Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Guinea Pig: Mermaid In A Manhole/

Collapse
X
Collapse
  •  
    Ian Jane
    Administrator

  • Guinea Pig: Mermaid In A Manhole/He Never Dies

    Click image for larger version

Name:	mermaidcover.jpg
Views:	1
Size:	8.8 KB
ID:	385094

    Released by: Unearthed Films
    Released on: August 27, 2002
    FILM RATING DVD RATING
    Director: Hideshi Hino, Masayuki Kuzumi
    Cast: Shigeru Saiki, Go Riyuji, Mari Somei/Masahiro Sato, Keisuke Araki, Eve
    Year: 1988, 1986
    Purchase From Amazon

    The Films:

    Just like their first Guinea Pig DVD release, Unearthed Films has released another double feature of the most notorious Japanese films in history!

    GUINEA PIG - MERMAID IN A MANHOLE (60 minutes)


    The basic plot of this story, one of the more popular entries in the Guinea Pig series of films, is this: a man we see living alone has recently lost his wife. One day he wanders into the sewer, a place he often goes to be alone and collect his thoughts. He finds a mermaid down there that has been stuck there ever since the river dried up and was turned into a sewer system. He takes her home and begins to paint her but he finds out that she is quite sick from an infection. He tries to help her heal, but the infection appears to be getting worse and it soon becomes evident that her disease is terminal. Her last request is that he paints her portrait with the 'seven colors of puss' that excrete from her body before she dies.


    If the premise sounds odd, that's because it is. This movie is way out there. But while it does everything that it can to gross you out, it still retains an unusual romantic sensibility and sweetness. The mermaid and the artist truly do care about each other, and to the artist, painting her portrait using her own puss as material is really all he can do, he has no choice in the matter because it is his destiny.


    But while the romance and sweetness is one of the more subtle layers to the film, the gore and make up effects are totally in your face and nothing, not one single detail, is left to your imagination. We see every stage of the mermaid's infliction, and every stage of decay that affects her body, changing her from a beautiful and unusual creature of myth into a horrifying piece of worm vomiting rot.


    Sickeningly sweet has never been a more apt term than it is describing this truly unusual film. While the more infamous chapters of the Guinea Pig series set out to hurt you, and beat you over the head with brutal violence, 'Mermaid in a Manhole' repulses and intrigues at the same time, and feeds not only your appetite for onscreen weirdness, but also your brain.


    GUINEA PIG - HE NEVER DIES (40 minutes)


    'He Never Dies' is another entry into the series, and is widely acknowledged as the funniest one, however, compared to 'Devil's Experiment' and 'Flowers if Flesh and Blood', something like 'Schindler's List' will seem like comic relief.


    With more in common stylistically with 'Evil Dead 2' or 'Dead Alive', this odd little film revolves around a Japanese salaryman who has become disillusioned with his conformist and all too common way of life. He stops showing up to work and decides to commit suicide by slitting his wrists, but when the blood stops spurting and the pain goes away mere moments after knife tears flesh, he begins to wonder if he can feel any pain at all. After experimenting on himself with various objects (knifes, pens, etc) he finds out that he cannot be killed, which comes in handy in a perverse sort of way when he finds out that his girlfriend is sleeping with another man, a co-worker of his.


    When the co-worker shows up at his apartment, he decides to get his revenge on him by grossing him out in as shocking a way as possible and proceeds on an insane self-mutilation spree that climaxes when he throws his own intestines at him.


    With tongue placed firmly in cheek, 'He Never Dies' treats the viewer as a silent partner in the mans unusual plan for revenge, and towards the end of the film, you almost find yourself rooting for him, just to see what he'll do to himself next.


    While certainly not for everyone (none of the Guinea Pig films are), 'He Never Dies' is a genuinely funny little film with some great gore effects and interesting plot twists along the way.


    Video/Audio/Extras:

    While not quite as sharp as the first double feature, the video quality here is still really, really solid considering the low budget video roots of the two features. Colors look great, especially in Mermaid, and the only problem is at times some compression artifacts are visible. Overall though, fans that were used to seeing these on VHS will be very happy. Also worth noting is that the subtitles here are nice and easy to read, presented in a bright yellow as opposed to white, which can often times be hard to read. The subtitles are also removable.

    The sound is solid with no real problems at all to speak of. There's never any problem hearing the dialogue and the sound effects are genuinely unsettling in both features, with every ooze and squirt coming in nice and clear.


