Guinea Pig: Flower of Flesh and Blood
Flower of Flesh and Blood is a 1985 Pseudo-Snuff horror that depicts a “recreation” of a snuff tape sent to a mangaka by a supposed “Fan” of his work, it lasts for around 41 minutes, although that’s the whole runtime so the gore itself is mostly condensed to about 25-30 minutes worth of the tape. What is detailed is a man dressed as a samurai finding and kidnapping a woman whom he drugs and butchers for enjoyment.
What starts with just removing each limb, goes further and further to entrails being pulled out and an eye removed from the woman’s skull to be sucked on by the mad samurai. All of which shown in extreme detail up unto the point where he unveils for us his collection of rotting body parts and the like. And as quickly as it starts it’s over, showing our “star” is already on his way for another victim.
What helps drives the realism aside from the well handled effects are the introduction text and outro text that really sets a mood and in the end even establishes some “grounded” facts that help sell the “authenticity” IE: explaining there must’ve to been 2 people at least involved to account for the camera work.
Despite being “of it’s time” the actual effects are quite stellar, so much so that you can expect a short follow up to this post once I get a chance to watch the “Making of Guinea Pig” bonus film which goes into the behind the scene’s work on the movies.
Overall this is a classic for a reason, it’s in my opinion tame enough by modern standards to be a good tipping of one’s toes into the genre of extreme horror or pseudo-snuff films; so much so I actually watched this for review with a partner whom was mildly interested in the subject matter while not being an avid gore freak like myself.