August Underground's PENANCE Review

Wow...just wow!  Here i go again looking for that movie that's going to truly disturb me.  After watching August Underground's Mordum (my review Here), I thought it wouldn't get any worse.  That is until I found out Mordum has a sequel that gos even farther.  Say hello to August Underground's Penance!

I wont go into too much detail about how this movie plays out (read my review for Mordum).  In short the movie is just basically random home movie snuff film with shaky camera and all.
Filmed on digital video (same as the previous 2 movies), but not visually altered to look like an old rough VHS tape like the other 2 movies where.  This means you get to see every gory detail much clearer.

Oh and what gory detail it is!  This movie will make even the most hardened of gore hounds feel uneasy.  We have in this one murder, rape, sodomy, necrophilia, child killing, gut pulling, animal violence, and tons more.  This is one sick fucking movie! Freddy V. and “Crusty” play the happy couple chronicling everything from the mundane to the horrific and everything in between. Their sick “love” takes them further and further into depravity and darkness until we start to see an unraveling of their emotions and the breakdown of their wills. All of this depreciation of mind, body and spirit turns them against one another. He begins to abuse her after she loses it and begins to sob uncontrollably and he has no idea how to console her. In turn, she begins to seethe hate for him.  You see more into the killers and realize who they are. They share things together like fireworks. He paints “I <3 U” on the ground in ketchup. You can see that there is a definite bond there but it is not healthy. When that bond deteriorates we begin to hear things like her screaming, “You’re just like your fucking dad!” as he abuses her off-camera. We also see her need for something that she is missing in her life as she fucks a random guy in the bathroom in one scene. And in another, she acts like a little girl opening Christmas presents.

I almost get pushed over the edge in Mordum where a guy screws the dead rotting body of a 10 year old girl while the girl behind the camera says "you don't have to worry about growing up anymore sweetie".  Penance takes it to another level.  One sequence which takes place during Christmas makes the home invasion scene in “Henry Portrait of a Serial Killer” appear laughable in comparison! We follow the murderers in a random household where they rape and murder the family members, in a sequence that stroked my inner misanthrope, and almost went too far. The viewer will be in amazement at the utter audacity of this sequence shot behind a Christmas backdrop complete with a tree and gifts. During this particular sequence, after the father and mother are out of the way, and while Whiles’ character strangles the young daughter, Vogel’s character (from behind the camera) taunts “Make her open some gifts.” What increases the viciousness of the situation is what the camera man says when the female killer strangles the little girl to death -- “I want to see the life go. I want to see the life go.” This will not be easily forgotten.

A second sequence contained a disembowelment more extreme than anything you have ever been witness to. This sequence will be the forerunner for any film making attempts at one-upping the “August Underground” series as this went far and beyond the gruesome reality that the previous films presented the viewer. Try not to cringe when some sort of organ gets ruptured during the procedure and gastric air bubbles spurt from beneath the viscera.

So then we come to the animal death.  First up is a scene where a pet caged baby alligator is fed a live rat and another scene where a deer is chopped up and fed to a lion.  Deep down none of this is really near as bad as the animal violence in movies like Cannibal Holocaust.

I was a little grossed out but doing fine until the home invasion scene came.  Right after that scene is over we get a nice close up of a guys dick.  That's where i stopped for the night.  Knowing I was going to do this review and the fact that a review doesn't mean shit unless you finish the movie I continued to pull on.  More torture and gore came before me and after the home invasion scene i thought Id seen the worse this movie has to offer, but i was wrong.  One scene shows a dead pregnant mother with her fetus torn from her stomach while the guy that did it screams "LOOK WHAT YOU MADE ME DO!". 

Overall: All I have to say is one thing. HOLY FUCKING SHIT! This is a journey threw hell if I ever saw one. It actually had to finish this in two sittings.  Even if someone claims to of seen the worse of the worse but hasn't seen this is full of shit.  This movie is it!  This is the one that made me feel uneasy and dirty and makes me question myself and why I'm watching this.  This is the last movie in the August Underground trilogy.  The effects are super realistic and the acting once again is way to well done.  Both make this seem even more realistic.  There was times where i forgot I was watching a movie and thought I was watching something real.

Now that i found something that truly disturbed me, I feel my quest will take me into a new direction.  Now its going to turn into "Can I find a movie that disturbed me more than Penance?"  Who knows if I will.  After this movie i need to take a break from this kinda madness.  Finding other movies that are disturbing like Snuff 102 and Philosophy of a Knife, I fear my quest isn't over.  This movie really hit me hard and I can't help but respect it for that.  My quest is over....for now.

If anyone knows anything that's weird or disturbing let me know and ill do a review for it.