense, with a bunch of naked people rolling around in mud, fellating tree branches and shagging pools of blood! I quite enjoyed this bit after the gruelling nature of Human Larvae.
The final segment, Right Brain/Martyrdom, fuses religious symbolism with female nekkidness and gore, and is a shocking slice of sacrilegious depravity guaranteed to upset Christians everywhere.
I can't say that I enjoyed director Karim Hussain's debut, and would hesitate recommending it to pretty much everyone I know, but I imagine that it will definitely have a cult following amongst those people who prefer to delve into cinema's weirder output, such as the films of Lynch, Jodorowsky or Miike.
Subconscious Cruelty starts as it means to go on, with a bizarre short segment entitled Ovarian Eyeball in which a naked woman on a table is sliced open; from her wound, an eyeball on an optic nerve is produced. It makes no sense (to me at least), but is certainly visually arresting.
And so the weirdness continues, with a second 'story', Human Larvae, about a guy who wishes to make a mockery of the miracle of birth by killing his sister's newborn child as it is leaving the womb. This one is without a doubt the vilest story I have ever seen committed to celluloid and should be seen only by those with a very strong stomach.
Part three, Rebirth, is less intense, with a bunch of naked people rolling around in mud, fellating tree branches and shagging pools of blood! I quite enjoyed this bit after the gruelling nature of Human Larvae.
The final segment, Right Brain/Martyrdom, fuses religious symbolism with female nekkidness and gore, and is a shocking slice of sacrilegious depravity guaranteed to upset Christians everywhere.
I can't say that I enjoyed director Karim Hussain's debut, and would hesitate recommending it to pretty much everyone I know, but I imagine that it will definitely have a cult following amongst those people who prefer to delve into cinema's weirder output, such as the films of Lynch, Jodorowsky or Miike.
Did you know
- TriviaTook around six and a half years to make
- Alternate versionsDirector's High Definition Remastered Restored Version
- ConnectionsReferenced in In the Belly of the Beast (2001)
- SoundtracksEaten By Trees
By David Kristian
Copyright David Kristian All Rights Reserved
Website: www.davidkristian.com
- How long is Subconscious Cruelty?Powered by Alexa
Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Official site
- Language
- Also known as
- Bilinçaltı Zulüm
- Filming locations
- Production company
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Budget
- CA$100,000 (estimated)
Contribute to this page
Suggest an edit or add missing content






