Wednesday, April 29, 2015

Taeter City, From Italy...Lucio Fulci Lives!

The great Italian horror director/writer Lucio Fulci died in 1996.  Whatever gore was put forth in American cinema in either the slasher genre or the outset of the zombie genre....Mr. Fulci always topped it.  American audiences, thirsting for blood, even enjoyed the dubbed dialog of films like "Zombie" or "The Beyond."  Whatever Romero did.....Fulci would up the ante.  2012's "Taeter City" is a Fulci-esque effort from writer and director Giulio De Santi (also from Italy).  I have seen many films, usually from Japan, that have gut-wrenching gore every one to two minutes.  "Taeter City" has extreme (...even by 2015 standards) scenes of gore approximately every 15 seconds.  Even the most solid horror aficionado will turn his head while watching this futuristic gore-fest.
The Authority maintains order....in a big way.  No riots.  No crime.  Cannibalism has been introduced into civilization, and this serves to control the crime rate.  Criminals are sent to slaughterhouses and are chopped apart to feed the living.  Blood is an energy drink. Non-human food is illegal.  Society has progressed as The Authority emits radio waves that supposedly curb criminal desires.  When a criminal is caught, radio waves cause them to chop themselves up.  We see a lot of this self-mutilation in this movie.  The law is enforced by the Bikers.  They have bikes that can go 260 mph, and the latest weapons. They are good at catching criminals.  Razor (Monica Munoz) is a buxom, leather clad Biker who can shoot razor-like lasers that slice up the criminal.  Her and her two cohorts, Wank (Wilmar Zimosa) and Shock (Santiago Ortaez) have an easy time of it.....until....
Unlike most criminals, Trevor (De Santi) has reacted strangely to the radio waves.  They have caused him to mutate.  His scream can cause people's inside to explode out of their bodies.  We see this a lot. Now The Authority sends Razor and her two cohorts to find Trevor, and eliminate him.  This won't be easy as Trevor turns everyone near him into mutant killers, and sets them on to the Bikers. The results will be gory.  These mutants, created by Trevor, also spew acid from their mouths and can takeover someone's mind.  Will the Bikers be strong enough to cut through the mutants and then cut up Trevor?  Is Trevor a criminal or a freedom fighter?  There will be an ultimate and decisive battle at the end of this film....or perhaps not entirely decisive, I should say.
Wherever the gore meter is in American cinema, "Taeter City" has upped it by five levels.  Even with the attention to hundreds of scenes of maximum gore, Mr. De Santi still manages to tell a horror/sci-fi story.  Elements of  "1984" are added to this plot, along with severed fingers, sliced eyeballs, exploding innards, crushed heads, etc.  You have been warned.  If this sounds like something that won't send your stomach in circles, see "Taeter City."

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