Gut
Director: Elias
2012
Drama/Horror/Thriller
Something is missing
in Tom's life. Every day he goes through the motions, becoming increasingly
detached from those around him. His best friend Dan thinks he has the answer, a
mysterious video he's got to see to believe. What Dan shows him leaves Tom
unsettled, flooding his mind with disturbing images and desires, and binding
the two friends together with its ugly secret. As he tries desperately to
forget what he saw, Tom's mounting feelings of guilt and disillusionment
quickly give way to paranoia and fear. One video soon follows another and
another, blurring the line between reality and voyeuristic fascination, and
threatening to dismantle everything around them.
I did not write the above description of the
film but I found it being so informative that there was really no need to
rewrite something original for the sole purpose of this review. Maybe I would
have included that the film that might solve Tom’s problems and fascinates Dan
is some kind of snuff-porn where a woman gets cut open with a scalpel. There’s
really no need to leave this information out as the movies title kind of gives
that away anyway.
The whole atmosphere in this movie within the
movie is sexual but there’s no actual footage of sex or sexual encounters. Nor
is there any real evidence of sexual arousal by the viewers of it. There is
insinuated fascination but not really arousal. This means that the film is not
there just to shock us but also to frighten us, which it does over time. To begin
with Dan tells Tom that he ordered it online somewhere but later confesses that
someone just sent it to him after he wrote his postbox number in some forum.
When Dan gets another DVD, and then another and
another we realize that this is not sexual at all. At least not for the
viewers. Tom and especially Dan can’t let go of it and feel themselves forced
to watch. The fascination gets more prominent but we realize more and more that
something about this is totally wrong. (when someone sends us DVDs of women
being cut open we should feel kind of awkward don’t you think?).
What good about it is that there is a presence
of the question what is real and what is not? Soon the DVDs start showing women
that they know being cut open. Here stops the fascination and terror begins.
Why are they receiving these DVDs? Who is sending them, and why? Are they even
real?
The friendship of Tom and Dan are soon in
jeopardy. They cannot support each other more than to a certain point. They
just want the whole thing to end. In the end it’s all about mental instability
and the need to protect ourselves. Looking out for number one and your own
family is the prime directive. Your friends are really secondary!
I was surprised how well acted this was.
Neither of them will get an Oscar nomination for their work but they portray
the characters very satisfactory. The same thing goes for the directing and the
visual effects are very good also! It was an exciting experience watching this
and I feel that the suspense was there almost all along, which is truly
uncommon for a low budget movie like this.
7/10
Photos by
Will Serber, © Gut Productions, LLC
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