Extreme Flick Week: I spit on your corpse, I piss on your grave - 2001

This is a translation of a review written in Swedish from 2005.

I spit on your corpse, I piss on your grave

Director: Eric Stanze

2001

Extreme

Sandy (Emily Haack)voluntarily let herself be kidnapped by her ex boyfriend (Eric Stanze). She soon realizes that sex is not the only thing he’s after. Three men are chained up in the basement and Kevin – the boyfriend, describes in detail why he’s going to torture and kill them before her eyes and finally do the same with her! Sandy acts fast, she overtake Kevin and kills him. But what she does next is not in the lines of normal behaviour. She doesn’t free the other hostages at all, neither does she call the police. Instead she keeps them chained up and starts to torture them both mentally and physically to a certain death. She’s totally out of control!

I’m not entirely sure if this really should be classifies an and “extreme” film but it’s very nasty and deals with themes you’d never se in a big budget Hollywood film so I guess that makes it legitimate!

This is the third film by Eric Stanze that I see. I really like his style when it comes to telling the kind of storylines that he does. This might not be the best of his films but it sure has its moments. I recognize his style and there’s some guts and intestines’ of course. There is also lots of naked skin so if you’re looking for that kind of stuff you won’t be disappointed! But if the intent were to make the viewer sick to the stomach it’s not enough. There is something missing that I really can’t put my finger on. The pace it a bit low and you’ll have to wait both for the nakedness and the torture.

There’s no doubt that other rape/revenge flicks has inspired Stanze to make this one. Classics like I Spit on you Grave, Last House of the Left and House on the Edge of the Park were obviously in Stanzes head when he wrote the script! The nostalgia is obvious and the cruelties are visualized in a way were there’s really no emotions present. It makes you feel almost like a voyeur and still it’s as far from entertaining violence as you can come! There are shock values and the disgusting violence sort of feels real!

Emily Haack plays the leading roll with the same brilliance that made her presence in Stanzes Scrapbook to great! She’s really a very good actress which is something you’re not too used to when it comes to extreme violence movies such as this one. The other actors are ok but nothing more and nothing less for that matter. They can all be ignored there’s really no use analyzing their contribution to the movie.

A fun trivia about the film is when the sealed bags with faked body parts and stuff like that were found someone called the police and Eric Stanze had to explain that he was a film maker and that this was left overs from the film rather than the real deal. Several policemen and some coroner arrived to the scene and Stanze had to tell his story over and over again. This somehow got the attention of the press of course and soon Eric Stanze could be proud of making TOO good special effects for his movies!

If you like rape/revenge flicks I think this one will suit you just fine!

Review: Scrapbook - 2000

Scrapbook
Director: Eric Stanze

2000
Drama/Horror

Written by: Linda Snöberg

Translation: Tommy Söderberg

A woman’s shocking experiences of torture under the firm hand of a man leads into a state of mind that may never let her go. Carla (Emily Haack) is a young woman and gets kidnapped by this violent psychopath Leonard (Tommy Biondo). He has done the same thing for quite a while with other women and his modus operandi is to finally kill his victims. But from the victims point of view this is really a release from the torture and a path that’s favorable. Carla’s no different, she gets treated like everybody else: humiliated, raped and both physical and psychological abused. He forces her to write about the torture in his scrapbook. There are all kind of details from former victims there, bits of clothing, hair and a lot of pictures of mutilated bodies. Carla tries to escape multiple times, which only leads to more humiliation and torture. Finally she understands that the only way she’s going to escape alive is if she can figure out just how he’s thinking. She reads his scrapbook thoroughly to figure out his weaknesses, if he has any…

2004-11-12

Yesterday, when we were going to bed I asked my boyfriend to pick a flick to see in the bedroom but I didn’t think he could pick such a superb one! He usually picks obscure and weird films but not this time. Apparently he got struck by genius and chose this one. Great choice Tommy.

The story is told in a brilliant way with very good acting from both Tommy and Emily. In particular Emily who pays the part of the victim. She’s ill-fated for sure but her resourcefulness is second to none. She needs to use every bit of instinct to survive here degeneration to hell. It’s a refreshing, non stoppable and claustrophobic journey to the very bottom of a woman’s worst nightmare. I think it’ll take a long time before someone writes a story that even comes close to this masterpiece! It’s a cold, brutal and horrifying insight in the life of a psychopath.

During the film you can see some logic. For example a scene where Carla tries to open a door multiple times to escape. Finally she manages to open the look from the inside, but just to find that Leonard has foreseen her move and put additional locks on it.

Sure, she could have made more resistance, but after being raped multiple times, humiliated, beaten, abused, violated and psychologically torn to shreds would any of you really have the strength, energy or even the courage to stand up and keep on fighting?

A great thing is that the woman doesn’t talk at all until the last 30 minutes or so. There are some words at the very beginning but then she keeps her mouth shut. It’s a hugely impressive performance by Emily Haack. Her facial expression says much more than any words could possibly do… It’s amazingly realistic with an original touch. The initial scene where you here the woman sobbing in despair and all we see is darkness is great! It brings the strongest feelings along and awakes questions. Why is it dark? Where is she? Why is she so scared?

This is a movie that makes you think, not so much on what you THINK you should have done in a similar situation, but what you really SHOULD have done. I think I need to warn sensitive viewers for it though; it’s very brutal and does not leave you unaffected!