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Released by: Reel Gore Releasing
Released on: August 9th, 2016.
Director: Luigi Pastore
Cast: Giovanni Lombardo Radice, Antonio Zequila, Michela Foresta, Vincenzo Pezzopane, Steve Aquilina
Year: 2015
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The Movie:
Directed by Luigi Pastore, the same man who made Symphony In Blood Red, 2015's Violent Shit: The Movie takes place in Rome in the present day. After an ominous opening scene in which an oracle (Lilli Carati) speaks of the coming of the Antichrist, we learn about why she would prophesize such horror! Two cops, a local Italian named Aristide D'Amato (Vincenzo Pezzopane) and a visiting German named Hans Ebert (Steve Aquilina), are investigating the gruesome discovery of a corpse in a local park. Two older forensics types, Dr. Cozzi (Luigi Cozzi) and Dr. Castellari (Enzo G. Castelleari), make it pretty clear that these guys have got their work cut out for them.
The murders continue as our cops try to figure out who and why. What they don't realize is that a Professor Vassago (Giovanni Lombardo Radice), who would seem to be nothing more than an eccentric expert in antiquities, is in cahoots with Senator Vinci (Antonio Zequila). Why does that matter? What are they up to? Well, a lot of that is left kinda-sorta-not-really explained but Vassago would seem to be Satan himself and have the evil ability to commandeer the hulking frame of Karl The Butcher (Simone Destrero)! Not only is Karl a big, scary guy in a mask but like a lot of big scary guys in masks, he's got a penchant for brutal violence and the senseless slaughter of women with breast implants!
For those unfamiliar with the original Violent Shit films, they were low budget gore pictures shot on a camcorder but German underground filmmaker Andreas Schnaas. Violent Shit: The Movie takes the Karl The Butcher character who starred in those films and moves him from Germany to Rome and gives him a bit of a proper origin. The problem with the movie is that it takes a good half hour to really get going and that once it does, we don't get enough Karl The Butcher action to satiate. The bits with Castellari and Cozzi are novelty casting to be sure, however, they are kind of amusing. Once we get past that part, there's too much time with the cops doing cop things and not enough carnage. Giovanni Lombardo Radice is great when he's on screen, sipping from a glass of wine with devilish glee or hamming it up a bit for serious dramatic effect, but the story doesn't really quite come together the way that you want it to. It's all well and good to explain Karl's origins and place him in the middle of a giallo style thriller, but if you're going to do that you need to generate some suspense and the movie falls flat there. The character development isn't strong enough for that to work. The glossy visuals and slick lighting help with the Giallo aesthetic that Pastore is going for here, and the soundtrack from Claudio Simonetti is fantastic.
Having said that, the movie does, in its second half, deliver ample gore and nudity. The killer scenes that we are eventually treated to lack the amateurish charm of the original SOV movies but they are definitely gory and nasty. On top of that there's plenty of nudity courtesy of an attractive, if clearly surgically augmented, cast of nubile young women who are clearly not so shy. Here we witness a man doing a line of blow off of one woman's rack while other woman bump and grind and grope and fondle on a nearby couch as an orgy ensues, a treat for the Senator provided by the sinister Vassago. It's in this scene where it all goes over the top and delivers, but getting there is a bit of a bore in spots. Some tighter editing and more attention to character development would have gone a long way here. We don't get it. But the movie has its moments, particularly whenever things get gleefully gory or when Radice is given some scenery to chew.
In regards to Lilli Carati's appearance in the film, she had originally agreed to star in a film called La Fiaba Di Dorian. Some brief promotional material was shot with her but, sadly, she passed away shortly after and the project was never completed. As a tribute to her, Pastore, with permission from Carati's sister, edited her into the feature. The material she appears in doesn't quite jive with the rest of the movie, but it's an interesting idea, a nice tribute to her and a look at the comeback that might have been.
