Reviews

There aren't many films that have turned me away completely. AU Penance was a first for me. I have never had to take a break from a film before or after this one. The August Underground films each have their "breath of fresh air" scenes in between - or even during - the more disturbing blood/vomit drenched scenes. Penance was different. Where it seems most people think that Mordum was the most disturbing in the trilogy, Penance went to a completely different level of grit and darkness. The breaths that this film took weren't enough to have strong enough laugh at to set you at ease or even kind of take you out of the disgust that was taking place. At one point, I had to stop the film and spend half an hour away from it to relax before I could finish. As the credits rolled, I sat in silence just staring at the screen unsure of how exactly I should feel. Easily the most difficult film to sit through, and easily one of my favorite films because of it. Fred Vogel and his team did an incredible job.

Thankfully, I caught this on one of the On Demand channels, so basically no money was spent on this piece of garbage. This shouldn't have been linked to American Psycho in any way. It seemed like there was an idea for a film, they knew they wouldn't profit much on it, and so they slapped the name of a successful film on it to fix the problem. Everything that was perfect about the first film was stripped away and replaced with teen slasher clichés and pure annoyance. I could barely make it through and nearly turned it off several times. It's rare that a sequel is able to stand up to the initial installment, but for a sequel to be so horrible that I nearly give up on it entirely is something completely different. If you're a fan of American Psycho, slasher films, films in general, avoid this one. Terrible. Just awful.

The Orphan Killer combines several factors that don't come together nearly enough in more current horror films: Copious amounts of blood, good script, and a plot maintained throughout. The gore, I must say, is pretty incredible. I'm a huge fan of special effects makeup, so it's always refreshing to see actual makeup being used instead of CGI, and the makeup was spot on. Brutal. Gritty. Real. The acting from Diane Foster and David Backhaus, especially between the two, wonderful. Seeing a masked killer speak is a treat for any horror fan. A new twist on a classic theme. To see a modern horror film contain such a good balance of plot and gore, enough to keep the audience interested (and oftentimes dropping their jaw at how absolutely raw it is), is very welcomed. A definite add to any horror/slasher collection.