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Directed
by: Uwe Boll, Ruggero Deodato, Marian Dora, Andrey
Iskanov, Ryan Nicholson, Yoshihiro Nishimura, Michael
Todd Schneider, Sergio Stivaletti, Nacho Vigalondo
Written by: Scott Swan, David Bond, Carlo Baldacci Carli,
Ruggero Deodato, Colin McCracken, Ryan Nicholson,
Yoshihiro Nishimura, Paolo Zelati
Produced by: David Bond, Manda Manuel, David L. Tamarin
Cinematography by: Vincenzo Condorelli, Gabrio Contino,
Matt Leaf, Yasutaka Nagano, Anthony Roldan
Editing by: Jeremy Kasten, Chance Minter, Yoshihiro
Nishimura, Francesca Spinozzi
Special Effects by: Giulia Giorgi, Megan Nicholson,
Autumn Cook, Chieko Shimizu, Chelsea Still, Taiga Ishino,
Oliver Müller
Cast: Dan Ellis, Monique Parent, Tina Krause, Thomas
Goersch, Marta Paganelli, Simplicio De Rosa, Maki Mizui,
Haruka Nishimura, Didac Alcaraz, Josep Segui Pujol,
Clint Howard, Caroline Williams
Year: 2013
Country: USA, Canada, Italy, Russia, Japan
Color: Color
Language: English, Italian, German, Japanese
Studio: Harbinger International |
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The Profane Exhibit
is quite possibly the most ambitious and talked about horror
anthology film ever made. Unfortunately for you, it will never
see the light of day. As quoted by a source close to the
project, who will remain unnamed, “The Profane Exhibit
will be coming any day now -- just as soon as pigs fly and Hell
freezes over!”
The Profane Exhibit was birthed from (then) producer
David Bond in 2011, when he approached writer Scott Swan (Masters
of Horror, Maskhead) to write short screenplays based
on his story concepts. By 2013 producers David Bond and Manda
Manuel had shot the majority of The Profane Exhibit,
giving five of the shorts (Ruggero Deodato’s Bridge,
Nacho Vigalondo’s Sins of the Father, Sergio Stivaletti’s
Tophet Quorom, Marian Dora’s Mors in Tabula and
Uwe Boll’s Basement) a sneak preview at Phil Anselmo’s
Housecore event, leaving a stale taste in viewer’s mouths. This
was perhaps the beginning of the end of the project right there.
Currently, reliable sources close to the project tell Severed
Cinema that (allegedly, yes I’m using that word) there are a lot
of problems surrounding the project. No shit! The film has been
basically in the can for 3-years, with a bleak miniscule light
at the end of an ever growing tunnel. The biggest of the two
problems with this project are a wraparound idea that has been
attempted for the last five years. The second is with Andrey
Iskanov’s segment, Tochka, which needs more work,
including finishing the sound design. The problem is that the
actors in the film live all over Russia now, making finishing
the short film another costly endeavour. And at this point, do
you dear readers think more money will be thrown at this
project? After all this time? On top of these complications,
Coffin Joe (José Mojica Marins) has left the project entirely.
Richard Stanley was never a part of it. Along with this,
producer and mastermind David Bond has left. Supposedly Sergio
Stivaletti had gotten onboard as Bond’s replacement, in a
last-ditch effort to get this project released. You have your
work cut out for you sir. Folks, I know you want to see this,
but it simply just isn’t happening. On a brighter note, one day,
you will be able to see each short individually if the directors
themselves wish the fans to see it, but as The Profane Exhibit, it just won’t happen.
Onto the short films. The project had the makings of greatness.
Many top Horror industry names are attached to this, which have
had the fans clamouring for it for years. The theme of each
story is “Corruption.” With each subsequent short, they begin
with “The Corruption of…” in an attempt to bring each film
together, but basically each film is its own entity. They don’t
correlate. While “The Corruption” concept is interesting, the
films merely stand on their own. Additionally, the majority of
the films begin with a quote from French poet Charles
Baudelaire, in another attempt at bringing cohesion. The care
put into this attempt at anthology unity is admirable, but
without a wraparound story they merely exist individually. This
is fine with me. Why not just release the The Profane Exhibit
at this point as is? Recoup some money and let the fans finally
see this. Nope.
Initially there were supposed to be thirteen short films
attached to this project, including a wraparound which doesn’t
exist. Coffin Joe left the project so that leaves us with ten
shorts. Richard Stanley’s Coltan (“Corruption of
Wealth”) never existed. That leaves us with nine. The only
short I have not seen from this is Anthony Diblasi’s Mother
May I (“Corruption of Religion”). Now since this film
won’t see the light of day (at least as The Profane Exhibit
anthology), I will explore each short individually.
We begin with the theme “The Corruption of Innocence”
with Ruggero Deodato’s short, Bridge. The film is the
shortest of the bunch, running in at a microscopic three
minutes, and unfortunately it seems like an afterthought. A boy
and a girl run into a mad woman on a bridge who aims to commit
suicide but the children have other ideas. I say this is an
afterthought because the short is basically non-existent. It
ends before it begins which is a shame not utilizing Deodato’s
notorious directing potential. In fairness, Deodato has stated
that with this short he wanted to depart from Cannibal
Holocaust and drew inspiration from The Shinning to
explore the evilness of children. However, whatever good
intentions he had at making a solid short film, are left
plummeting off that bridge.

