Absurd (film)
Encyclopedia
Absurd is a 1981 Italian horror film, an unofficial sequel to Antropophagus. It was directed by Joe D'Amato
and written by George Eastman
.
Absurd was one of the infamous Video Nasties of the United Kingdom, and became one of 39 titles to be successfully prosecuted under the Obscene Publications Act
in 1984. Originally released in both a cut and uncut version with identical sleeve design by Medusa Home Video in 1981. The original tape is a sought after and expensive collectable among fans.
It was released in 1980s in the US as "Monster Hunter" by Wizard Video, with a rather inaccurate synopsis on the back of the old-style "big box." To add to its questionable fame, this movie inspired the name for German black metal
act Absurd
, whose members later switched their interest from gore movies to extreme right wing politics and committed murder in 1993.
incredibly fast, but this gift has made him insanely homicidal. A priest pursues the killer and attempts to destroy him by impaling him on a set of railings which disembowel
him, but he is revived later in a local hospital. The madman escapes after brutally killing a nurse and goes on a killing spree. The priest informs the hospital that the only way to kill Mikos is to 'destroy the cerebral mass'.
While attacking a motorcyclist after escaping from the hospital, Mikos is struck by a hit-and-run driver. The driver of the car, Dr. Bennett and his wife are going to a friends house to watch a football game, leaving their two children at home with a babysitter. Their daughter Katia, is confined to her bed because of a problem with her spine
, while her younger brother believes that the 'Bogeyman
' will come to get him.
Mikos makes his way to the Bennetts' home and begins to murder everyone there. Peggy, a family helper is stabbed in the head with a pickaxe and the babysitter Emily has her head forced into a lit oven, causing her face to blister and turning purple, but not before sending the brother off to get help. Katia struggles from her bed to take on the killer herself. Mikos breaks into Katia's bedroom and attacks her, but she manages to stab him in the eye with a set of drawing compasses. She then stumbles down the hallway as the blinded killer staggers after her. He stalks her through the house and Katia manages to elude him. The priest arrives and struggles with Mikos, and Katia grabs an axe from a suit of armor and decapitates Mikos. The family arrives home to discover Katia standing in the front doorway, covered in blood holding Mikos's severed head.
On its release some critics accused the film of being nothing more than an Italian version of Halloween
. There are some similarities between the two films - references to a 'Bogeyman
' and a babysitter
and her charges in peril from a silent and seemingly indestructible killer
. Director D'Amato also attempted to make the film more attractive to the American market by setting it in the States, even though it was shot in Italy.
The film was placed on the DPP's list of video nasties in 1983 in its uncut state in the UK, but a cut version was released with two minutes and 23 seconds of cuts to it that same year.
The film was considered a "sequel" to the Zombie series of horror films, under the title "Zombie 6: Monster Hunter." An incorrect description on the back of the box promoted the film as a sequel to the zombie films for a while.
An uncut DVD version of the film was released under the French title, 'Horrible', via Mya Communication on July 28, 2009.
An uncut DVD version including a long version of the film was released under the German title, 'Absurd', via XT-Video on December 15, 2010.
Joe D'Amato
Joe D'Amato, was a prolific Italian filmmaker who directed roughly 200 films, usually at the same time acting as producer and cinematographer, and sometimes providing the script as well...
and written by George Eastman
George Eastman (actor)
George Eastman is an Italian B-movie actor and screenwriter.Eastman was born in Genoa, Italy. He took his Americanized alias "George Eastman" when he was cast as a "heavy" in many spaghetti westerns made in the late 1960s and early 1970s...
.
Absurd was one of the infamous Video Nasties of the United Kingdom, and became one of 39 titles to be successfully prosecuted under the Obscene Publications Act
Obscene Publications Act
Since 1857, a series of obscenity laws known as the Obscene Publications Acts have governed what can be published in England and Wales. The classic definition of criminal obscenity is if it "tends to deprave and corrupt," stated in 1868 by John Duke Coleridge, 1st Baron Coleridge.There have been...
in 1984. Originally released in both a cut and uncut version with identical sleeve design by Medusa Home Video in 1981. The original tape is a sought after and expensive collectable among fans.
It was released in 1980s in the US as "Monster Hunter" by Wizard Video, with a rather inaccurate synopsis on the back of the old-style "big box." To add to its questionable fame, this movie inspired the name for German black metal
Black metal
Black metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal music. Common traits include fast tempos, shrieked vocals, highly distorted guitars played with tremolo picking, blast beat drumming, raw recording, and unconventional song structure....
act Absurd
Absurd (band)
Absurd is one of the best-known black metal and pagan metal bands in Germany, classified as right-wing extremist by the Thuringian Landesbehörde für Verfassungsschutz....
, whose members later switched their interest from gore movies to extreme right wing politics and committed murder in 1993.
Plot
The plot involves a near invincible man, known only as Mikos, a dead Greek serial murderer, whose blood coagulatesCoagulation
Coagulation is a complex process by which blood forms clots. It is an important part of hemostasis, the cessation of blood loss from a damaged vessel, wherein a damaged blood vessel wall is covered by a platelet and fibrin-containing clot to stop bleeding and begin repair of the damaged vessel...
incredibly fast, but this gift has made him insanely homicidal. A priest pursues the killer and attempts to destroy him by impaling him on a set of railings which disembowel
Disembowelment
Disembowelment is the removal of some or all of the organs of the gastrointestinal tract , usually through a horizontal incision made across the abdominal area. Disembowelment may result from an accident, but has also been used as a method of torture and execution...
him, but he is revived later in a local hospital. The madman escapes after brutally killing a nurse and goes on a killing spree. The priest informs the hospital that the only way to kill Mikos is to 'destroy the cerebral mass'.
