American Guinea Pig: Bloodshock

The original Guinea Pig series from the 80's were more shocking than the American series. They are similar in many ways with hardly no dialogue and over the top gore. I have seen several reviewers compare it with or to Human Centipede 2 maybe for the fact it's black and white. The difference I feel is Centipede 2 could not have been made in color the special FX were too good. This films FX are sub par. With that said I did enjoy it somewhat for what it is. I just can't for the life of me tell you what it was. Some enjoyed the score I found it annoying and tedious. The film overall made no sense and perhaps that's what makes it watchable.

A man and a woman are put under extreme experiments so that natural morphine and adrenaline are created in their blood. The doctor draws out the blood at the right time. He then injects that blood into his own blood stream for some sort of wicked high. Weird.

This wasn't like a Guinea Pig movie at all. It's supposed to be the sequel to American Guinea Pig: Bouquet of Guts And Gore (2014) which was a nasty slice of film. This was the one where they used bolt cutters to get through the rib cage. Bloodshock however doesn't even compare. There is a couple of cringing moments but mostly boring believe it or not. This is shot in black and white which doesn't help the cause for this film. It does work for the director who wanted the end to be in colour showing the two patients ripping out each others stitches and playing in each others wounds. For an ultra violent black and white done right watch Infidus (2015).

This one just seemed too tame and puts you to sleep. Hopefully their next outing will be better.

In one scene the woman's chest cavity is opened a good ten inches exposing everything and you see the heart beating. I wondered what he was going to do to keep things from getting infected and suddenly the doctor bends over and licks all inside of the chest cavity. Problem solved.

'Bloodshock' is nightmarish, tender, perfectly paced and very intense. It's not derivative at all but it did, in some ways, remind me of 'Eraserhead' and 'Le Chien Andalou'. Having seen both AGP films in a row I've noticed that they absolutely excel at sound mixing ('Bloodshock' even uses some delicate piano notes to chilling effect) and the use of textured film-stock. I was utterly gripped for the entire 90 minutes and the tension (and weirdness) built up beautifully. 'Bloodshock' is a film that I expect to be recommending to people for a long time to come - it's definitely my favourite horror film on 2016, so far. Marcus Koch (the special effects guru behind 'Bouquet of Guts and Gore') proves that he is a brilliant and visionary director. I don't want to give anything away, so I won't say anything about what actually happens in the film...but you need to see it!

Two extremely resilient prisoners, a man (Dan Ellis) and a woman (Lillian McKinney), are subjected to a series of brutal medical procedures by a sadistic doctor.

I've always considered films like this to be challenge—to see if I can stomach the extreme violence being depicted. American Guinea Pig: Bloodshock is a challenge all right—to see if I can watch the whole thing without losing interest.

Bloodshock proves to be an apt title, since I was shocked to see that nearly all of the blood in the film has been captured in glorious black and white! While the gore is graphic (yet nowhere near as relentlessly nasty as its predecessor, Bouquet of Guts and Gore), its effect on the viewer is seriously diminished thanks to a misguided attempt at an art-house style that simply doesn't suit the material. It seems like such a waste of effort.

Director Marcus Koch's art-house approach also leads to interminable scenes that focus on the victims while they are locked in a padded cell, sharing poignant notes with each other through a hole in the wall, all of which serve to make the film a real chore at times. The pretentiousness is ramped up to 11 for the final act in which the two victims, free at last, decide not to escape but to get it on, reopening their wounds whilst having sex. At least that part pulls fewer punches, with the messiness now in full colour.

A final twist—revealed during the end credits—tries to make some sense of what we have seen, but does little to improve matters.

How do you review a film like this? Well, imagine being a hospital patient with "locked in syndrome." This is an illness where, due to a very specific type of stroke, the sufferer finds themself trapped in a body that, while completly devoid of voluntary muscle control, can feel every indignity of a normal person. So imagine that a fly lands on your nose. You are unable to swish it away, but you can feel every little itchy leg as it dances on your shnozz. You cannot ask for help, because you cannot move any of your voluntary muscles including those which control speech.

OK, you get where I'm coming from. Now imagine you took an enourmous painful diarrhea defecation, and had to just sit in it for an hour and a half before your wet-nurse came in to change your adult diaper. That is comparable to what its like to sit through this film. To paraphrase Christopher Walkin, "That isn't any kind of fun. But in terms of what this movie has to offer, that's as good as it's gonna get. And it wont ever get that good again." However, if you wish to ignore my heartfelt advice, and soil your mind with this load of visual fertilizer, the smell of which, will stay with you for a long time, you can watch it free on YouTube at a channel called Kings of Horror.

But don't say you havent been warned!