    My only real complain with the first Guinea Pig release was that it was totally barebones. Unearthed Films has listened to the fans and provided some interesting extra material on this second release. First off are some trailers for 'Mermaid In A Manhole' and 'He Never Dies' as well as for 'Devil's Experiment,' 'Android of Notre Dame' and a 'Making of' trailer. There are also some brief photo galleries for the two features presented here with some nice behind the scenes shots, and in addition, presumably because they couldn't be included on the first disc, there are still galleries for 'Devil's Experiment' and 'Android of Notre Dame' here as well. Finally, there is an exhaustive seventeen-page essay on the history of the Guinea Pig films and their notoriety, which makes for an interesting read.
    This is all wrapped up with some nice animated menus and chapter selections for each feature.


    The Final Word:

    A solid package overall, Guinea Pig Vol. 2 is a necessity for those with a sick sense of humor and those who appreciate great gore effects.
      Posting comments is disabled.

    Latest Articles

    Collapse

    • Hot Spur (Severin Films) Blu-ray Review
      Ian Jane
      Administrator
      by Ian Jane


      Released by: Severin Films
      Released on: April 30th, 2024.
      Director: Lee Frost
      Cast: Joseph Mascolo, Virginia Goodman, John Alderman
      Year: 1969
      Purchase From Amazon

      Hot Spur – Movie Review:

      Director Lee Frost and Producer Bob Cresse's film, Hot Spur, opens in Texas in 1869 with a scene where a pair of cowboys wanders into a bar where they call over a pretty Mexican waitress and coerce her into dancing for them. She obliges, but
      ...
      03-22-2024, 11:53 AM
    • Death Squad (Mondo Macabro) Blu-ray Review
      Ian Jane
      Administrator
      by Ian Jane


      Released by: Mondo Macabro
      Released on: April 9th, 2024.
      Director: Max Pecas
      Cast: Thierry de Carbonnières, Jean-Marc Maurel, Denis Karvil, Lillemour Jonsson
      Year: 1985
      Purchase From Amazon

      Death Squad – Movie Review:

      Also known as Brigade Of Death, French sleaze auteur Max Pecas’ 1985 film, Death Squad, opens with a night time scene outside of Paris in the Bois de Boulogne Forest where cars pass by a small gang of transsexual
      ...
      03-22-2024, 11:46 AM
    • Roommates (Quality X) Blu-ray Review
      Ian Jane
      Administrator
      by Ian Jane


      Released by: Quality X
      Released on: February 28th, 2024.
      Director: Chuck Vincent
      Cast: Samantha Fox, Vernoica Hart, Kelly Nichols, Jerry Butler, Jamie Gillis
      Year: 1982
      Purchase From Amazon

      Roommates – Movie Review:

      Directed by Chuck Vincent and released in 1982, Roommates opens with a scene where a young woman named Joan Harmon (Veronica Hart) gets a hotel room with an older man named Ken (Don Peterson, credited as Phil Smith),
      ...
      03-15-2024, 01:10 PM
    • Night Of The Blood Monster (Blue Underground) UHD/Blu-ray Review
      Ian Jane
      Administrator
      by Ian Jane


      Released by: Blue Underground
      Released on: March 26th, 2024.
      Director: Jess Franco
      Cast: Christopher Lee, Maria Rohm, Dennis Price
      Year: 1970
      Purchase From Amazon

      Night Of The Blood Monster – Movie Review:

      Directed by Jess Franco, The Bloody Judge (or, Night Of The Blood Monster, as it is going by on this new release from Blue Underground) isn't quite the salacious exercise in Eurotrash you might expect it to be, and while it
      ...
      03-15-2024, 01:07 PM
    • Phase IV (Vinegar Syndrome) UHD/Blu-ray Review
      Ian Jane
      Administrator
      by Ian Jane


      Released by: Vinegar Syndrome
      Released on: March 26th, 2024.
      Director: Saul Bass
      Cast: Nigel Davenport, Michael Murphy, Lynne Frederick, Alan Gifford, Robert Henderson, Helen Horton
      Year: 1974
      Purchase From Amazon

      Phase IV – Movie Review:

      Saul Bass’ 1974 sci-fi/thriller Phase IV is an interesting blend of nature run amuck stereotypes and Natural Geographic style nature footage mixed into one delicious cocktail of suspense and
      ...
      03-15-2024, 01:02 PM
    • The Bounty Hunter Trilogy (Radiance Films) Blu-ray Review
      Ian Jane
      Administrator
      by Ian Jane


      Released by: Radiance Films
      Released on: March 26th, 2024.
      Director: Shigehiro Ozawa, Eiichi Kudo
      Cast: Tomisaburo Wakayama, Minoru Ôki, Arashi Kanjuro, Bin Amatsu, Chiezo Kataoka
      Year: 1969-1972
      Purchase From Amazon

      The Bounty Hunter Trilogy – Movie Review:

      Radiance Films gathers together the three films in Toie Studios’ Bounty Hunter Trilogy, starring the inimitable Tomisaburo Wakayama. Here’s how the three movies in this
      ...
      03-13-2024, 11:30 AM
    Working...
    X