"as a whole, Little Deaths is ultimately one of the best horror anthologies I've ever seen, not the least of which because it ignores the pretense of a framing device in favor of ideas that bind its segments more tightly together than a wraparound story ever could"
-Shock Till You Drop
Remember when i covered the British 1973 horror flick ASYLUM, and i said the British public of the time seemed unable to handle the really nasty stuff? well....
Little Deaths is a 2011 British anthology horror film written and directed by Sean Hogan, Andrew Parkinson, and Simon Rumley. The film has three segments: House & Home, Mutant Tool, and Bitch. Each segment is directed by a different author and are unrelated to one another in any way other than sharing a theme of sex and death.
House and Home
Hogan has stated that he and Rumley initially had difficulty casting the roles for their segments as many actors declined after reading the scripts, and this opening short is exactly why. It reminds me of the TOYBOX KILLER David Parker Ray, and its exactly as nasty and hard to watch as the description makes it out to be.
In Sean Hogan's segment, Richard and Victoria are a married couple who try to alleviate their boredom by picking up homeless women under the guise of a Christian charity, with the intent to abuse them sexually. But when they pick up Sorrow, they soon discover that they have taken on more than they can handle, and that Sorrow is not exactly the woman she appears to be.
The power dynamics between characters is the most interesting part of this segment, and the acting is so damn good it all feels totally real. its more about power to these people then the sex, and It sometimes feels like this is another one of Pat Bateman's sex workers he so loves to abuse while admiring himself in the mirror. the actual rape isn't as hard to watch as i thought it would be, and when the Twilight Zone style twist happens it is well worth the wait.
When director Hogan first approached Parkinson and Rumley with the idea, Hogan believed that the differences in their filmmaking styles would work well in an anthology setting. As firmly yucky as this movie is i think he was absolutely right, and the directing throughout all of the segments is all incredible. this isn't the kind of thing i will ever want to watch again, but there is no doubt that this is a very well made horror short film.
8/10
Mutant Tool
this segment feels a lot slower than the first one at first, but quickly becomes the nastiest so far
The second segment was directed by Andrew Parkinson and follows Jen, a sex worker who visits Dr. Reese in order to get help with her drug addiction. The doctor prescribes medication which gives Jen the ability to see frightening visions whenever she touches someone. In her visions, she sees a strange man being held prisoner, who wants to die. this segment actually opens with a few shots of this strange man, and its a damn good visual to get you instantly curious and grossed out at the same time. Why so gross you ask? gross because the good doctor has been feeding his prisoner human kidneys and collecting his cum as part of a twisted post-Nazi experiment. As nasty as harvesting bondage daddy's cum for medicine is, its far more nasty just how mundane the whole thing is to the characters involved. this really is a character focused segment as we watch Jen try to figure out what is happening to her, and even though it is a short film we really get top know Jens character before the twist(?) ending.
Why make this a Nazi thing? Who the fuck knows.
in the end Jen herself mutates, growing an enormous big olé swinging penis. She in turn becomes the doctor’s next captive, producing excessive emissions from her “mutant tool”.
Its a whole different ball game then the first so comparing the two is difficult, but both segments nail that horrible dread of hopelessness. The first segment had far more interesting characters, but this segment works far better as a straight up horror film with practical effects and all
hopefully the next segment will have less man milk, but i doubt it. I wonder how much that practical penis weighs...
BITCH
Interesting how often the antagonist of these segments is a woman...
Simon Rumley's short focuses on the dysfunctional relationship between Pete and Claire. Claire routinely subjects Pete to emotional and physical abuse and, in the bedroom, makes him participate in various BDSM activities such as forcing him to live and behave as a dog while he gets pegged. Once again some really strong characters with a very interesting power dynamic, and watching things unfold is as nasty as it is fascinating. It would appear that the reason behind Claire's abusive behavior towards Pete is that she is extremely Doggophobic and takes out her anger on the dogs she fears by treating her boyfriend like a dog/fleshlight. once again its all about power even more so than sex, and it makes you ponder exactly why this movie is called LITTLE DEATHS. The obvious answer is that the title refers to the three short films as LITTLE DEATHS, but i don't think that's it. When the body has an orgasm it spasms similarly to when you die, but i don't think that's it either. I think the best way to explain the title is the scene where Claire uses her vibrator and ignores Pete.
its a tiny death for Pete. When Claire tells him he has a small dick, that's a tiny death. When Pete's runs off to cry while his best friend cucks him, that's a tiny death too.
Why does he stay with her? why does she stay with him? what started that fear of dogs in the first place? all questions to ponder as you watch this odd couples relationship both in private and public.
Pete longs for his relationship with Claire to get better and for her to give him more respect and acceptance, but is pushed to his limit when Claire decides, in front of Pete, to sleep with his best friend Al.
Pete is devastated and plots his revenge; he destroys all the dog-like artifacts in the house, and then gradually acquires a whole pack of feral dogs, which he deliberately keeps hungry. At home with Claire, he persuades her to be handcuffed naked to their bed, on the pretext he wants to have anal sex with her. But instead he pours dog food on to her buttocks and then releases the entire pack of starving dogs into the bedroom. The film closes to a background of Claire’s agonized screams.
they really saved the best segment for last in this movie, but as a whole this movie is a big old
10/10
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