Video/Audio/Extras:
Violent Shit: The Movie arrives on Blu-ray from Reel Gore Releasing in a very nice looking AVC encoded 1080p high definition transfer framed at 1.78.1 widescreen. As this was shot digitally there's obviously no print damage to note. Color reproduction is really nice and black levels stay solid and deep. Detail is strong for the most part, though depending on the lighting and camera movement some shots can and will look a little softer than others. Still, for a low budget European gore movie, it translates to Blu-ray very nicely.
Audio options are provided on the Blu-ray in English and German DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio and Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo. Subtitles are provided in German, English, Italian, French, Spanish, Swedish, Dutch and Japanese. Unfortunately there's a weird quirk with the English 5.1 track where dialogue comes out of the front left channel… and only the front left channel. That makes either the lossy 2.0 mix or one of the German tracks the better option.
There are quite a few extra features included here, starting off with a featurette called The Making Of The Movie in which director Luigi Pastore talks about how he and his team tried to blend the German underground gore film roots of Karl The Butcher with an Italian style giallo to create something new and different for the character. Even though it doesn't always work, you've got to appreciate what the guy was trying to do here and he's quite thorough in his talk about how and why certain shots were set up the way they were, how they tried to recreate an appropriate score, the effects work and quite a bit more. Pastore doesn't have a lot of films under his belt, he's still a relatively young filmmaker and if Violent Shit: The Movie isn't his masterpiece, that doesn't mean he won't make one. The guy has a lot of potential and clearly even more love for the genre.
The nine minute The History Of Violent Shit is an interview with Producer Steve Aquilina who does a fine job of explaining the history of the franchise. There are some great clips in here from Andreas Schnaas' original SOV Violent Shit trilogy and some insight into how Karl The Butcher has evolved over the years. They also talk about the fairly iconic mask, and how the original one was reused in this updated take on the story. The brief Tribute To Lilli Carati: The Last Interview is a short but sweet three minute piece in which the recently deceased actress, who had gone into hiding after doing some adult films in the nineties, talks about being excited to work with Pastore and get in front of the camera again. A separate collection of Interviews with different members of the cast - Vincenzo Pezzopane, Michaela Foresta, Daniela Ciccone and Erika Kamese - let the actors and actresses talk about their experiences working on the low budget shoot and talk about their thoughts on the feature itself. Also on hand is a wonky twenty some odd minute piece called World Of Stars. Here a paparazzi style woman does a 'Lifestyles Of The Rich and Famous' type bit where she conducts on camera interviews with not only Aquilina and Pastore but also actors Antonio Zequila and, most importantly, Giovanni Lambardo Radice! This is worth watching for Radice alone, he's never been one to shy away from giving his opinion when asked, and he's a blast to watch here.
Outside of that, the disc also includes two different trailers for the feature, a still gallery, menus and chapter selection. As this is a combo pack release, we also get a DVD version of the movie with identical extra features. Both discs fit inside a clear Blu-ray cast that in turn fits inside a full color slipcase. Also included inside the slipcase is a full color twenty-four page booklet containing an essay on the film as well as some bios for the cast and crew members and a selection of photos and artwork related to the film. If that weren't enough, we also get a CD (in its own cardboard sleeve) that contains the movie's entire soundtrack from Claudio Simonetti's Goblin. Also worth noting is the fact that the first 1,000 copies of this release will come with a 'Gore Girls' trading card insert into the packaging.
The Final Word:
Violent Shit: The Movie is a much glossier and better produced take on the Karl The Butcher story, but so too does it lack the determined insanity of the original SOV trilogy that inspired it. Having said that, while the story is no great shakes the cinematography is nice, the score is awesome, and the movie gives Giovanni Lombardo Radice a pretty solid part. Reel Gore Releasing has done an excellent job bringing the movie to Blu-ray/DVD with a host of extras and a lot of care afforded to the presentation.
Click on the images below for full sized Blu-ray screen caps!
