Absurd / Rosso sangue (1981)

 Good grief, this Joe D'Amato early 80s body count film has like twenty different titles! I believe when I watched the film it was titled "Horrible". I have to say I liked "Absurd" (1981) more this time than in the past. It does help that I watched a very good copy of the film on Tubi, the best I figure "Absurd" will ever look. I do wish the eventual meeting between Priest Purdom and Man-Beast Eastman (I swear, he looks 8 feet tall in this movie!) wouldn't have been so anti-climatic. But Katya Berger, all bloodied and victorious over the vanquished, gouged-eyes Eastman, holding up the severed head with a smile, is just outstanding if in very bad taste...but perfect for a slasher film, considering its reputation as a critic's nightmare. The little boy running round almost gets snatched by Eastman in the kitchen in quite a hair-raising scene. I can totally see why you read of how bored many are when they watch this. D'Amato doesn't pace his films with much urgency, but I didn't really mind it early Saturday morning. Maybe I was just in that right mood or something. I wish Purdom's character was more interesting...he provides back story to why Eastman doesn't die, his cells regenerating, his brain enlarged, quite crazed. You have the snarky detective with a rather unflattering view of his partner and these dull parents who go to a party to visit friends for a Rams/Steelers football game. That meat saw kill is epic...it is grisly and long. But that oven sequence where Eastman refuses to let little Annie Bell escape from inside it was really lengthy and hard to watch...that girl struggles and fights to no avail. And even after she seems to succumb to the heat and fumes, little Annie still brings the scissors but misses the head, instead stabbing Eastman in the neck...and that doesn't really even seem to slow him down. D'Amato really stretches credibility to the max with Katya's spinal injury, bed-ridden little girl who frees herself from the neck contraption and eventually seems to move around rather mobilely despite how the film told us she couldn't even walk during most of the running time. Michele Soavi, bless him, slides in for a motorcycle victim who gets choked to death by Eastman, who does a walkabout the area, killing whoever he comes across. The drill to the skull is about as long as the other uncomfortably protracted murders...the nurse, much like Annie, fights him for all her worth. 3/5 

I will say that score perhaps was too good for this movie. It certainly helps give the film this quality it might not have without it.

Absurd. Apt title. But, still a slasher flick which delivers some potent violence. A seemingly indestructible maniac, portrayed by George Eastman in street clothes, whose cells regenerate(..this also causes an abnormally sized brain which makes him insane)at an accelerated rate, is attacking innocent people without reason. Out to stop him is Greek priest, Edmund Purdom, who understands his unusual condition and knows his weakness..if you damage the brain, Eastman's a goner. After being impaled on a spiked gate attempting to escape priest Purdom, Eastman is taken to a hospital where he's considered a lost cause, until the startled surgical staff recognize his amazing recuperative abilities. Escaping from the hospital, after using a drill which pierces completely through the skull of his attending nurse, Eastman takes it to the road, killing several innocent bystanders he comes in contact with(..some poor soul sweeping who shoots Eastman three times almost point-blank before being hoisted onto a table, his skull penetrated by a band saw;and future director Michelle Soavi, whose motorcycle stalls, seeing if Eastman is alright after he's hit by a vehicle, being strangled for his efforts)along the way. The car which hits him is owned by Ian Danby and Eastman soon finds his house, the vehicle in the drive way but he and his wife gone..the bulk of the remaining screen time is devoted to Eastman terrorizing Danby's kids, and babysitters. Purdom joins forces with Charles Borromel(..as Sgt Ben Engleman)in their search for Eastman.

The film's strengths are Eastman's towering menacing figure and the ultra-violence with a particularly unpleasant fate for poor Annie Bell. Along with the aforementioned carnage left in Eastman's wake, he uses a pick axe, burying it into the skull of the babysitter, forces another victim's head into an oven(..protracted, disturbing sequence as we watch her struggle to free herself as the director often shows us the flames rising, eventually seeing the girl's face starting to burn)finishing her off by slowly jabbing her in the throat with shears(..she had stabbed him multiple times in the neck, before he seized her), soon setting his sights for the kids, Kasimir Berger(..in a dreadful performance as the obnoxious boy child, Willy, who is told to get help, with the damn stupid kid not leaving, instead re-entering the house!)and Katya Berger(..as seemingly invalid Katia, neck brace, strapped in place to her bed due to a spinal condition). The final set-piece is rather effectively staged as we follow Katya's trying to remove her straps in order to free herself as other activities occur outside the room such as her guardian Emily(Belle)trying to defend the kids against the gargantuan Eastman and idiot brother Willy crying for safety(..if the dummy had sought after help as Emily had commanded, then he might not have forced her from the room to find him risking her own well being in the process!). I agree with others that director Aristide Massaccesi has issues with the pacing as the story and characters outside the violent attacks themselves are nothing to write home about. But, one idea, the bedridden Katia having to defend herself against Eastman(..actually gouging his eyes with a drawing compass, putting him at a disadvantage)once she unstraps herself, works beautifully as a form of building suspense, although it also goes on a bit long in the tooth. The showdown between Eastman and Purdom isn't exactly a showstopper, although how Katya settles the score with an ax is quite memorable. Being included on the Video Nasty list helped earn it a reputation, but the slow moving plot will alienate a great deal of those seeking a wall-to-wall gore film. When the violence erupts, however, Aristide Massaccesi delivers the goods in detail, pulling his camera right into the bloody carnage as the victim shrieks in horror. A tighter pace, absent the kid Willy, with less drawn out stretches which cause the viewer to look at his/her watch wondering when Eastman might strike next, would've made a difference. There's nothing particularly stylish or atmospheric about this film(..it certainly doesn't stand next to it's distant brother, ANTHROPOPHAGUS), in my opinion, and the characters aren't that interesting, but when Eastman emerges, it picks up considerably. -- April 9th, 2009

Oh, you will see comparisons to John Carpenter's Halloween (1978) a lot when you look at reviews on the IMDb or Letterboxd. The little boy and a babysitter talk about the boogie man, and that is how Eastman is often referred to. There is the hunter trying to find the escapee who is seemingly indestructible. Eastman does take his time at the house of the parents of Katya and her brother, with Annie Bell her nurse. Also, and I don't think this was intentional as "Halloween II" was being made the same time as "Absurd": the little girl blinds Eastman much the same way Laurie does to Michael Myers...except the methods are different.