Juval Marlon’s Morbid Collection Review from Beheading Films!
I think Juval Marlon has been a part of Severed Cinema right from his humble beginnings of Torture Fetish (see review for Torture Fetish & Dead Baby Mutilation here) and its sequel (see review for Torture Fetish 2 here) right through to his in-yer-face challenger, Strychnin (see review of Strychnin here).
In 2019, he really reached a peak level with Sturmgewehr (see review of Sturmgewehr here) which broke into the gore underground (beforehand, Juval existed below the underground, you see) as a completely nihilistic next level kind of brutality which isn’t for everyone. His next adventure and frolic in the roses was the kinder and more gentle, Perverted Desire (see review for Perverted Desire here). See I think we’ve covered just about everything. Talk about favouritism.
Juval has returned to putting together short violent nasties again, this time he’s compiling them onto one disc. His Morbid Collection, five such things creeping from your screen. I’m not going to evaluate them individually, let’s just have them as one entity because (honestly) I can’t be bothered with the extra work.
Beginning with a piece called Amputation, and the biggest problem is that it’s difficult to see. Two and a half minutes of near enough blackness. It’s the most basic of the set — dead girl laid on plastic sheets in the gloom has her finger chopped off whilst rodents run about the floor. That’s it. Just what you’d likely categorize as an experimental piece.
Next up we have, Voyeur, which is far more striking in its visual presentation. There is no build up. We see a person sneaking around the woods who films the aftermath of a rape and murder. Afterwards we approach the corpse and whoever the lady is, turns out to be a really good at playing dead actress, quite chilling (I might be wrong, but I’m sure it’s the same girl who plays the young mother in the upcoming Abruptio).
Todesmarsch, translates as Death March, arrives and it’s a video diary of a blonde tattooed bloke struggling with his demons, his mind, and the memories of all the bad things he has done. Self-harm seems to ease the pain… for now…
Abruptio unfortunately shares its name with an American puppet horror movie, so there could be confusion incoming. Doubtful, but you never know. Anyhow, this is a more character-based story. A young couple are in love and they have a baby (it’s a doll, but y’know, let’s pretend it’s a real baby for arguments sake). All is well until she finds her man with another woman. She walks into the deep woods carrying the doll (I mean baby) with a promise to destroy everything which connects her to him.
Lastly, we arrive at, Fruhlingsgefuhle (Spring Feelings) and probably the best of the gathering. Again, its primary focus for the main body is on the characters before the eruption of violence. We have another young couple, this time they’re chilling out in a field bathing in the sun until we realize he really doesn’t like people. She states she doesn’t want to do anything like he is suggesting again, but after some conversation, he gets his way and they capture and kill a passing jogger (played by a bloke with some acting and directing credentials on his CV as well).
What a beautiful music score Fruhlingsgefuhle has as its solid backbone. This chapter and Voyeur are easily the standouts but what is frankly nice is how the quick short sharp shock tales build a pace in the correct order. I recall saying back in one of the old reviews that Juval’s works are sat on a shelf all by themselves, surrounded by mouse traps.
There is a bitter bile like ingredient mixed into each film in Morbid Collection that grabs you by the throat and draws you into the bowl. He has definitely slowed down in the full throttle headfuck annihilating your senses with violence since Sturmgewehr, and if anything he’s exploring new avenues surrounding the murder set pieces.
Juval also has a running theme throughout most of his works, aside from brutal murders and insane beatings. He has an interesting fascination with nature and death. Plus, dolls. Dolls have nails in them, they are hung, they are burnt. Dolls suffer endlessly and without mercy. These are his trademarks.
Mr. Marlon will never fall into one of those traps of being compared to anyone in the large endless areas of horror because, let’s be honest, there’s nobody quite like him doing this kind of thing. Juval pulls the stinking and rusty lid off the bucket of life and pulls out a handful of decomposed guts.
Directed by: Juval Marlon | Written by: Juval Marlon | Produced by: Juval Marlon | Cinematography by: Juval Marlon | Editing by: Juval Marlon | Music by: Juval Marlon, Viktor Astrup | Special Effects by: Juval Marlon | Cast: Marco Klammer, Isa Belle Fitzgerald, David Rechtsteiner, Maria V, Christian Fiedler, Josephine Esskuche, Jorg Wischnauski | Year: 2020 | Country: Switzerland | Language: German (English subtitles) | Colour: Colour | Runtime: 20 mins
Distribution: Beheading Films
