THE SPANISH CHAINSAW MASSACRE

(A.k.a. CARNIVOROS)

Having found himself indebted to a local gangster, a weasel-like music manager (Pedro Garcia Oliva) is forced to postpone the recording of his band The Metal Cocks' first album and take them out on an immediate tour.

And so, the big-bellied, disorganised power meta quintet gather their instruments and whatever drugs they can find, and squeeze into a tiny touring van with the manager in the driver's seat. Led by heavily pregnant singer and sole female Penny Pussy (Nereida Lopez), they're a rowdy bunch given to farting, constant cursing and even the odd bit of wanking during the journey. Cue huge geysers of spunk spurting across the van's dashboard.

While driving down a dirt-track in the middle of nowhere, the van suffers a blow-out. They manage to drive it to a nearby village before it conks out on them altogether. There, they're greeted by manically grinning Arturo (Jose Luis Tolosa). He insists they stay the night in the town's hotel, and then in the morning the local mechanic will get their wheels back on the road. The manager agrees to this, but insists they must be on their way first thing in the morning.

Come the next day, however, the band and their manager arise to a sunny morning where the locals are preparing for their annual Patron Saint's Day celebrations. Lively Bruno persuades them to stay, promising lots of chocolate feasting and festivities that they won't soon forget.

Against the anxious manager's wishes, the band revels in the opportunity to be "guests of honour" in their capacity as visiting artists, and plan on enjoying the chocolate as much as they do the local women.

But as they split up to sample such delights individually, things swiftly get very weird indeed.

Inbred families; people shitting into a cup so others can later obliviously eat it; a murderous clown in a cheap Spider-Man costume; castration and penis-munching galore; a gory nod to THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST: writer-director Manolito Motosierra's THE SPANISH CHAINSAW MASSACRE is one fucked up film.

Over the course of 51 minutes, it spits out its acerbic black comedy at breakneck speed, coming on like a demented amalgamation of 'Monty Python', 'The League of Gentlemen' and THE EVIL DEAD. As cheap as it is surprisingly inventive and stylish, as silly as it is at times brutal, it's as if Alex Chandon or Shane Mather had relocated to the Spanish countryside and decided to go fucking bonkers.

Where else, for example, are you likely to see a young child repeatedly punch a pregnant woman in her stomach before plunging her fist in and tearing out the unborn child ... in the name of comedy? Where else do you expect to witness children strung up from trees, so adults can compete against each other to see who can eat their living kiddie victims the fastest? Again, for laughs?

The Spanish certainly have an odd sense of humour when it comes to such things. Motosierra pushes the envelope though, revelling in stupidity and bad taste as if his life depended on it. Broad performances and terribly juvenile gags (more farts, belches and anal sex jokes than any other 51-minute film in existence I'd wager) come without shame, to the point that the broken English subtitles on this presentation of the film seem like a perfectly reasonable extension of the film's absurdities.

Never dull, frequently bloody (yes, there's a chain saw, but it doesn't get to do much), deliciously 'incorrect' and knowingly dumb, THE SPANISH CHAINSAW MASSACRE also looks unexpectedly good considering its lo-fi digital means. Colours are bold and vivid, the framing and editing are more competent than perhaps the chaotic silliness deserves.

Motosierra's film certainly never bores. Although I do get the sense it's trying relentlessly to appal us. While some of what's on the screen is undoubtedly meant to be offensive, it's difficult to view it that way when the delivery has such panache and the performances are so rooted in the realms of pantomime.

The film comes to UK DVD courtesy of our friends at 88 Films. It's a region-free affair, playable worldwide.

32 seconds of cuts have been required to MASSACRE by the BBFC. These are to remove, and I quote, "a sequence of sadistic and sexualised violence involving a child". Cripes. Even without that footage (the mind boggles), the film is pretty out-there in terms of tongue-in-cheek gross-out set-pieces.

Presented in anamorphic 1.78:1, the film looks surprisingly good. Especially in bright, warm exterior scenes.

Spanish 2.0 audio is also a solid proposition throughout. As mentioned above, the optional English subtitles - while easy to read at all times - are pretty clumsily translated. You can always follow the plot (plot?!) but the grammar is frequently terrible, to the point where I have to wonder if 88 Films have done this deliberately. It does, after all, sort of add to the delirium of this manic, cheap production as a whole...

The disc opens to a static main menu page. From there, a static scene selection menu allows access to the film by way of 6 chapters.

The only extra feature is a 3-and-a-half minute gallery of just under 40 colourful production stills.

I'm reticent to call THE SPANISH CHAINSAW MASSACRE a good film. But it exists in a small group of insanely energetic, gleefully gory and politically incorrect pitch-black comedies which also includes the likes of FANTACIDE, BAD KARMA and the more recent EVIL FEED.

By Stuart Willis