The Film (.75/5)

The 2018 film Brutal is just that. In simple worlds, the movie is an long hour ultra-gore-fest of a film, depicting a man and woman who are both insane, that pulverize, cut, slash, punch, and kick the opposite sex in an extremely graphic ways.

The film itself was split apart, into three bloody chapters “Man”, “Woman” and “Man and Woman”.  In “Man” a man named Butch, suffers from hallucinations that make him violent. He captures women and beats them to a bloody pulp.

Meanwhile, in “Woman”, a woman, Ayano through seduction, is luring men into her own vicious death trap, killing them violently via her knife. She ferociously stabs her hapless male victims, literally everywhere with the knife including the groin. Finally in “Man and Woman”, these same two killers, that are under some spell that forces them to brutally kill the opposite sex, cross path and have a bloody battle to the death, in which they are forced to reveal the horrible truth behind their murder addictions.

Pretty much what any gore connoisseur could ask for in a Japanese horror movie, Brutal is nothing more than a goresploitation movie, meaning that it was clearly made to satisfy fans of extremely gory movies. Brutal wastes no time in getting the gore going within minutes, making films like Re-Animator, 2000 Maniacs and The Blood Feast look tame. The characters’ development was inconsequential, as was the making of this movie, which was completely pointless. This movie is nothing more than people hurting and mutilating other people in a graphic, revolting, and disgustingly unentertaining ways. Thankfully it’s just over an hour long, so if you’re on the fence over this film, it is short enough to not be a complete time waster. Katrina Grey who plays Anna, is also wasted. If you need more in a film than just heaping amounts of gore, this isn’t the film to seek it in. Even the majority of today’s horror films have more substance than this atrocity.

Audio/Video (5/5)

Unearthed Films along with MVD Visual have released Brutal on Blu-ray, and visually, it’s “bloody” good. It has been given the grindhouse look with purposely done effects to have the film look like it was done in the seventies, with jump cuts, film reel changes and the like. Call it artistic, this film incorporates colors along with black and white photography. The image is strong with deep blacks and rich colors, mainly reds.

The audio, Japanese LPCM 2.0 sounds fine with screams, dialog and music all coming in clear. English subtitles are included for the release.

Extras (1/5)

There is a behind the scenes making of this movie, a few trailers and three music videos entitled “Nakigoto” , “Brutal” and  “Blood”

Overall (2/5)

I disliked this movie as it was just offensively gory and rather pointless, offering nothing outside of the blood. Therefore, fans of extreme gore should seek this movie immediately for the pure enjoyment of a bloodbath.  

The image and sound quality are excellent and some extras make this a worthwhile package to those interested in films of this nature