User reviews

I know this was withdrawn by the BBFC, but I can't believe this was even considered for a release. I just finished watching it and it is basically just 2 people (a guy and a gal) getting tortured, raped and abused by a sick deviate! What you see on screen is VERY hard to watch at times (Nipples getting cut off with a pair of scissors, and a rape scene involving both the MALE and FEMALE!)), and the camera never shies away. I must say the gore effects are very well done. I picked my copy up off ebay for 4 pounds, I Wasn't disappointed, I knew what I was letting myself in for, but it is very sick, and most people will absolutely hate it...plus there is ablsolutley no plot whatsoever, why he tortures these two nobody really knows!

How on earth this nearly saw the light of day in the UK, the BBFC would have been slaughtered for letting it through!

Everybody was hyped when Gurotesuku was banned in the United Kingdom...me included.

I was expecting the Japaness "August Underground", in term of shock and violence, but it's not.

The plot is just a excuse to show some violence: a maniac kidnaps a couple and tortures them.

The movie had good special effects, but it's NOT that violent for enter in the annals of extreme cinema, don't trust comments like "Gorey as *beep*, U ARE A PERV IF U WATCH DIS !" Gurotesuku is the perfect example how banning a movie can make it popular on the internet and international market.

Want a real shocking movie ? Check out: Cannibal Holocaust and the August Underground trilogy.

Grotesque is a challenge of the visual senses, horror for the visually challenged, where at one point at to stop, then resumed viewing it later. The plot is simple, yet from the doctor's crazed point of view, the premise is rather intriguing. A young innocent couple who are going steady, I guess, after dining out, are kidnapped by this brilliant maniacal surgeon, who has them tied up in his basement, what have you and tortures the living f..k out of them. His reasons are, for his own sick entertainment, to see how much they can endure or hold out, before they give up, and accept the inescapable fate of death. Also he wants to test their love against each other. I'm not gonna tell you what he does to em', but it's a lot to take. I'll leave that to the imagination of us sick ones to conjurer thoughts and images. For some of you, you'll be screaming for a re watch of Audition or even Hostel, which would come as a relief, as it would a comedy, after trying to get through this. This is a movie, you don't undermine for it's shocking violence, where each sick torturous act out shocks the last (some torturous methods, mirroring the ones in Daddy's Little Girl), and don't think for a second, cause of it's 73 minute running time, that it lessens the amount of horror you expect to see. You don't get away that easy. Actually in it's early part, I was actually disappointed as awaiting the real moments of shocking violence, where I guess my expectations were fading, or I was dubious, but with the buzz of that chainsaw sounding, I was quickly corrected. It's a film, really for the toughest of the senses. I'm not kidding. I'm never been so unnerved or discomforted by a film such as this, truly my heart was beating a lot through this intense view. This unsettling view isn't helped, when the actors don't overact. They put just the right amount of acting into their believable characters. One shocking tease to the film, involves a scene which at first, you don't think is a dream, which for one victim counts as a double whammy of a downer. This whole merciless film has nasty intentions, a lot of people will find it repellent, where the stronger ones will see the view through. The burial scene of our ill fated lovers at the end was memorably bizarre, it's actually the strongest image of the film, I can't get out of my head. But with all I've said, what it all boils down to is a movie almost wholly based on torture, saved for two scenes. This doesn't constitute for good horror, but for it's qualities to shock, unnerve and intensify, I must praise this nasty piece of horror, for what is, despite it's degrading or immoral themes, upon two human beings. God forbid, this one spawns a sequel, I for one, don't think I could stomach it.

Watching a movie called Grotesque and finding it to be too grotesque is a bit like the "dead dove, do not eat" scene from Arrested Development. I got what I signed up for, I just regret signing up a little.

I'd been researching horror movies that were either banned or heavily censored in certain territories, and I think that's how this got on my radar. I also found it was directed by someone who'd made two movies I liked quite a lot: Kôji Shiraishi, with Noroi being superb, and A Record of Sweet Murder being an interesting one watch. I think both had more going on and we're technically a lot more interesting than Grotesque, but Grotesque is at least effective in what it's trying to do. Even if I don't really like the genre it belongs in, or what it's trying to do, I have to respect it at least a little for being sickening and hard to watch in parts. Each scene feels a little more horrible and quite literally torturous than the last, and to Kôji Shiraishi's credit, he gives you plenty of warning that the film's going to go to some horrible places before going there and then some. I also respect the movie for not wasting much time, at just 73 minutes long.

It is a gory horror movie about torture. It's visually unappealing to look at, but the effects remain hard to watch even with what looks like a low budget. And the acting did genuinely impress me - Shigeo Ôsako plays a particularly chilling villain who doesn't ham it up or push things as far as others might if they played this role (especially in the first two acts; I don't know if the final stretch of the movie was as effective). He's a sadist and a twisted individual who feels subdued and somehow believable, at least more so than most movie characters with these kinds of personality traits, who don't usually feel quite this horrifying.

The dialogue was in Japanese. I didn't find that much os a problem except for the girls speech near the end of the movie. The entire movie is a blood fest. There is full frontal female nudity. If there was male nudity I missed it. If someone could tell me what the girl said at the end I would like to know.

Overall, I enjoyed this movie. However, there are a couple things that bugged me as the film progressed. The one thing that bugged me the most were the sound effects. They do not compliment the special effects AT ALL, which is very sad because the special effects were outstanding. The special effects were actually one of the high points of this film for me. Anyway, the sound effects are just very generic squishing and splashing sound effects that you could download off of a stock sound website. As I stated previously, they do not compliment the great special effects at all.

There really isn't much of a plot here, but what is here, is strong. We have a sexually depraved doctor implementing excruciatingly painful forms of torture on a couple. Like I said, not much of a plot, but it works because the movie doesn't attempt to flesh itself out. It's rather short.

The ending is something I honestly did not see coming and it pleasantly surprised me. I will not spoil what it is of course, but I have to say that it makes you feel happy and giddy despite seeing all of the other sick events that occurred in the film.

In conclusion, I can recommend this film, but only under certain conditions. First off, you have to be able to stomach seeing some sick things, although I'm pretty sure that most people reading this review can. Second, you will have to be able to ignore the cringe-worthy awful sound effects in the movie. And Finally, you have to be open minded.

That's really all I have to say. Good movie, but it could have been improved SO MUCH by just rectifying so little.