Director Fred Vogel's feature debut August Underground has been gaining quite the buzz amongst the horror community as one of the most disturbing films ever made and a gruelling experience that takes "shock cinema" to a whole new level never before seen. Designed as a virtually plotless pseudo-snuff film, August Underground, centers on two friends - the main character played by Vogel himself and his unseen accomplice who operates the home video camera - as they capture, torture, abuse and kill their various victims.

While this definately wins points for accurately capturing the gritty, even realistic looking approach the filmmakers are trying for; that is as far as its merits go. The most gruelling thing about August Underground is trying to sit through its far too generous running time and obvious padding as we witness the duo generally acting like assholes at a metal concert, a convenience store and partying with prostitutes. It's these scenes that derail the filmmaker's intent that these sickos could be be anywhere (and even your next door neighbour) because these characters seem to be so far removed from society and almost cariactures of the psychos they are portraying that the overall feel of this movie seems to be just that - a cheaply shot "movie" made by some friends with access to a video camera and stage blood.

The heart of this film and it's controversy though is its torture and murder scenes. While definitely tasteless (a naked, bound and gagged woman has her nipple cut off and feces rubbed on her breasts); I just found these scenes trying so hard to be offensive that it ultimately comes off crude and at times comical (a woman has the severed toe of her boyfriend shoved in her mouth and duck taped in). These scenes are played out so calculated and outlandishly offensive that the only feeling the viewer will get is "who thinks of this stuff?", ruining any chance of this being taken seriously.

Not only does this fail at coming off as a fresh new approach to shock cinema, every aspect of this film has been done before in greater effect. The "killer next door" angle in American Psycho was done leaps and bounds more realistic and the pseudo-snuff genre crown still belongs to the utterly sickening, yet well done, Guinea Pig films from Japan.

This isn't an easy film to get a hold of, even to the point of it and its sequel, August Underground's Mordum, getting mistakenly confiscated by Canadian customs due to its realistic nature, and is only as of now available on the tape trading circuit or from the filmmakers themselves (AU Mordum is now available on DVD from Toe Tag Pictures). To be honest though, it's not worth the hassle. If you've got a video camera you could do this. The question is why?

Followed by August Underground's Mordum. (Derek Carlson)

Directed By: Fred Vogel.
Written By: Allen Peters, Fred Vogel.

Starring: Fred Vogel, Ann Marie Reveruzzi, John A. Wisniewski, Alexa Iris.