While attacking a motorcyclist after escaping from the hospital, Mikos is struck by a hit-and-run driver. The driver of the car, Dr. Bennett and his wife are going to a friends house to watch a football game, leaving their two children at home with a babysitter. Their daughter Katia, is confined to her bed because of a problem with her spine
Vertebral column
In human anatomy, the vertebral column is a column usually consisting of 24 articulating vertebrae, and 9 fused vertebrae in the sacrum and the coccyx. It is situated in the dorsal aspect of the torso, separated by intervertebral discs...
, while her younger brother believes that the 'Bogeyman
Bogeyman
A bogeyman is an amorphous imaginary being used by adults to frighten children into compliant behaviour...
' will come to get him.
Mikos makes his way to the Bennetts' home and begins to murder everyone there. Peggy, a family helper is stabbed in the head with a pickaxe and the babysitter Emily has her head forced into a lit oven, causing her face to blister and turning purple, but not before sending the brother off to get help. Katia struggles from her bed to take on the killer herself. Mikos breaks into Katia's bedroom and attacks her, but she manages to stab him in the eye with a set of drawing compasses. She then stumbles down the hallway as the blinded killer staggers after her. He stalks her through the house and Katia manages to elude him. The priest arrives and struggles with Mikos, and Katia grabs an axe from a suit of armor and decapitates Mikos. The family arrives home to discover Katia standing in the front doorway, covered in blood holding Mikos's severed head.
Cast
- George EastmanGeorge Eastman (actor)George Eastman is an Italian B-movie actor and screenwriter.Eastman was born in Genoa, Italy. He took his Americanized alias "George Eastman" when he was cast as a "heavy" in many spaghetti westerns made in the late 1960s and early 1970s...
as Mikos Stenopolis - Annie BelleAnnie BelleAnnie Brilland is a French actress and social worker. Her acting career began in 1974 and throughout the seventies, has had a series of varied roles in both French and Italian cinema, working with such directors as Jean Rollin, Ruggero Deodato and Joe D'Amato.-Early life:Belle was born in Paris,...
as Emily - Charles Borromel as Sgt. Ben Engleman
- Katya BergerKatya BergerKatya Bebb Cobham is a film actress. She is the daughter of Hugh Russell Bebb and Croatian singer, songwriter, and actress Hanja Kochansky, and stepdaughter of veteran spaghetti western Austrian actor William Berger...
as Katia Bennett - Kasimir Berger as Willy Bennett
- Hanja KochanskyHanja KochanskyHanja Kochansky is a Croatian singer, songwriter and actress. She was the second wife of William Berger, by whom she had two children: actress Katya Berger and child actor Kasimir Berger , who starred with his father in the TV mini-series Christopher Columbus as Diego as a...
as Carol Bennett - Ian Danby as Ian Bennett
- Ted RusoffTed RusoffTed Rusoff is an Canadian actor, voice dubbing artist and dubbing director known for his extensive work in the English language dubbing of foreign films ....
as Dr. Kramer - Edmund PurdomEdmund PurdomEdmund Anthony Cutlar Purdom was a British actor.-Early life:Purdom was born in Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire, England and educated at St. Augustine's Abbey School, Ramsgate, then by the Jesuits at St. Ignatius Grammar School and Welwyn Garden City Grammar School...
as Father
Background
Absurd is in many ways a 'non-sequel' to Anthropophagus the Beast, as the only real connections between the two films - besides George Eastman and Joe D'Amato - is the presence of a homicidal man (played by George Eastman in effectively the same role as the one he played in the first film) who is disembowelled in both films, and who comes from a Greek island.On its release some critics accused the film of being nothing more than an Italian version of Halloween
Halloween (1978 film)
Halloween is a 1978 American independent horror film directed, produced, and scored by John Carpenter, co-written with Debra Hill, and starring Donald Pleasence and Jamie Lee Curtis in her film debut and the first installment in the Halloween franchise. The film is set in the fictional midwestern...
. There are some similarities between the two films - references to a 'Bogeyman
Bogeyman
A bogeyman is an amorphous imaginary being used by adults to frighten children into compliant behaviour...
' and a babysitter
Laurie Strode
Laurie Strode is a fictional character in the Halloween horror film series, portrayed by actresses Jamie Lee Curtis and Scout Taylor-Compton. She appears in six of the present ten Halloween installments, first appearing in John Carpenter's original 1978 film...
and her charges in peril from a silent and seemingly indestructible killer
Michael Myers (Halloween)
Michael Myers is a fictional character from the Halloween series of slasher films. He first appears in John Carpenter's Halloween as a young boy who murders his older sister, then fifteen years later returns home to murder more teenagers...
. Director D'Amato also attempted to make the film more attractive to the American market by setting it in the States, even though it was shot in Italy.
The film was placed on the DPP's list of video nasties in 1983 in its uncut state in the UK, but a cut version was released with two minutes and 23 seconds of cuts to it that same year.
The film was considered a "sequel" to the Zombie series of horror films, under the title "Zombie 6: Monster Hunter." An incorrect description on the back of the box promoted the film as a sequel to the zombie films for a while.
An uncut DVD version of the film was released under the French title, 'Horrible', via Mya Communication on July 28, 2009.
An uncut DVD version including a long version of the film was released under the German title, 'Absurd', via XT-Video on December 15, 2010.