SALO, OR THE 120 DAYS OF SODOM (1975)

"Nothing is more contagious than evil."

For what it is SALO is a well made film and you will never get bored.  You might get sick to your stomach and puke all over yourself, but you'll never get bored.

I'm not a film scholar, but from what I can tell director/writer Pier Paolo Pasolini was trying to give a very damning condemnation of Fascism in Italy during WWII by showing four wealthy and powerful men kidnapping a group of teenage boys and girls then torturing, raping and destroying them (both physically and mentally) for 120 days then finally slaughtering the ones who survived in a disgusting orgy of blood and perversion. The final scene with the two young guards dancing during the bloodbath, I think, represents the desensitization of the mass population to the Hell all around them.

And that's pretty much the story. The rich men have their people (and soldiers) kidnap a large group of children. The four men then interview them and select the unlucky 18. They're moved to a large country estate where they start our with a little lightweight raping and molesting and then graduate into deeper realms of torture and abhorrent behavior. Everything you don't want to imagine happens, from eating shit and bathing in shit and piss to having your sexual organs burned off with a candle.

My biggest complaint about the film is it should have been at least 3 hours longer and even darker. I don't think Pasolini even came close to relaying to the audience the absolute depth of depression and hopelessness that happens to a person when they are faced with a Hellish situation like this with zero hope of being saved. Even with that complaint you should watch it.

SALO is not to everyone's taste, but  I still think everyone should see it just to remember what can happen with the abuse of political power.

NSFW pictures

THE CRAZIES (2010)

Remaking and updating George Romero's original 1973 snoozefest is a great idea. Unfortunately, this version is barely any better than the original.

Small town sheriff (Timothy Olyphant) is enjoying the simple small town life when one afternoon at a high school baseball game a dude with a shotgun and a blank stare walks onto the field.  There's a standoff and the sheriff is forced to get his blast on. Autopsy reports show nothing unusual, but then other bizarre events happen and Olyphant is going to get to the bottom of it no matter how many times we've already seen this scenario before.

The first few minutes were actually entertaining with a little suspense build-up, but then, by the 15 minute mark the story had already shot it's wad and dies a slow, formulaic death. Worth a watch if you're interested, but it adds nothing to the horror genre that we haven't already seen before. Almost zero character development, zero tits, a little blood, mild violence, no gore, zero scares, but still somewhat entertaining. THE CRAZIES is an alright time-waster if you're extremely bored.

THE CRAZIES drinking game: every time the sheriff and his wife split up and every time the deputy saves somebody.

Original - The Crazies (1973)