Larva Mental Review from TetroVideo!

Every once in a while, I kind of plummet down a long winding and deep hole not knowing what I’m getting into. Whilst about ninety per cent of reviews I do I know something or other about, ten per cent are totally in a dark room. In fact, two per cent of those type defy description, so even a synopsis would be no good readying me.

I’ve watched some seriously incredible stuff over my years and it’s still nice to have that jolt and shock as you see things unfold before your eyes. I think the last time it happened was as I chilled and experienced Phil Steven’s, Flowers (I didn’t review that one, just sat back with a cuppa, didn’t read the DVD case and just kind of blindfolded myself). This time round we have Larva Mental, due out in early 2021 via those top ladies and gentlemen at TetroVideo.

We open to a nude couple asleep. She dreams of car crashes and death (possible memories of losing someone). He dreams of strapping her up whilst she wears a human skin mask. Anyway, he heads off to work or wherever and she decides to sit and browse his computer. At first, she discovers a folder full of nice cute animals, that as she explores further degenerates into photos of self-harm and mutilation, causing her jolly mood to seep away a bit.

Nothing prepares her for a video he’s filmed of himself in the bath wearing a rubber pig mask, fucking himself with a metal crucifix until faeces falls from his anus. He goes deeper and faster, then there’s blood pouring from the hole which he wipes all over his body and mask. Moaning and handling his shit, he then daubs it all over himself, finishing with some masturbation.

Rather repelled, she heads to the bathroom carrying large scissors, powders her face white and stabs herself in the private area. Curled up sobbing she finds it hurts like hell doing that. In tears she continues, slicing at her chest and then getting ready to properly go at it.

He returns home to find her self-mutilated remains in the bath. This rips into him and breaks him down. Soon after his dreams torment him as he sees her skinned face and other horrors accompanied by reverse music.

Time passes. He is still tortured. Deep Web XXX style, he indulges in the dark pleasures of the internet for a while then afterwards goes on a crash course in pain.

There’s no true deep plotline here, just a mosaic of gore and pain. Larva Mental, like so many other brutal collages of rage and violence that appears on Severed Cinema, is why we exist. We will take on anything and come out of the other side seeing and appreciating the beauty inside.

Director and star, Mikel Balerdi, is an extreme body art performer, meaning, Mikel puts his own comfort on the line for the purpose of exploring zones and regions unknown to the majority. His canvasses are as moody and as eye-catching brutal in their presentation as his film work, but everything is altogether somehow serene and tranquil. By the final frame it all makes tragic sense.

There’s all the penis suffering, stabbing, carving, needles, and many more scenes of body carnage you could ever want in a film. It’s a greatest hits and shits of agony. Larva Mental is a combination of the real and of FX, aside from the obvious moments that occur, it’s somehow hard to tell which is which and just how far Mikel went in his quest.

Larva Mental is not Bob Flanagan. This is not the art of Otto Muehl, Gunter Brus or the like. This is something else that will stay with you a long time.

Naked blood covered woman holding scissors in Larva Mental

MOVIE

Overall Score 4

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Larva Mental Review from TetroVideo!

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