“The
Corruption of Dominance” is explored in Michael Todd
Schneider’s mighty short, Manna, running in at
11-minutes. Here we explore a BDSM club where we bare witness to
a man being taken to a back room. We see him laying on a
mattress, a black bag covers his head and one by one women enter
the room to fuck him. This is the fun before the torment, for
what happens next Schneider explores next level BDSM with
Vorarephilia -- the erotic desire to be consumed by, or consume
another person or creature. There is some twisted gore and
cannibalism to behold here, including fileting legs, roasting
body parts on coals, tong removal, throat slashing, eyeball
extraction (A Clockwork Orange -style), bloodletting,
blood bathing, a heart ripped out and of course voracious naked
women feeding on human flesh. There are even naked women wearing
pig heads for good measure. Schneider’s Manna is a feast
on the eyes and a gorehound’s wet dream.

Ryan Nocholson’s Goodwife, explores “The Corruption of
Love” and is the best of the anthology. Period. Genre
favorite Dan Ellis (American Guinea Pig: Bloodshock)
stars as John, a family man with a seemingly perfect marriage.
However when his wife Lisa (Monique Parent) stumbles upon a
folder containing photos of her husband’s victims, her world
crumbles. But what does a “Goodwife” do? She joins in on
the festivities. But is this enough? Nicholson’s entry into the
series is refreshing, and takes Nicholson back to the brutality
days of Torched. The film is stark black with no humor.
In one scene Ellis has a woman handcuffed and strung up to
ceiling joists. He burns her with a cigarette and proceeds to
take a meat hook to rip her anus apart. All this before taking a
leak on her vagina in graphic detail. B-movie starlet Tina
Krause (An Erotic Vampire in Paris) also turns up in this
one as a victim.
Next up is a short that had me intrigued -- Marian Dora’s
Mors in Tabula, exploring “The Corruption of Duty”.
The strange thing about this one is that the Mors in Tabula
that was screened at Housecore is a completely different
film than this, the final product. At the screening viewers
experience a different film, “The Corruption of Trust”,
which follows a woman who places her life in the hands of a
doctor. The film showed depictions of real surgical procedures
leaving it hard to discern between real medical footage of
make-up effects. Perhaps this is the reasoning for the film
being changed entirely. The final version of Mors in Tabula
is an entirely different film. Running at 7-minutes, this short
depicts an incredibly sick boy (L. Dora), seemingly on the verge
of death from mucus buildup due to epilepsy. A doctor is
summoned to the small village and is entrusted to help the boy.
The doctor immediately starts work on the boy, performing an
emergency tracheotomy surgery. As his father (Thomas Goersch,
Carcinoma) holds his son’s legs, the doctor sops up mucus
and blood from the hole in the boys throat. This scene is somber
and gruesomely real, with sounds of chanting and a Hitler rally
being heard in the background. Not as crazy as Dora efforts like
Melancholie der Engel but it’s definitely a Dora film. It
is utterly dark an bleak and a contender for one of the best of
the anthology.

