The Butcher (Korea. 2007)

Torture. Lots of it.

That pretty much sums up this independently produced offering from South Korea. The skeleton of the story is about four people in a barn being filmed for a low budget snuff film overseen by a middle aged man named ‘The Director’ and his teenage helper. The ‘Star’ of the Snuff flick (A bulky man in a pig mask) cuts the victims, rapes them, chops off bits and pieces with a chainsaw and is generally a pretty nasty gentleman. There’s no three act structure, no heroes, no real characters and VERY little humour. It’s the closest thing you’ll probably get to a snuff film without actually dealing with a one eyed Thai man in the deepest darkest DVD stores. The film’s novelty is that it’s almost completely shot from the camera that’s mounted on one of the victim’s head (There’s a few cuts to ‘The Director’s’ camera every now and then to show how badly the Victim is hurt). It gets nauseating to say the least, not only from the vicious emotional and physical violence on display, but also from the wobbly camera that shakes, rattles and rolls with the victim’s constant sobbing.

Is it a commentary on cinema’s obsession with the ‘Torture Porn’ genre? Or is it just someone’s attempt to scare us without any of the frills like fun thrown in? Whatever it is, it did its job to unnerve me and I never want to see it again. Ever. Take that as a success or not.