The Short Films of Bazz Hancher!
Bazz Hancher is a UK movie auteur of sorts. You just know a film is his, whether you read up on it or not. The movies bleed his face all oozing out of the screen. Seriously, it does. I saw it after eating mushrooms out of my attic walls! I’d heard about him for years but only watched one of his monstrous creations earlier this year, Hate Little Rabbit (see review here), and it is seriously a mind fuck, to the point that me and my Partner in Gore, Willow Brian, made a short promo clip of our own to promote the review — then Bazz offered us both roles in his next movie (currently filming).
So, we come to a collective of earlier films that Bazz made. For the purpose of this review, we’ve stuck three short ones together just because I can’t be bothered writing pages of very deep musings over, say a 12-minute piece. First up we are served the delightful, Leon’s Broken Mind from 2011.
Leon is crying over his mum’s ashes. We hear voices in his head, really grating at him. “Shut up!” he screams. Then he eats his pet gerbil, as one does in such situations. Cue electronic ‘80s synth music which was of course very popular (and still is in certain circles) around the time in films. As Leon walks the night, holding his head and showing a nice POV style here and there, he goes into a DVD rental store. He chooses a movie about the “Kidderminster killer” which is the name of one of Bazz’s earlier flicks. The shop owner is bewildered because the DVD doesn’t belong to him.
“I haven’t seen anything like this since the eighties, looks like shite!” Kieron Hazel steals the show so far with his over-the-top accent and mannerisms. Brilliant. He lets Leon have the film, but the lad freaks out when seeing a vision of his dead father who looks like Salman Rushdie.
Leon plays the DVD and it’s a compilation of brutal stuff, with a bit of a Sinister vibe. “Let these images seduce you,” says his dad in his mind. Leon masturbates, eats his cum. Willow shook her head, “Why does everything we review have a guy with his dick and balls out??!! It’s a reoccurring theme now!” She has a valid point; this has been the norm for the last few flicks.
As his visions become worse, he is driven to kill and cannibalise. This feels so much like Cannibal Fog (see review here). Leon’s Broken Mind is like a version of Videodrome no one ever asked for, but we’re stuck with so we must face it. Richard Rowbotham (The Grimleys, Day of the Stranger) is expressionless, soulless, and it adds a chilling effect to proceedings. The gore FX are wonderful to behold. Wince inducing like the slaying of the dog, and very original like the pregnancy scene. Speaking of Day of the Stranger (see review here), director Tom Lee Rutter appears as a doomed hobo who attempts to befriend our mate, Leon.
Leon’s Broken Mind is a must see, following the collapse of one man’s already scarred mind. It contains PTSD, trauma, everything and then some. Contact Bazz and ask nicely how to see it.
Bonjour Monsieur Trepas (Good Morning Mister Death) begins with a blood and gore nightmare sequence from the start. Our man Trepas gets up and sees a headline on the paper “Kidderminster killer dies in blood bath.” Love it. He lives in a run-down neglected abode. Trepas sits alone and opens a gore-filled bag. Inside is raw flesh which he devours, then takes the key from a corned beef tin. Down in the basement he has a bloke tied up, a maggot ridden corpse in a broken chest freezer, and a girl whom he kicks around for shits and giggles before peeling her skin with the beef key. He eats the skin, then out comes a set of power tools.
This is a carnival of depravity crammed into ten minutes or so. Bonjour Monsieur Trepas goes perfectly with Leon’s Broken Mind. It’s almost like these are shattered splinters of some unknown anthology. Aside from the original touch with the key, the ending came unexpected for both of us.
Last but certainly not least, comes Cibo Di’ Violenza (Food of Violence). This is a classic, no two ways about it. A disclaimer introduction takes us into perhaps the greatest fake shockumentary Willow, and I have witnessed. A two man show, Bazz and the late Mike Lima built a macabre letter to lovers of Faces of Death, Killing of America (see review here), etcetera. This is a flattering imitation with a soundtrack to accompany including bites out of Day of the Dead. Our narrator, Michael, takes us into a dark place, abortions, and the selling of the small cadavers for food, which are an expensive delicacy in certain countries, mainly China and Asia — cue real footage of animals on markets.
We move to Liberia and the Amazon (there’s a neat compilation of classic Italian cannibal flicks, including Anthropophagus). This is so well made, convincing, well paced, and the eye for detail in totally incredible. The showstopper is the accusations aimed at Pepsi for using foetal parts in their drink formulas. “If something is dead, why let it go to waste?” mused Willow, “It’s like a lamb, or turkey.” She said she’d happily sample the dish if it was genuine.
Bazz Hancher needs more of a discovery. In fact, I can see these short films sandwiched between maybe another three of his larger-than-life back catalogue then released via some really nasty DVD ‘n’ Blu-ray label somewhere. Until that happens, hunt out Bazz, sweet talk him, and see if he’ll allow you to check these demons from his maniacal cranium.
Leon’s Broken Mind
Directed by: Bazz Hancher
Written by: Bazz Hancher
Produced by: Bazz Hancher
Cinematography by: Michael Walcott
Editing by: Michael Walcott, Bazz Hancher
Music by: M.W. Wright
Cast: Richard Rowbotham, Kieron Hazel, Bazz Hancher, Tom Lee Rutter, Mick Rendell
Year: 2011
Country: UK
Language: English
Colour: Colour
Runtime: 24min
Bonjour Monsieur Trepas
AKA: Good Morning Mister Death
Directed by: Bazz Hancher
Written by: Bazz Hancher
Produced by: Bazz Hancher, Kieron Hazel, David Stokes, Michael Walcott
Cinematography by: Kieron Hazel
Editing by: Michael Walcott, Bazz Hancher
Special Effects by: Max Van De Banks
Music: Michael Walcott, Bazz Hancher
Cast: Kevin Varty, Andrew Wright, Sarah Knowles, James Underwood, Kelly Grittiths
Year: 2010
Country: UK
Language: English
Colour: Colour
Runtime: 10min
Cibo Di’ Violenza
AKA: Food of Violence
Directed by: Bazz Hancher
Written by: Bazz Hancher, Mike Lima
Produced by: Bazz Hancher, Mike Lima
Cinematography by: Bazz Hancher, Mike Lima
Editing by: Mike Lima, Bazz Hancher
Cast: Mike Lima (Narrator)
Year: 2015
Country: UK
Language: English
Color: Colour
Runtime: 12min
Studio: BSH Entertainments, White Raven Films
