August Underground (2001) review

Rating: Unrated
Director: Fred Vogel

As an avid horror film watcher, it’s often on my agenda to find films that push the boundaries to almost an unwatchable point. Before watching August Underground it was always one of those films that people spoke about, and I’d even been given warnings about how graphic and disturbing it is. Nether the less, I went and watched it anyway.

Presented as a home-movie, we follow Peter and his cameraman friend – whom we never see or find out his name – as they document their daily routines. We watch them going to heavy metal gigs, looking around a slaughterhouse and brutally torturing, humiliating and murdering various people in their basement.

You won’t find this exploitation movie in HMV or Tesco; you have to search the darkest parts of the Internet to find it, but if you like extreme horror, it’s worth it. Fred Vogel – who directed and wrote the film – stars as Peter and gives an uncomfortably realistic portrayal of the callousness of a serial killer. Allen Peters – who wrote the film with Vogel – stars as the cameraman and he delivers another sickening imitation of realism.

The imagery seen in this film is only for those with a strong stomach; bodily fluids being rubbed on open wounds, Peter vomiting whilst graphically chopping up dead bodies and a woman being forced to eat her murdered boyfriends toe. The presentation of gore and mutilation of the body is shockingly real that at times it’s hard to watch. What shocked me most was how engaging the characters are; although they’re serial killers, they have an air of humour about them, and they made me giggle the whole way through. This made me worry if I’m sick in the head to be laughing alongside these vile men.

This film is only for the most hardcore horror fans, those that are attuned with horrific, mind numbing brutality. This film perfectly fills the brief of a horror film, so I unfortunately really enjoyed August Underground and cannot wait to see the rest of the trilogy (yes, it gets worse). This film is almost a rite of passage to how much you can handle as a viewer, but it’s so worth it. If you’re not a fan of the genre, avoid like you’d avoid having your head ripped open with a hammer.

Verdict: 4 out of 5