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HORRIBLE

Joe D'Amato's HORRIBLE goes by a gaggle of different titles. I first encountered the film under the title ABSURD. Personally, I think either of those titles is appropriate as either title is the perfect summation of the film itself. The other name usually given to the film is ANTHROPOPHAGOUS 2 even though there's very little to connect that film and this one except for their director and their screenwriter/star, George Eastman. They're both terrible films for largely the same reasons though HORRIBLE does manage a campy charm missing from D'Amato's earlier film.

Eastman again plays a genetic monstrosity. His psychotic murderer in this film has Wolverine-like capabilities. He heals at an accelerated rate and his blood coagulates quickly, making him incredibly difficult to kill. When we first see him, he is being pursued by a priest. Eastman makes his way to a home in the countryside but accidentally impales himself on a fence post. He is rushed to the hospital and the priest is grilled by the police. They don't believe his story about this lumbering madman being more evil than human until Eastman wakes up and messily kills a nurse. Free to roam and hankering for some mayhem, Eastman makes his way back to the home he was injured at, eventually terrorizing a house nurse, a physically incapacitated young girl and her young brother.

While ANTHROPOPHAGOUS was a mishmash of cannibal and zombie trappings, HORRIBLE decides to use the slasher film as its narrative model. At times, it is hard to escape the feeling like the film is nothing more than an Italian splatter version of HALLOWEEN. We have the unstoppable killing machine, the slightly nutty Ahab figure pursuing him through the night, the stoic caretaker (a babysitter in HALLOWEEN) and a young child who knows Eastman is prowling around the house, referring to him time and time again as the boogey man. Even the final ten minutes bring to mind HALLOWEEN 2, with the blinded monster chasing a young, limping girl around a room.

D'Amato lifts a bit here and there from other, better films (especially a scene where Eastman slices open a man's head using a stationary saw, a scene that mimics Giovanni Lombardo Radice's memorable death scene a year earlier in Lucio Fulci's CITY OF THE LIVING DEAD) but never manages to achieve any tension during the films running time. Part of the films problem is it has no clear identity of its own. It feels stilted and slow. Not to mention messy. The cops and the priest disappear completely from the film for the vast majority of its running time instead choosing to focus on long, bland "mood" shots and random acts of violence. It wants to be a HALLOWEEN-esque film. It really does, but it lacks a slick, uncomplicated narrative and anything resembling Carpenter's use of slow burn suspense.

All that said, the film has its moments of unintended hilarity and unbridled sadism, two elements which will endear it to the cult classic crowd. D'Amato's trademark lousy framing and poor staging of set pieces practically ensure this film a spot on many top "so bad, its good" lists. I watched it in silent disbelief. It was simply stupid and cluttered in a way that I found obnoxiously distracting. It's not nearly as awful as ANTHROPOPHAGOUS, but it is nowhere near as good as the dozens of films it draws inspiration from.

Not recommended.