AMERICAN GUINEA PIG: BOUQUET OF BLOOD & GUTS (2014)

 

American Guinea Pig: Bouquet of Blood and Guts

The "Guinea Pig" films were like many others my own rites of passage into the genre often referred to as extreme shock horror. Dating back to 1985 there was 6 films in all that make up the Guinea Pig franchise. These films were often passed around in the time of VHS, they had no label, no FBI warning and when you began to watch the carnage ensue you often felt like there was a chance you were watching something very real and VERY wrong. That is until 2005 when Stephen Biro and Unearthed Films brought the Japanese Guinea Pig films to the States on DVD and nothing has been the same since.

Now that the history is out of the way we jump to the here and now. It is 2015 and once again Stephen Biro makes an earth shaking decision to revitalize the most infamous horror series of all time. He grabs the franchise by the balls and sets out in a journey that may raddle the psyche of even the most harden, gore happy, desensitized individual, with "American Guinea Pig: Bouquet of Guts and Gore". You must know before you ever press play heck before you even read any more of this review you need to put on your big boy or girl pants and strap yourself in because you are about to take a very torturous journey into the depths of depravity you probably never seen or even knew existed.

Being the film only has a running time of 73 minutes I figured we would dive right in, but rather Biro took a different approach and the movie starts at a slow pace as we are introduced to our two victims who are quickly abducted it is at this point we are introduced to the team who will become their sadistic butchers. Masked and armed with an arsenal of "tools" of destruction laid out on a table that would make even the Extreme Hunters in Hostel drool. The carnage that unfolds is relentless, savage, uncompromising, and steps through the total deconstruction of the human form. The first victim has her hand removed, followed by a foot and then the leg at the knee. The second leg proves to be more of a challenge, the bone requiring some serious effort, followed by an arm next and finally the head which provides some moments of true depravity, with a spot light on some nice eyeball trauma and the administration of an extreme 'Chelsea Smile' (look it up) using a saw. The torturer then disembowels his victim, bleeds her out by removing the tourniquets from her stumps, and then cuts out her heart. The second girl has the skin stripped from both arms, the flesh peeled off her legs, and her chest opened up. A hammer is then used to smash in her teeth and a cigarette is stubbed out in her eye. Next a guy pushes his thumb deep into the socket for good measure. The woman's rib-cage is then snipped away with bolt-cutters to reveal her still beating heart. The finisher this time is a frenzied slashing of the neck with a sharp knife followed by a little chainsaw action that would make Leatherface jealous. No body part is safe or spared. Some people I am going to warn nothing can prepare your eyes or soul for what you want to turn away from watching but cannot; while others like myself will watch in full glory of amazement.

Now the film as a whole is not for everyone, it indeed is lacking in any form of a plot but if you know the series you don’t expect one. When I was a child my dad always said, "Oh, those slasher films don’t even try for a plot, they are just made to see who can amass the largest body count.". Well folks I can tell you with this movie he was right but it doesn’t shoot for a body count, rather for MOST GORE EVER. Some viewers might not be able to look past the gore and massacre of the human bodies; while others will see into the beautifully exquisite bloody masterpiece that is created. One thing is for certain once you watch no dare I say survive, American Guinea Pig: Bouquet of Guts and Gore you will never be able to un-see it. Some will say much like A Serbian Film this movie will take a tiny part of your soul and your sanity with it as the credits begin to role.
             

reviewed by Shawn