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Live Feed
SCREENER/APPROX. 81 MINS/2006/USA UNRATED
SCREENER/APPROX. 81 MINS/2006/USA UNRATED
7
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Indie horror, despite the very real horrors of having no budget, does allow a filmmaker the complete freedom to pursue whatever depraved and
vile ideas they may have. The current vogue in mainstream Hollywood for sadism horror and visceral nastiness is just an extension of the realistic
shockers that have emerged from the underground over the years. Spiteful, misanthropic geek shows like Scrapbook illustrate how far an artist
can go and make you question where the line between entertainment and illness should be drawn. A whole sub-genre of horror exists that is less
about the giggly jump-scares and steady cam slick thrills of the Multiplex standard teen fodder and more to do with seeing how far the audience
can be pushed before they rip up the seats and throw them at the screen.
Live Feed feels like its testing the viewer from the off; this is a well made low budget film making but the acting is competent at best. An unlikable
bunch of young Americans are traveling in the far east, looking for kicks. They are perfect victims for the sick creeps that are lurking in the sex
motels and sleazy night clubs. After some scene setting footage inter-cut with pole dancing that recalls the meandering travelogue sequences
beloved of the 60s Drive-In movies, the gang find themselves confronted by a market stall that is butchering dogs for food. The group are hobbled
by their Western values and their sentimental attachment to cute furry animals, a situation that isn't helped by the fact that the dog in question is
a sweet little Yorkshire Terrier... Are Yorkshire Terrier's a popular dish in the Far East? There can't be much meat of them.
A cultural clash endures that almost breaks out into to violence between the dog butcher and the group, illustrating just how alien the culture
they've landed in really is. This culture gap widens still further when the biggest man in the traveling party, a typical, testosterone-pumped jock
idiot, insults a dangerous gang boss. They escape into a grubby sex hotel and then the trouble really starts.
Up until this point the acting was starting to jar badly, as were some of the racial stereotypes on display. Dog eating and evil blind "ching chongs"
alongside the almost heroically bad acting of the evil crime lord, who plays up his clichéd Triad styling’s and evil persona like a panto villain...Was
this material racist or just using to clichés to attack the audience and unsettle me?
Once the cast are inside the grubby rooms of the sex hotel though, they are literally screwed!
The crime boss is a regular and loves nothing better than to sit in front of a big screen with a couple of game whores, while his associates invent
new and ever more extreme forms of blood letting and rape torture in commit on unwary Western back packers who won't be missed. Obviously,
comparisons to Hostel would be appropriate now, but the sheer sick minded exuberance of the death dealing in this movie puts that more
mainstream attempt of torture-porn to shame. Live Feed deals in profane filth on a much deeper and more penetrating way.
This is where the film takes off. The acting suddenly improves, as screaming is a lot easier to do with conviction. The terror of the travelers is
exasperated by the video screens in their locked rooms, showing their friends losing their lives, giving them a taste of their horrific fate. The sheer
sick minded imagination in the gore sequences reminds me of the kind of highly creative art-gore movies that pushed dismemberment sequences in
new places. Asian movies like Men Behind The Sun and Naked Blood, took playful joy from creating the worst kind of splatter excess. Live Feed
has a similar effect. It's hard to watch as a woman gets a glass tube forced down her throat into her body but it's hard not to raise a guilty smile
when the torturer feeds a poisonous snake down toe tube while the still conscious victim watches.
With heads being twisted off with crudely made devices and the blood splattered victims facing all manner of indignities for the entertainment of
the amoral crime lord, Live Feed is a million miles away from slick but empty gore-fests like the Saw franchise. Live Feed has its faults, the
characters are brief sketches at best and the movie relies a little to heavily on oriental clichés in order to establish its setting, but as an exercise in
the joys of torture, it's essential viewing. Anyone who loves the really extreme end of gore is going to love certain sections of this movie. The
dodgy acting, normally something that I enjoy in a movie, reduces the impact of shocks...a shame, as the filmmakers know how to scare the pants
off an audience once they hit their stride. This movie is packed with ideas, even if some of those ideas are in damaged and sick! I hope the director
gets to make more movies and develop his evil vision some more.
