American Guinea Pig: Bouquet of Guts and Gore – 2014

Do you remember back in the day when Charlie Sheen reported one of the original Guinea Pig movies to the authorities, thinking it was a real snuff movie? If I’m not mistaken, that was the second of the Asian films – Flower of Flesh and Blood. Not the most realistic in the series in my opinion but certainly one of the bloodiest! When watching the first American Guinea Pig movie I can help but wonder if someone could take this for real as well. Are the effects up to par with the 1985 Asian movie? The plot is more or less the same. I guess this is a little more complex from that point of view. Where the Asian film was philosophical this is more occult.

But let’s start with the acting. Because this is not real, there are actors in it. It all starts with the kidnapping of two women. Mother and daughter if I understand it correctly but that doesn’t really matter. I realize that this scene is just transportation to the next stage of the movie but it’s not one bit realistic in my book. Never mind, you don’t see this type of movie for the acting anyway. This is certainly a special effects movie and when the next scene begins the women find themselves lying on a bed where masked men are filming them with old handheld cameras.

At this stage, I’m rather confused because I believe that there are two guys filming a third doing the mischief to the women. Everything is filmed with bad quality to give the illusion of low-budgeted snuff movie makers. But…There are plenty of shots where both the filming men are included. Is there a third man making a behind-the-scenes featurette of the making of the snuff film being made? I think there’s even a third man being seen in some shots. Another thing, I would also say that if I would make a movie that contained the destruction of a victim, I would not waste time filming the other cameraman. I would have focused totally on the torture. But what do I know?

Anyway, we get to follow the events that lead to the total destruction of the two women. Limbs are severed and the blood is pouring out of their bodies. Overall it looks pretty good but I still feel that there’s something missing in the illusion. It’s not totally realistic. Maybe it’s me that has seen too much and become a real nitpicker? I don’t know. And there’s no real power to it. A movie like this should hit you right in the solar plexus but it doesn’t. It’s slow-paced and gets boring after a while. And I thought about why when I watched it. I think that what’s missing is the horrors from the victim. They are drugged and completely still almost the whole time. For me, that makes the torture captured on film not so much torture and more like plain butchery. Torture is to inflict pain and the victim should react accordingly.

With that said, I don’t think anyone would take this for real. Well, maybe Charlie Sheen…