Animal Soup Review from Film MA!
Directed by: David V.G Davies, J.A.K
Written by: David V.G Davies, J.A.K
Produced by: David V.G Davies
Cinematography by: David V.G Davies
Editing by: David V.G Davies
Music by: Zion, Spiderbaby, Jackviper, Computers for Schools
Special Effects by: David V.G Davies, J.A.K
Cast: Sophia Disgrace, David Pliskin, J.A.K, Scorpio Vixen, David V.G Davies, Lloyd Kaufman
Year: 2009
Country: UK
Language: English
Color: Color
Runtime: 1h 7min
Studio: Film MA
Animal Soup is totally guerilla filmmaking at its lowest level. I mean, it’s so underground that Morlocks are digging searching for it! At Horror Con 2016, I met David V.G Davies and we had a chat about this film and his future projects. He didn’t seem to overly enthusiastic about Animal Soup now, but maybe because his next work shifts are going further and he explained their genesis to me (interview coming soon…).
Animal Soup… how could I describe it? Well, let’s imagine authors Jack Ketchum and Matt Shaw met up with The Sleaze Box Company. Then along strolls Andreas Schnaas and Alex Chanton. They all sit on a bench and dig in their pockets for loose change. Why? They want to make a low budget movie using their collective minds, that’s why.
Opening with long shots of nature, it’s the British countryside. Cows, fields, foxes, whilst pounding metal booms out of your TV. A young lad is trail walking on his mobile. As he passes a necklace stuck on a fence we get a glimpse of some woman dying. Suddenly, some dude sticks a hook through the lad’s nipple, ties him down and carves at his chest whilst the victim moans like an orgasm. The rather sick fella takes a chisel to the lad’s bare toes and we see a bearded face munching one down.
We cut to a skinny short-skirt-wearing Goth gal called Mia who’s calling on her butch She-Male friend, Terri for a meet up in the countryside with friends. As they drive, my Horror Soulmate noticed the mph dial wasn’t moving when we moved to an interior shot. Lol. Stopping off, the girls pass a bloke in a hat like mine mixing roadkill in a bucket. They’re oblivious to the contents. We get nature shots of flies and phallic fungus.
“C’mon! You finished yet?” Terri the Beast says. Mia is taking a piss. “Jus’ ‘avin’ a shake off!” As they walk, reception is lost on their phones. Meanwhile, two lads we assume are the chick’s mates, discover a pit filled with putrid stinking animal bones and mush. “Want some soup?” one teases.
Oh my God this film is like a documentary… More nature shots to music. Surely you can’t struggle to fill a 67 minute movie???!!! The lads venture into some derelict tunnels muttering their lines to each other. There are four main characters and you want them all to die in agony, slowly with exposed nerve endings. “Some sorta room down there, some sorta light.” The deeper they go, more flies and mess.
Our gothic Velma and Daphne seem to be heading the same way. They chance upon a retarded local whom overacts for a laugh. He gives them directions whilst lolling his tongue out. What a dick! Afterwards, whilst taking a shit, Terri reads from a crumpled newspaper about a farmer called Mr. Thistles. He dumped loads of BSE infected cattle corpses. As they walk off, a hand reaches into her shit, takes some and a bearded mouth eats it with lustful loving chews. Arriving at a load of abandoned buildings and vehicles, they hear a man’s scream. The lads have been attacked by a mask wearing scum.
As darkness falls, they hear noises off the trail whilst looking for their friends (they found a car belonging to Mike). “I don’t care if you call me a pussy rest of my life, I just want to go.” says Mia.
And it’s daytime again as one of the lads finds himself dragged inside and tormented by Fisherprice — my First Leatherface. Tied to a chair in a dark room, his knees are smashed with a hammer and his kneecap power drilled. “No! No! What you doin’??!!” he cries, without conviction after about five minutes of brutality. The masked chap urinates on him for his troubles.
Animal Soup cannot decide if it is night or day as the gals still look around. They end up split apart. Terri is seen having a pole hammered up her ass and exit via her mouth, skewered with grunts and moans. As night time properly falls, Mia is alone in the woods sobbing to herself. The next morning her bag has gone.
The guy who mixed the roadkill is seen dressed like me and watching Lloyd Kaufman on TV in a cameo name dropping Troma and selling the head of Princess Diana. Oh the fun of it all! Mia runs into him. He pervs at her legs and leads her towards his home. “I’ve got these animal films. There’s one with a donkey, right?” he grins. She doesn’t want to see his films so he attacks her instead. Mia breaks away and runs… well, she trots along like a camp fairy, heading through a derelict shack and down a trail she comes across various disturbing items along the way. Like a screwed up Easter egg hunt. Then she’s assaulted by bearded Tom, who wears a bra made from human skin and cack stained pants. She’s knocked out and dragged to the evil lair — a derelict bunker. This area has more empty edifices than trees! The two maniacs moan, cackle and scream a while. An unconscious Mia is teased and actually shit on from a great height (you’ll love that scene) “You fuckin’ cunt!” says Tom.
Mia wakes up and witnesses some truly deviant stuff going on with the last of the two lads. Sexual abuse, fed soup from the pit. Oh yeah, a toy kitten is stabbed and eaten along the way. “Hamish, turn off the lights, it’s more romantic.” Tom masturbates as Hamish the bargain Leatherface skins their victim, all in front of Mia. Onwards we go — face off and a crucifixion. How far will it go???
Then it ends! It just fucking ends! It goes all promo video as cast members, alive and dead, pose!!! Surely not? No pay-off. No money shot. It just fucking ends for fuck’s sake. Animal Soup builds the adrenalin just to pose down for no reason! Fuck your ending and fuck your nature shots!!
Animal Soup is the end level bad guy of all sick flicks. It goes past the comfort zone. If The Texas Chain Saw Massacre had been filmed in the early ‘70s on a video cam (which didn’t exist then), using less professional actors, then it would have been Animal Soup. This is a cool experience and has a good soundtrack, but there’s a few downers to be experienced. The main star has to be the special effects guy. Some of the gory goings on are rather convincing.
Out of the cast, only Sophia (Mia) Disgrace continued on a while with a mix of horrors and comedy stuff. Scorpio (Terri) Vixen apparently left the group half way, so had to be doubled by one of the directors for back view shots.
Respect to David V.G Davies for his workhorse mentality. He works his ass off on this, and has done on other low key flicks. I can say he’s a truly nice bloke, but honestly, who came up with that bloody ending????!!!!
DVD extras are OK, what with trailers, a two minute behind the scenes and a short deleted scene. Hang on, all those nature shots left in and a scene was deleted? Wow.
Animal Soup is below the counter hush hush low budget raw gory filth and is worth tracking down uncut.
DVD SPECS:
Aspect Ratio: 16:9
Region: NTSC R0
Audio: Dolby Digital Mono
SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIAL:
– Trailers
– Behind the Scenes
– Deleted Scenes