User reviews

well i have seen this film at an unofficial screening,and i knew that i am neither disgusted nor thrilled by the body horror scenes (cutting of organs, blood-wash etc), i can really 'keep that as just a part of the narrative' as it were, and evaluate the film for its cinematic virtues. so i am not going to judge the film for not meeting any expectations of disgust/excitement,but rather point out that

it really has no plot, and no visuality to speak about, i guess the film crew relied on the snuff-ish scenes to make up for the costs,because other than them, the movie is devoid of anything at all worth mentioning. as a counter-example, i could speak about ring (both USA and jap. versions), saw series, 28 days/weeks later, all of which present various points of view, subtexts, sequences of elaborate cinematography etc., and which all, in my opinion, deserve being watched several times in ones life time. so believe it or not, its not my elitism, extreme high modernist tastes etc. by all means, this film is a crap

It's funny because if Grotesque wasn't banned in the UK then I don't think I would have bothered watching it. No one would probably have even heard of Grotesque if the BBFC slapped an 18 certificate on it, but because they refused it has turned into something of a cult hit. It's a curiosity piece for connoisseurs of carnage but those looking to get truly disturbed are likely to be disappointed. I don't quite understand the reasons for the ban as Grotesque shows us nothing that we haven't seen before. In fact, it's so over-the-top in its ideas and execution that it's more likely to illicit laughs from viewers more than anything.

If you look at Kôji Shiraishi's earlier found footage horror, Noroi: The Curse then you'll find an expertly executed chiller that relies on atmosphere and imagery to produce genuine scares. Grotesque is pretty much the opposite to Noroi. I can't believe it's made by the same director as Noroi which is quite possibly the scariest film I have ever experienced. The only thing scary about Grotesque is how bad it is. To sum it up, it's two people in a room getting tortured by a psychopathic doctor. They were just walking back from their first date and a crazy man bops them on the head and they have to sexually excite him with their will to survive.

It's a terribly thin plot which only the thick and the psychotic would appreciate. Somehow though it isn't as boring as it sounds. It's only 70 minutes long but even still, a film set in one room with only three characters could easily drag, but Grotesque zips along quite merrily. This is the only redeeming quality of the film, it's never boring. But maybe that's because I was just waiting to see how far my cringe threshold could take. I won't spoil anything, but I was thrashing about like a that's sheep about to get sheared in a scene which involved an eye. I hate eyes and this scene is almost up there with Zombie Flesh Eaters.

It's just a series of gore scenes really and I have to say that the special effects are very good. The acting was also better than I was expecting, with the doctor being particularly menacing and convincing. It's also pretty well-made for the most part, although parts did look very amateur. In the end though Grotesque is just a pointless exercise in shock. It ends up being so melodramatic and ridiculous though that it just becomes funny.

Grotesque is worth one watch if you're curious and a hardened horror nut. Most people will know what their getting themselves into and at least there's more entertainment value in this than seriously sick stuff like the Guinea Pig and Slaughtered Vomit Dolls films. This one does have a dark sense of humour but the plot is non-existent and the characters are un-investable. The amount of gore and depravity is quite shocking at times but even still it's almost instantly forgettable as soon as the credits roll.

This show is so ridiculous from the get-go. A severely alcoholic detective, that in no way would still be employed. Drinking unapologetically on the job, her supervisor would have grounded her ass long ago, DEI or not.

Her daughter is a morbidly obese cow, that has obviously never been told no a day in her life. (see the mom for that reason) The writers make her out to be "smart", but it's obvious that she's a bag of hammers. Mom enables her food addiction because she's too weak and too drunk to take the time to be a proper parent. Dad was a weak man that enabled both of them. Karma has kicked in and he's in Hospice paying for his nonsense.

Cue in the simpleton Nun, that the writers want us to think is clever, but is simply a hypocrite and a fraud.

And these are just the main characters!

The story is as the title commands, grotesque, lacking in character development, a coherent story, or even clever writing. It's simply a shock value series, designed to make you stare in disbelief, like driving past a horrific car accident, you can't look away from the chaos and vulgarity.

The only value is to see how nasty, how upsetting can you make viewers; akin to a cat with a dead rat, head bitten off, then gazing a it's owner, quietly saying, "look what I did" At least the Hostile series attempted to have a pattern through its macabre. This is simply a cinematic vomitorium of pointless nonsense, led by an inept, broken "police detective".

Quite possibly the most disturbing movie I've ever seen. I don't even know what else to say. I actually walked away a couple of times. Hubby watched the whole thing and he has an iron stomach and even he was incredibly disturbed.

Grotesque is a film about a man who kidnaps and tortures a fledgling romantic couple; that's about the sum of it. I chose to watch Grotesque unaware of its notoriety, but because I'd recently seen another of Koji Shiraishi's films, the excellent Noroi, and it happened to be available. It proved hugely disappointing, in fact it's hard to believe that the two works could have been directed by the same person. There are films that disgust a viewer, such as Irreversible and Martyrs, and yet are supported by intriguing philosophical issues (or at least a convincing pretence at them), not to mention artistic and aesthetic accomplishment. Grotesque, in contrast, seems but a prurient exercise in lowest common denominator shocks; a lazy, cynical grasp for notoriety.

My rating of 2, as opposed to 1, reflects the film's overall technical proficiency considering the evidently minimal resources at hand (the sound effects accompanying the torture are effectively nauseating, for instance), and because the penultimate scene is slightly witty and offers some levity to end the film on.