The Mutilation Man

Early scenes show a young boy being buried alive in a makeshift grave by his drunken father. Years later, the boy emerges from his muddy dwelling as a naked, bearded man (Terek Pucket - MY SWEET SATAN).

The man, nameless, is stunned to find the world he has awoken into is barren and desolate. Maimed corpses lie scattered here and there, suggesting a post-apocalyptic setting.

Finding clothes, the man wanders across the land, haunted by memories of his abusive childhood at the hands of father, played with conviction by cult favourite Jim Van Bebber (CHARLIE'S FAMILY; DEADBEAT AT DAWN).

Confronted by a violent new world where naked women feasting on the remains of the dead are a common sight, Pucket's character determines that the best way to tackle his emotional demons is to combat them with physical pain.

And so, THE MUTILATION MAN is born. Pucket holds an impromptu show in which he carves his flesh to pieces in front of an approving crowd.

As the film unfolds further, we learn the true horrific extent of what happened during Pucket's childhood - via flashback - and his acts of self-mutilation grow more extreme as he attempts to wash away the pain inside.

Kristie Bowersock turns up midway through proceedings as a heavily tattooed lady that Pucket essentially shares a relationship with. Oh, and occasionally in the distance you'll spy an angel beckoning Pucket to follow her to redemption …

Andy Copp's feature debut runs for 80 minutes, but drags due to an almost total lack of dialogue. Not that it's necessary - the story is simple enough to follow. But dialogue may have helped …

Some will be quick to remind me that this is an 'experimental' film, and as such need not concern itself with more mainstream conventions such as dialogue. I can live with that. But, just what exactly is experimental about this film?!

Shot on a variety of materials (16mm, 8mm, video), the film is certainly low budget enough to qualify as 'underground'. But the look and feel of the film (plus the distorted industrial sounds that drone over the soundtrack) have all been used umpteen times before over the last 30 years, from the likes of Richard Kern through to Van Bebber himself, and so on.

Thematically, the notion of an antihero who is essentially good but flawed due to past events is hardly original. And the portrayal of the scenario here is neither strikingly bold or daring. Just average.

Visually, the film is uninvolving - and relies on regular excursions into gore in an attempt to compensate for it's moribund pace.

The gore is admittedly well-conceived in several scenes. But you can forget the hyperbole you may have read claiming this film to be harrowing, brutal, unforgettable, etc. If you think you can stomach the sight of someone pretending to chew a razor blade then spitting out fake blood, presumably you'll be OK. There's nothing taboo-trashing or particularly shocking to report of …

It's not that THE MUTILATION MAN is a bad film. On the contrary, I admire the time, effort and enthusiasm that have obviously gone into the making of this film - and Copp shows potential for developing his skills significantly, given a decent budget.

But the film buckles under it's overweight religious motifs and an ill-advised sudden burst of conscience from the title character at the end. Not to mention the fact that it seems to be striving to be 'transgressive' far too much (token footage of war reels and hardcore porn edited into your film are not daring or ground-breaking …).

Perhaps the film is a victim of it's own good press - it could be that I would have found more to enjoy here, had I not been misled prior to viewing the film by review quotes comparing the film's style to Jodorowsky, Lynch etc …

I would say more accurate comparisons would be Stanze (circa I PISS …, not SCRAPBOOK), Kern and (a poor man's) Van Bebber.

Sub Rosa has put together a solid release for this no-budget horror flick.

The film itself looks poor. But this is due to the micro-budget filming and variety of different mediums used. Sound is dreadful too - again, a result of the conditions the film was made under, and not a criticism of Sub Rosa's transfer.

The extras are plentiful.

Copp provides a commentary track that tackles the issues of filming with no budget, and addresses the lengthy production. It's quite interesting - I preferred watching the film with this track playing!

The deleted scenes are there for those of you who feel like being cruel to yourselves …

A documentary on the making of the film makes for a valid addition to the disc. The interview snippets with cast members (in particular Pucket) are a little sycophantic towards the director - "he's the new Fulci!". Perhaps Copp was behind the camera for this featurette?!

A music video comprising of awful 80s-type electro-Goth music set to stills from the film follows. Alongside this you'll find a stills gallery, a 3 page text history of Sub Rosa, a short film (CLASSROOM EXPERIMENT - cursed with the same fucking awful chiming/industrial dirge soundtrack that seems to plague all 'experimental' films these days) and two preview trailers for the main feature.

THE MUTILATION MAN has 12 chapters that can be accessed via a static, silent menu page. The disc is housed in a keepcase, and is Region 0 NTSC encoded.

Review by Stu Willis