August Underground (2001)
Review by the Fiend of Grue
If you found August Underground lying somewhere as an unmarked movie and put it in and watched it, you’d swear it was a real snuff film. The realism in this movie is virtually unmatched. The only other murderer movie that I’ve seen that plays this real is Henry: Portrait Of A Serial Killer ( the video tape scene was an inspiration), but even that was shot like a real movie. August Underground is shot completely on a home video camera and was filmed by the killers. You wouldn’t think that a home video camera could be so effective, but never has there been such an unrelenting look into the world of sick murderers shot in a more real way. This is the Last House On The Left or the I Spit On Your Grave for this generation.
The movie begins with a guy walking across a lawn from a house, towards the camera. The guy walking towards the camera (Fred Vogel) and the never seen camera man are laughing and Fred says, “I’ve got something to show you.” At this point, if you knew nothing of this movie you’d probably think you were watching a joke getting ready to be told, or something funny being ready to be shown with the way the guys are acting, but that could not be further removed from what you are about to be subjected to. The guys go through a door and down a set of stairs into a cellar where the walls are covered in porn, filth all over the place and a bloody, battered woman with a severed nipple bound naked to a chair. The guys laugh hysterically while looking at the helpless woman. We see Fred torture the woman verbally and physically by ramming her head into the wall, pouring what looks like urine over her head, rubbing feces on her. Her assumed boyfriend is briefly shown, castrated and dead in a bathtub. Throughout the movie, it periodically comes back to this woman as the guys torture her whenever they feel like it. At one point, her boyfriend’s severed toe is put into her mouth and then it is taped shut!
From there and throughout the rest of the picture we see these sicko’s exploits in a world of ruthless aggression and murder perpetrated against whomever they please and whenever the compulsion arises. From the first few moments of the film until the last frame, you are shoved face first into one of the most realistic exhibits of murder/torture ever filmed. In between the murder, the guys go on with their lives as though nothing is wrong, which makes for a haunting picture. We see them visit a comic book shop, watch a train display, get a tattoo, all in between inflicting the worst of miseries upon people, all which makes it seem as though this could be your neighbor, your co-worker…your friend. There is no happy ending and really there is no ending at all, it just cuts off. It leaves you hanging and while it is rather anti-climatic, it actually works to the film’s advantage because it comes off all the more realistic as just two guys having “fun” with a video camera, instead of being an actual movie.
Being a hardcore movie fan that has seen a lot of crazy movies, I would have to say that August Underground ranks near the very top of the most disturbingly real and sickest things I have ever seen (I’ve heard I‘m in for even more with the sequels). It repulsed me, it unnerved me, it made me feel very uncomfortable at times, but you know what…I applaud Fred Vogel and Toe Tag pictures for being able to shake my jaded mind into such a state. Movies like this are what show you what “real” horror means. This is real life horror that is more real than any dreamed up slasher could ever be. This movie will make you rethink what horror is all about because it truly and wholly pushes you to the very limits of what you can take, or at least it did me. It is almost to the point of being too hard to watch and it’s hard for me to think of anybody not thinking that way while watching it, even somebody who has seen it all.
This is one of the few and far between movies that has come along and has stuck with me for days after viewing it. That is a testament to how horror should be. All of the great, legendary horror films are that way and have that kind of impact upon the psyche. Now, August underground can be added to that elusive list. After watching this movie, I could throw away 80% of my horror collection for being irrelevant compared to this because it makes so many other movies seem pointless next to it.
By no means should just anyone watch this movie. Most will be offended and probably won’t want to watch it all the way through. The ones that will like this are the hardcores out there, the jaded viewers who like to be disgusted and sickened on occasion. It’s hard to not use the word “real” when describing this movie and after seeing it, you’ll see what I mean, but if your looking for “real horror” and what I fully believe to be the future of horror, then look no further than Fred Vogel and Toe Tag pictures. These guys are what’s right for horror and they are the REAL deal…you have been warned!
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