7 Sins Review from The Enchanted Architect!
Hey ho, here we go again, back into the gleefully twisted and utterly compelling world of Domiziano Cristophoro and his carnival full of likeminded misfits. It’s time for another anthology. I think the last time Severed Cinema opened up the doors to these short story realms was mid-way last year with Deep Web XXX (see review here) so I reckon we were due another stab in the vein sooner or later.
The usual mob are back – Sam Mason Bell, Poison Rouge, Jason Impey, Michael J. Epstein, plus some lesser regular names, all mixed in for a cocktail of styles and trips. 7 Sins begins with ANGER by Dario Almerighi and a fella is out jogging. As we observe, he seems to fight with brief flashes of rage, he tenses, teeth clenched. Back home, his anger persists and he glares at a picture of himself and his lover in happier times. He sits a while, cleans his glasses then heads off to a cupboard. Inside is something to help him let out his violent emotions in raw unflinching waves after waves.
Only one story in, and the intensity, plus the mind-fuck soundtrack really drills a hole into your consciousness. If the rest of 7 Sins is akin to this demented, yet beautiful thought provoking introduction to their catacombs, then we have a new Deep Web XXX right here!
Next up is ENVY, and a young couple desire to use a street girl in their erotic pleasures. Afterwards they are followed and watched by a hooded figure. Sam Mason Bell has to be applauded for his dreamy and sensual crawling scenes. They lap and curl into one another as the story goes on and Sam’s direction is absolutely stunning. Hold up, and the music! My word, After Myths, whoever, or whatever you are, you command pure uncut atmosphere. A feeling of sadness and longing covers this section making the viewer uneasy as we watch the couple’s long and painful fate.
SLOTH has a lot to live up to I guess, but I reckon it’ll match the power. It transpires to be a mellower affair – well as calm as a segment can be amongst the erupting graves of insanity on display. A lady ventures the paths of self-mutilation, after a lonely evening drinking and dancing. The proceedings slowly build up to a rather abrupt climax. PRIDE by Michael J. Epstein has to be the most trippy and experimental, with a strong message. It is the conflict within a religious person’s head. They keep their pride as, in the case here, words off the radio should upset the central lady, yet she chooses to ignore the treatment of women by those who hardcore worship the Bible.
There’s a gloved hand, I guess, which is temptation and probably symbolic of Lucifer. She ignores the hand for a while and towards the end, her true self kind of leaps out. Erotic, schizophrenic, and yes, indeed compulsive viewing. Sloth would have, decades ago, been a short film lost off the 42nd St. circuit, only to appear on a Something Weird Video release – with a lot of folks squirming courtesy of the penis attention… Nuff said.
LUST stars Domiziano regular, Chiara Pavoni, as a lady who invests in a ‘sex toy’. She, as usual, steals the show. There’s something so moody and deep about all of her performances. “Yes, I’m still good, but I’m not young anymore.” she tells a friend on the phone whilst we await the delivery of her toy. The character is a woman who has perhaps known and loved many – or maybe just one long true love, but her glory days are falling from her grasp. “Look at me, here… alone.” Her instrument of pleasure and companionship turns out to be a life-size automated youthful man doll. She is delighted and so openly happy. However not everybody understands her happiness it seems. Plus the automation is becoming more ‘human’ thanks to being connected to the internet.
Lust is rich in details, from the emotions, expressions on faces, to the sounds her toy, Adam (played fantastically by Davide Di Zio), makes, and his generally motionless featureless performance. This is pure solid science fiction horror at its very best and it throws us back to the great sci-fi chillers of the ‘70s but stacked with graphic erotica. Top marks for a very Tetsuo ending.
Speaking of the 42nd St. stuff, as I did earlier, GLUTTONY comes on with a woman giving birth at night by the side of the road, and I spotted the standard grindhouse lines and crackles on the screen. “I can’t do this!” she gasps after bloodily spitting out triplets. She hides the three dolls, I mean, new born babies, in a ditch and drives away. They’re discovered by a caravan lady who has a few chickens, thus she buries her own doll baby and twenty years pass by. The kids have grown up to be the English answer to WWE’s Wyatt Family. Obvious piss take attitude aside, it’s a skin-crawling homage to the family of nutters, cannibal slasher flicks. Fun, and cheekily jokey.
Which brings us last but by certainly not the least, Poison Rouge’s GREED. We meet a young chap who sells himself in the dark to men who want him. He writes his work, details, and wages earned on one page in a notebook, but on the next page is a list of debts. Meeting up with his dealer, played by Cleverson Oliveira Rodrigues (POE 4: the Black Cat) he’d rather get on his knees and suck dick than pay, not that his dealer minds one little bit. That is until his notebook and a wad of cash falls from his customer’s pocket. One beat-down later (well, sounds far more like a slap-down) he’s left bloody and dazed, found by a street walker he is taken back to her place. “Tell me your desire.” she says. To which he is at the mercy of a creature beyond human.
Like Pride, there is a message built and constructed into the narrative. Poison Rouge decides not to rush things, instead allowing the idea and story to tell itself in stages. Her style is darkness and gloomy colours. Though Greed isn’t the most memorable on show here, it’s placed well at the end and doesn’t go too over-the-top by preaching. It sends the viewer home happy.
7 Sins is totally and unapologetically addictive. Yes, there’s a heap of gore, nudity, and FX as per usual, but the theme throughout is sadness. Sadness, loneliness, and loss of self, which of course can be the reasons for sins existing in the first place. I cannot choose a top tale in this anthology because all are rife with rich and fulfilling goodness and are so diverse. Only Gluttony and Sloth trip on the last hurdle, because both felt a bit sparse at the conclusions.
Okay, so it’s time for Jay Creepy to weigh the blackened hearts of 7 Sins and Deep Web XXX on my scales. Why? It’s simply down to the fact that I didn’t consider The Enchanted Architect gang to ever exceed the level of involvement featured in their 2018 underground classic. Well, I must say, the two tough and muscular myocardium’s are equally balanced. Marvelous. Bring on the next release.
Directed by: Domiziano Cristophoro, Sam Mason Bell, Poison Rouge, Michael J. Epstein, Jason Impey, Dario Almerighi, Francesco Foletto
Written by: Andrea Cavaletto, Melvin Sutherland, Francesco Foletto, Dario Almerighi, Emily Priest, Pasquale Scalpellino,
Produced by: Ulkûrzu, Melvin Sutherland, The Enchanted Architect, Indie Valpe
Edited by: Sam Mason Bell, Thomas J Davenport, Jason Impey
Special Effects by: Athanasius Pernath, Claire Haxell-White, Eliana Scibilia, Katie Johnson, Domiziano Cristophoro
Music by: Viscera Drip, MEMZ, Justin Thiele, Saddyy Hattee, After Myths, AKM
Cast: Bruno Petrosino, Alice Mullholland, Chiara Pavoni, Thomas J. Davenport, Fabrizio Bordignon, Melissa Bianchini, Alexandra Robertshaw, Davide Di Zio, Sophia Cacciola, Elisa Carrera Fumagalli, Emily Priest, Claire Haxell-White, Michael J. Epstein, James France
Year: 2019
Colour: Colour
Language: English
Runtime: 1h 32min
Studio: The Peacock’s Tale , Ulkûrzu, The Enchanted Architect
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