Rating: 9/20
Plot: An actor playing a mortician or pathologist takes us on a tour of human and sometimes animal death to show us the titular countenances upon their demise.
In retrospect, this wasn't the best pick for the Oprah Movie Club. I don't know about any of you, but I really didn't enjoy it at all. Dr. Gross narrates the film with this sort of fatuous philosophical angle, but the majority of this is nothing but shocks. It wasn't nearly as disturbing as I expected it to be, probably to the point where that became disappointing. Time has not been good to this thing's ability to shock, and this movie's special place on a shelf at the movie store that made it like this forbidden fruit seems almost comical in 2014 when people can easily see this type of violent nonsense on Youtube anytime they want. The beginning shows a beating heart suddenly stopping which is actually one of the more chilling visuals from the movie. There are a ton of dead bodies around in this opening scene, things that used to be people, and some autopsy footage that is hard enough to watch but which had sounds (probably enhanced) that disturbed me a lot more than anything I was seeing. Mexican mummies were chilling, and I probably was a little too fascinated watching a headless rooster write and flap and flail around after decapitation. That's how I want to go, by the way--doing some kind of psychotic death dance that people would chuckle at if there was less blood. In addition to the rooster, there's a lot of animal cruelty (dog fighting, etc.) here that some people would hate even more than the shots of dead human beings. That might be because a lot of the dead human stuff is staged, often very poorly. That acting in those scenes is terrible which would make a lot of it comical if it all wasn't so weird and that Dr. Gross wasn't so serious. It's often accompanied by this really inappropriate music, like the lighthearted jazzy score during a faker-than-fake electrocution scene. Those vibes were just a little too chipper, if you know what I mean. Another staged scene features a bear attack that is almost well done, but I really couldn't figure out why a car started honking during the attack. The narrator philosophizes, "Perhaps it proves a point that we are not as intelligent as we think." That Dr. Gross! Another odd couple of scenes move into religious realms with a cannibalistic orgy cult that may or may not be fake and some Pentecostals handling snakes, speaking in tongues, fiercely wiggling, and sticking their chests in fire.
This movie almost makes a point or two, but an inconsistent tone and obviously faked footage makes it more of a 1970's oddity than a cult classic worth watching.
Sorry that I'm late with the July Oprah Movie Club write-up. I know a lot of you have eagerly waited for this one.
3 comments:
I remember seeing this about 12-15 years ago, and wasn't really traumatized by any of the images. The reenactments were probably the reason for that. I always get a kick out of reenactments. Probably because they're usually made for TV with crappy editing, laughable acting, and low-budget sets.
I guess this just bled into all of the after-school specials I'd seen, and didn't really have any effect on me at all. Which is kind of sad, when I think about it. I'm just another desensitized American; too board with life to think anything could be entertaining.
Luckily, I've found a new calling and have done some soul searching to re-enchant myself with what I used to think as the mundane. It's called BMC, and it has awaken me!
I was probably 12 when I saw this. All I really remember is rabbit skinning?? Or maybe that was part 2. I don't like anything about this.
I don't remember rabbit skinning. Are you trying to make Part II a future Oprah Movie Club pick? I don't think I can do that.
Seems like the Internet, in addition to making pornographic videos obsolete, has made this thing rather ho-hummish.
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