vile ideas they may have. The current vogue in mainstream Hollywood for sadism horror and visceral nastiness is just an extension of the realistic
shockers that have emerged from the underground over the years. Spiteful, misanthropic geek shows like Scrapbook illustrate how far an artist
can go and make you question where the line between entertainment and illness should be drawn. A whole sub-genre of horror exists that is less
about the giggly jump-scares and steady cam slick thrills of the Multiplex standard teen fodder and more to do with seeing how far the audience
can be pushed before they rip up the seats and throw them at the screen.
Live Feed feels like its testing the viewer from the off; this is a well made low budget film making but the acting is competent at best. An unlikable
bunch of young Americans are traveling in the far east, looking for kicks. They are perfect victims for the sick creeps that are lurking in the sex
motels and sleazy night clubs. After some scene setting footage inter-cut with pole dancing that recalls the meandering travelogue sequences
beloved of the 60s Drive-In movies, the gang find themselves confronted by a market stall that is butchering dogs for food. The group are hobbled
by their Western values and their sentimental attachment to cute furry animals, a situation that isn't helped by the fact that the dog in question is
a sweet little Yorkshire Terrier... Are Yorkshire Terrier's a popular dish in the Far East? There can't be much meat of them.
A cultural clash endures that almost breaks out into to violence between the dog butcher and the group, illustrating just how alien the culture
they've landed in really is. This culture gap widens still further when the biggest man in the traveling party, a typical, testosterone-pumped jock
idiot, insults a dangerous gang boss. They escape into a grubby sex hotel and then the trouble really starts.
Up until this point the acting was starting to jar badly, as were some of the racial stereotypes on display. Dog eating and evil blind "ching chongs"
alongside the almost heroically bad acting of the evil crime lord, who plays up his clichéd Triad styling’s and evil persona like a panto villain...Was
this material racist or just using to clichés to attack the audience and unsettle me?
Once the cast are inside the grubby rooms of the sex hotel though, they are literally screwed!
The crime boss is a regular and loves nothing better than to sit in front of a big screen with a couple of game whores, while his associates invent
new and ever more extreme forms of blood letting and rape torture in commit on unwary Western back packers who won't be missed. Obviously,
comparisons to Hostel would be appropriate now, but the sheer sick minded exuberance of the death dealing in this movie puts that more
mainstream attempt of torture-porn to shame. Live Feed deals in profane filth on a much deeper and more penetrating way.
This is where the film takes off. The acting suddenly improves, as screaming is a lot easier to do with conviction. The terror of the travelers is
exasperated by the video screens in their locked rooms, showing their friends losing their lives, giving them a taste of their horrific fate. The sheer
sick minded imagination in the gore sequences reminds me of the kind of highly creative art-gore movies that pushed dismemberment sequences in
new places. Asian movies like Men Behind The Sun and Naked Blood, took playful joy from creating the worst kind of splatter excess. Live Feed
has a similar effect. It's hard to watch as a woman gets a glass tube forced down her throat into her body but it's hard not to raise a guilty smile
when the torturer feeds a poisonous snake down toe tube while the still conscious victim watches.
With heads being twisted off with crudely made devices and the blood splattered victims facing all manner of indignities for the entertainment of
the amoral crime lord, Live Feed is a million miles away from slick but empty gore-fests like the Saw franchise. Live Feed has its faults, the
characters are brief sketches at best and the movie relies a little to heavily on oriental clichés in order to establish its setting, but as an exercise in
the joys of torture, it's essential viewing. Anyone who loves the really extreme end of gore is going to love certain sections of this movie. The
dodgy acting, normally something that I enjoy in a movie, reduces the impact of shocks...a shame, as the filmmakers know how to scare the pants
off an audience once they hit their stride. This movie is packed with ideas, even if some of those ideas are in damaged and sick! I hope the director
gets to make more movies and develop his evil vision some more.
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