Directed by Sergio Stivaletti, Tophet Quorom explores “The
Corruption of Society”. This is an interesting one, since
it’s more akin to an old school Italian horror movie complete
with extreme gore. Silvia (Marta Paganelli) has just given birth
to twins, but when she requests to see one of the babies her
husband (and Doctor) Riccardo (Simplicio De Rosa) claims the
child died due to an umbilical cord complication. “But I
heard him crying.” she protests. He dismisses her again
stating “That’s impossible, dear.” Being suspicious,
Silvia explores the castle basement where she finds a werewolf-esque
looking woman cradling a baby. When her husband catches her
snooping around, things get more horrified, ending with a
demonic ceremony. Tophet Quorom has some gruesome
scenes, complete with baby sacrifice, man-made graphic werewolf
transformation and a gnarly grue-filled, blood-spirting jaw
being torn off.
Jigoku The Hell-Chef,
directed by Yoshihiro Nishimura (Tokyo Gore Police) explores “The Corruption of
the Flesh” in the most oddball short of the entire
anthology. A Schoolgirl (Maki Mizui, Helldriver) wearing a Japanese Noh
mask, picks up a Male Victim (Hiroki Murakami) and takes him
home. A mysterious Komono wearing woman (the film credits her as
Drummer, Haruka Nishimura) carrying an umbrella, appears in her
apartment and says she will help her get rid of the body.
There’s one problem, he’s not dead yet. She remedies this by
squirting a substance from a syringe on a knife to incapacitate
him in order to chop him up whilst still conscious. The duo then
gleefully chop him up as a figure with long red hair covering
her face beats a drum to uplifting happy music. Blood splatters
the room, they play with his testicles and then enjoy a bowl of
human romen. This short also features seppuku and the promotion
of wrist slitting. Bizarre stuff indeed…
Moving onward, Sins of the Father, directed by Nacho Vigalondo (Timecrimes) explores “The Corruption of Technology”, and is the most
unique of the batch. Here we have a simulated environment of a
childhood room where a Son (Didac Alcaraz) confronts is elderly
Father (Josep Segui Pujol). By attempting to recreate an act his
father committed on him as a child, he wants his father to admit
what he did and take punishment for his actions. Will justice be
filled on the sexual misconduct of a father?

Next, we get another one that’s amongst the best of the bunch,
with a short film from (unfortunately) retired filmmaker Uwe
Boll, responsible for powerhouse films such as Heart of
America, Stoic, Darfur, Auschwitz,
Tunnel Rats and the Rampage trilogy. Basement
explores “The Corruption of Family”, which is a similar
theme to Nicholson’s Goodwife wherein we get a seemingly
wholesome family, with a dark secret in the basement -- their
25-year old Daughter. During dinner one evening, happily married
couple, Bob (Clint Howard, Evilspeak, Ice Cream Man)
and Lucy (Caroline Williams, Leprechaun 3 , Blood Feast
2016) discuss having a date night. Howard gets up from the
table, turns on “Moonlight Sonata” by Beethoven, then brings a
plate of food into the basement. There in a windowless room, he
gives his daughter her food and mentions her upcoming birthday.
“What would you like for your birthday?” he asks. “Outside.”
she says as she devours her food. He continues to claim it is
too dangerous outside as he unbuttons his shirt. She pleads but
is shut down with promises of a pretty new dress. He unbuckles
his belt, “Hurry up and finish. Mommy and daddy have
somewhere to go.” The rest dear reader, you can surmise.
Clint Howard was an exceptional choice for this role, making the
situation all the drearier.

Rounding out The Profane Exhibit, is the Andrey Iskanov (Nails) directed Tochka which explores “The
Corruption of Drugs”. The film takes place in a Russian
brothel or Tochka. Since this is unfinished it’s hard to
know what the basic premise of the story is but from what I can
gather it is about a girl who attempts to escape this brothel
but is captured and brutally beaten and tortured. Now this isn’t
just any brothel -- it’s chock full of every form of sadist,
pervert, sexual deviant and drug addict imaginable. This is
hands down the most fucked up short of the bunch and it’s a
shame that it won’t get finished. Here is a list of some of the
insane brutality within: a dude injects heroin in his erect
cock, a chick gets her teeth kicked in, a bound girl gets fucked
by another girl with a large black spiked strap-on, a guy gives
a happy ending to a girl’s face, another chained girl is pissed
on by her laughing captive, disembowelment, people are shot in
the head, set on fire, a double mastectomy by razor blade,
buttholes are impaled with wooden stakes, chicks on sticks (Cannibal
Holocaust-style) and a woman gets the ever-loving shit
kicked out of her. Phew! Tochka is the longest short of the anthology, running in at close to a half hour.
So as it stands the only short from this rough cut of The Profane Exhibit I have not seen is Anthony Diblasi’s
Mother May I. That, said, I am uncertain if that one exists
either, but with the nine short films present it is a solid
attempt at an anthology series. Is it better than something like
the recent German Angst -- which I loved -- no, but it
deserves a place in the annals of horror anthology. It is far
from perfect, it’s rough around the edges, it’s not as cohesive
as the producers seemed to grasp for, but for the most part, it’s
a well-rounded compilation. Now give up clamoring for The Profane Exhibit folks. It ain’t happening. Just be
hopeful the filmmakers release these on their own… eventually.
At this point it’s the only way these films will ever see the
light of day.
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