Search - Guinea Pig Flower of Flesh and Blood/Making of Guinea Pig Double Feature on DVD

Nice effects, otherwise kind of silly.

Amy | outer space | 09/03/2008

(3 out of 5 stars)

"I heard about the Guinea Pig movies for years but never got around to seeing any until now. While I suppose the acting and the production value were okay for something of this nature, I was a bit underwhelmed, probably because the whole thing just seemed like a long commercial for the special effects people. The effects were pretty cool, but it takes more than special effects to hold my attention, even for the length of this film.

The story, told by text on a black screen before the movie starts, tells of a legend in which photos of a dismembered girl were sent to an artist, who promptly handed them over to the police. That's pretty much the end of the plot, because the rest is a dramatization of how the murder occured, making it basically a fake snuff film. The gimmick here is the killer collects bodies and he thinks it's beautiful when a woman's body is squirting blood from its severed limbs. Scooped out eyeballs are particularly lovely, at least according to this guy. As there is no real plot, I can't be too wary of giving out spoilers.

Basically, this guy kidnaps women in the subway and dismembers them slowly while dressed kind of like Darth Vader before adding them to his collection (which would've fit nicely in the house in the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre) and singing weird songs. The end part was almost entertaining because of the over-the-top Fulci-esque skulls with worms all over the place and the singing.

If there is one reason to actually watch this, it's the special effects, which are explained nicely in the Making of featurette that is also on the disc. In fact, the Making Of was a lot better than the movie, and it made me wish I'd rented He Never Dies instead of this one, because it seems to actually have a plot."

This is the one you want

Zack Davisson | Seattle, WA, USA | 10/27/2008

(4 out of 5 stars)

"When people talk about the infamous "Guinea Pig" series, this is the one they are really talking about. This is the one that inspired serial killer Miyazaki Tsutomu, who performed its rituals on real victims instead of with special effects. This is the one that Charlie Sheen mistook for a real snuff film and reported it to the FBI who investigated its director. This is the one of myth and legend.

"Flower of Flesh and Blood" is directed by famous Japanese horror-manga artist Hino Hideshi, he of the Hino Horror series which have been adapted into films such as Boy from Hell and Ravaged House. He claims that this is a recreation of an actual snuff film sent to him by a fan, but Hino is well-known to stretch the truth when he feels like it. Or just to lie, so I wouldn't take him too seriously.

There is no story, and this is basically just an exercise in special effects. A man dressed in a samurai costume slowly dissects a drugged woman over the course of 42 minutes, slicing her here and there and taking off the pieces to create his final "flower of flesh and blood". For gore fans, this is as good as it gets, just pure craftsmanship with a special effects artist demonstrating some quality work and no annoying plot getting in the way. People will be quick to point out how "fake" it is, but that is probably just bravado more than anything else. This is really well done.

This DVD also includes the "Making of..." feature that the producer and director put together in order to prove that they hadn't actually killed anyone. It does take away a bit of the magic and legend, but is a nice feature in and of itself and is probably more interesting to watch story-wise than the main feature itself.

Is "Flower of Flesh and Blood" a good film? Not really. Not for casual viewers. But for gore-horror fans, this is required viewing to see just how far someone can go. And if the creepiness of knowing it is all smoke and mirrors takes some of the fun out of it for you, you can just remember that all of this DID take place for real, in Miyazaki Tsutomu's apartment, even though he was inspired by the film rather than the other way around.
"

A Curious Piece of Horror Filmmaking

Joshua Miller | Coeur d'Alene,ID | 11/02/2009

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Supposedly based on a snuff film that was sent to Manga artist and filmmaker Hideshi Hino (this was later found to be a fabrication created for the film), Guinea Pig: Flower of Flesh and Blood caused an uproar when actor Charlie Sheen famously reported it to the FBI believing it to be a real snuff film. It wouldn't be unfair to say this was ridiculous, `cause as you've seen or may see...It's obviously NOT real.

This 41-minute film opens with a young woman being stalked and eventually abducted. The abduction scene has multiple camera angles and credits, I want to point out. When the woman awakens, she's tied to a bed and her abductor is dressed as a samurai. At the 17-minute mark, he begins graphically dismembering her body...Which lasts until the very end.

That brief description encompasses the entire plot of the film. The actor portraying the killer is a genuinely creepy looking fellow, but little else about this film is very creepy. I wasn't particularly horrified or shocked by what I saw in the film. The knowledge that it's fictional and the fact that the victim is drugged into a comatose state throughout her ordeal makes everything that occurs more disgusting than disturbing. What Flower of Flesh and Blood does accomplish is relative realism. A lot of people are divided on just how realistic this film appears to be...Well, it's certainly more realistic than the gore presented in many other horror films, especially when the low production cost is taken into account.

But, overall, this film does fail to live up to it's hype. The creepiest part of the film for me was the image of the man's "collection." While a curious piece of horror filmmaking, don't expect anything deeply horrifying or revolutionary. So, while it's nothing special it is worth watching if you're a horror/gore junkie and you're curious about the infamous film.

GRADE: C+
"

D-i-s-m-e-m-b-e-r-m-e-n-t! Dismemberment! Dismemberment! Go

William Dorfer | 07/16/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

""Flowers of Flesh and Blood" is one of the most notorious splatter films of underground horror. The idea is simple: A Japanese dude kidnaps a Japanese chick, sedates her in this room that almost makes a "Saw" set-up look like Shangri-La, and the following is done to the lady, all while dressed up like a samurai:

1) Wrist-slitting.
2) Arm mutilation.
3) Leg mutilation.
4) Decapitation.
5) Disembowelment.
6) Licking said decapitated head.
7) Eyeball plucking.
8) Eyeball sucking.
9) The Psycho Samurai (I like your name for him, Captain Insanity!) then sings a song that includes the words "pool of blood" "sea of fire", and throughout the movie spits dialogue that is ten times cheesier than even the cheesiest Japanese comic book. (Even though I used to love reading the "Rave Master" manga all the time a while ago.)

Now before you go and say "Wait a minute, Bill! You're giving away the whole movie!", I'll say this: "Guinea Pig 2: Flowers of Flesh and Blood" is NOT one of those movies where you hear about the gore and just neglect the movie. It's a VISUAL EXPERIENCE. A visual experience where you should NOT EAT WHILE WATCHING THIS MOVIE! HAHA.

Obviously, this is NOT A SNUFF FILM, even though there's a good chance you might be able to fool somebody into thinking it is. But then again... I don't know everybody that way. So, while Flowers of Flesh and Blood:
1) Has no plot.
2) Barely has any dialogue.
3) Only revolves around two characters.
and 4) Is only 42 minutes long...
I GOTTA give this five stars just for the director having the simple but awesome idea of just making a short film about bloodsoaked, gore-splattering, mutilating insanity!

IMPORTANT NOTE:
You may hate this film. You may think it's a pointless "gore for sheer gore" sort of movie. You may think that it's not scary even though it's a horror movie. But this movie accomplishes what it sets out to do.
SHOCK. DISGUST. REVOLT. OUTRAGE. NAUSEATE. And sure as heck break a lotta ground.
FUN FACT:
The fact that this movie was made in 1985 and is still gorier than most movies today scares me more than the movie itself!
BOTTOM LINE:
DON'T expect someting brilliant like SUSPIRIA. DON'T expect something psychological like THE SHINING. This is a short film done just to be GORY AND NASTY! And it gets five stars from me! Have fun with this, and make sure you've eaten BEFORE you watch this! Thanks for the time, and peace."