THE STORY:
George Eastman returns to play killer for this infamous Joe D’Amato-directed slasher.
Apparently some have criticised this movie for its similarities to John Carpenter’s Halloween (1978), and I can’t really blame them. They are quite evident, even in the film’s soundtrack. But then again, without movies like Absurd, Halloween wouldn’t have its “highly influential” reputation. Plus, if it hadn’t drawn so much inspiration from the Carpenter classic, it would be an even bigger pile of senseless shite than it already is.
But…that said, if you’re looking for a slasher flick that has very little to it, that you can just switch your brain off to, that isn’t one for the 700 million Friday the 13th sequels, then I guess Absurd is one of those notorious titles you’ll want to check out. It doesn’t go easy on its kill scenes either. It’s got drills. It’s got pick-axes. People are cooked to death. People are decapitated. It even has a nasty bone saw machine sequence that could rival the director’s cut of Intruder (1989). If only the movie as a whole was more clean-cut…
Some of the cutaways that show all that gratuitous gore are a little clumsy. During the hospital murder scene, for instance. Despite the fact that Eastman clearly drills into the side of a careless nurse’s head, the gruesome close-up shot shows the drill enter what looks like the back of the neck of a man with short, curly hair???
The English dubbing works well enough. However, anyone familiar with Italian horrors such as Lucio Fulci’s The House by the Cemetery (1981) will know that dubbed children are as annoying as fuck and Absurd is most definitely no exception!
Some scenes take too long. The oven kill and blind man stalking sequences can really drag. The performances aren’t great but they’re not terrible. The real trouble is that this movie makes no fucking sense whatsoever.
LAST WORDS:
Give thanks to Carpenter, people. It could’ve been a shitload worse!
George Eastman returns to play killer for this infamous Joe D’Amato-directed slasher.
Apparently some have criticised this movie for its similarities to John Carpenter’s Halloween (1978), and I can’t really blame them. They are quite evident, even in the film’s soundtrack. But then again, without movies like Absurd, Halloween wouldn’t have its “highly influential” reputation. Plus, if it hadn’t drawn so much inspiration from the Carpenter classic, it would be an even bigger pile of senseless shite than it already is.
But…that said, if you’re looking for a slasher flick that has very little to it, that you can just switch your brain off to, that isn’t one for the 700 million Friday the 13th sequels, then I guess Absurd is one of those notorious titles you’ll want to check out. It doesn’t go easy on its kill scenes either. It’s got drills. It’s got pick-axes. People are cooked to death. People are decapitated. It even has a nasty bone saw machine sequence that could rival the director’s cut of Intruder (1989). If only the movie as a whole was more clean-cut…
Some of the cutaways that show all that gratuitous gore are a little clumsy. During the hospital murder scene, for instance. Despite the fact that Eastman clearly drills into the side of a careless nurse’s head, the gruesome close-up shot shows the drill enter what looks like the back of the neck of a man with short, curly hair???
The English dubbing works well enough. However, anyone familiar with Italian horrors such as Lucio Fulci’s The House by the Cemetery (1981) will know that dubbed children are as annoying as fuck and Absurd is most definitely no exception!
Some scenes take too long. The oven kill and blind man stalking sequences can really drag. The performances aren’t great but they’re not terrible. The real trouble is that this movie makes no fucking sense whatsoever.
LAST WORDS:
Give thanks to Carpenter, people. It could’ve been a shitload worse!
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