Little Deaths
Bottom Line
Just in time for the annual FrightFest shindig in London’s glittering West End, Little Deaths – a showcase for all that is warped and messed up in the world if British horror – finally sees the light of day.
Having finally negotiated its way past the censors at the British Board of Film Classification, who demanded a little trimming here and there even to get an 18 certificate, this trilogy of vignettes packs a punch way above its budget to provide fright fans of all persuasions with a little bit of what they like.
First up is Sean Hogan‘s House and Homes, and being the product of a clearly deviant imagination it sets the pace for what’s to come. Two wealthy swingers – not for the first time – invite a homeless girl into their house on a premise of charity, but with some blatant ulterior motives.
Their plans for an evening of entertainment at her expense are disagreeably cut short by some of the most unwelcome coitus interruptus you’re likely to see committed to celluloid, as the victim turns out not to be who, or rather what, the couple thought.
As with Hogan’s most recent feature, The Devil’s Business, a touch of the mundane – albeit twisted mundane – everyday is mixed with a pinch of traditional horror gore.
Next up is Andrew Parkinson‘s Mutant Tool, which comes from the outer reaches of sci-fi horror, is seriously messed up and hugely enjoyable.
In a proper body-shocker out of Cronenberg’s golden era handbook, a former prostitute goes to a shady doctor of her lowlife boyfriend’s acquaintance after being mugged for his drug money.
The bad doctor puts her on pills that have some side effects that probably aren’t listed in any medical journal.
Down-and-out living meets Nazi experimentation and featuring a fantastic piece of prosthetic, Mutant Tool sure lives up to its name.
The last piece of this unholiest of trilogies, Simon Rumley‘s Bitch, is a nicely-lit, extremely nasty piece of work, in which a submissive boyfriend finally snaps in the face of his hyper-passive-aggressive girlfriend’s abuse and uses her biggest fear against her.
Acres of flesh, nasty stuff in normal situations, inter-species copulation and the biggest cock you’ve ever seen – Little Deaths has something for everyone.
