Gouged Eyeballs and Profane Desires: A Review of Tinam Bordage’s ‘Romance Post-Mortem’
Tinam Bordage, the organizer of the Sadique Master Festival, dedicated to extreme underground cinema in Europe and across the globe, has now made his directorial debut with his short film, Romance Post-Mortem. Bordage is no stranger to the underground dark arts. His Sadique-Master Festival has accomplished its 8th instalment and has featured the works of Marian Dora, Eric Falardeau, and Domiziano Cristopharo to name a few. Now, his brief poetically brutal cinematic vision has finally come to life.
Romance Post-Mortem opens with a woman, La Necrophile (Hikiko Mori), gasping for air, awaking in what looks to be some sort of sand-covered cave. A small lantern illuminates the fully nude woman’s surroundings as she gathers her composure. She grabs the lantern and explores the cave. She finds a couple human femur bones as eerie music trickles in. Seeing the sight of the human remains sets our lead into somewhat of a panic. She grimaces in utter despair and disbelief. Whimpering follows as she bashes her hands against the rocky cavernous walls. A fingernail gets torn off in the process.
After some more exploring she comes across another nude woman, La Morte (Vanda Spengler), face down, dead on the ground. La Necrophile turns her over and begins performing mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. However, she quickly realizes the woman is deceased. Primal perverse urges then take over La Necrophile and we get down to gruesome funny business.
Romance Post-Mortem is as beautiful as it is grotesque. The cinematography mixed with subdued illumination make this short experience enthralling, until the extreme finale. Some horrific highlights include a bitten off nipple, a disgusting scene of eyeball gouging and molestation, a tongue severed off with a jagged rock, femur bone penetration, cannibalism, and of course necrophilia. The make-up FX by David Scherer and Elisabeth Vidal is top-notch and visceral with wonderfully realistic crimson blood.
Romance Post-Mortem is a must see for fans of this prurient horror subgenre and would make an ideal double bill with Nacho Cerdá’s Aftermath. It is currently making its rounds in the festival circuit.
Directed by: Tinam Bordage, Elisabeth Vidal (Assistant)
Written by: Tinam Bordage
Produced by: Tinam Bordage
Cinematography by: Sophie Schweitzer
Editing by: Tinam Bordage
Special Effects by: David Scherer, Elisabeth Vidal
Cast: Hikiko Mori, Vanda Spengler
Year: 2023
Country: France
Language: N/A
Colour: Colour
Runtime: 11min
Studio: Sadique Master Production
