August Underground's Mordum (2003)

Highly revolting…

According to the Oxford dictionary revolting means “causing disgust or horror” and is “extremely unpleasant”. That sounds about right.

The first August Underground film was a bad, yet interesting slice of horror. It showed the depths of human depravity in a way that blurred the line between fiction and reality effectively. Writing this means that I have indeed taken on its first sequel, August Underground’s Mordum.

Now I had been building up to this one for quite some time. It kept showing up on lists of “sickest movies ever”. How could I possibly resist such an invitation? Now being disturbed by the first one I was actually a bit scared of venturing farther into the abyss. I think I’m glad I did. Possibly…

The rather simple story is about a couple of serial killers on a rampage and they invite a friend along for the journey. We witness only what their prowling camera captures. I’m wondering if this limits what we see of their twisted personalities. Do they ever think; “Tonight I want to stay home, order a pizza and rent the latest romantic comedy with Kate Hudson. That will be great!” Actually, come to think of it it would probably sound more like; “Tonight I just want to stay the fuck home, order a fucking pizza and rent the latest romantic fucking comedy with that cunt of a whore Kate Hudson. That will be fucking epic bitches!” What we do see is tangible, but once again I become very interested in seeing the events that led them up to all this. While there is a definite and highly unpleasant degree of realism they could have made it even more chilling by providing us with motivation. I’m quite content without knowing Michael Myers’ motivation in Halloween. That he merely is evil works well, but then again it has a way more polished look, allowing you (or at least me) to have a certain distance to what we see. The killers in Mordum feel more like a product of reality, hence my curiosity. Their language is rather foul with dominant word being fuck and its variations. For me it became distracting at one point when they seem completely unable to go a single sentence without swearing. Then again, I don’t know how people like this talk, so it may be right on the money.

So what do we get with Mordum? Well, you get one of the most unpleasant and challenging films extreme horror has to offer. In a way Mordum feels more like a show reel of graphic nastiness. There is no real sense of development in the film, merely one act of cruelty after another. You wonder what is around the next corner and try to brace yourself. There is a scene in the opening which apparently has the girl suffering for the sake of art by actually cutting herself. We also get some wonderful vomiting if that is your thing. One of the sickest moments was when one of our killers forces a helpless victim to cut off his own penis with a small scissor. Our killer laughs like a rabid hyena while this goes on. One thing is the graphic aspect of the scene another is extreme humiliation of the act. People are fucked up! We’re treated to the violation of a young dead girl as well. But the real highlight, or rather the very bottom of depravity comes when they kill a poor woman by cutting out her guts while acting like this is fun and normal, even licking the intestines as they come out. It’s a staggering moment of; “Holy crap! This is SO wrong on so many levels!” Then it continues… One of them proceeds to penetrate the hole in her abdomen where they cut out the guts. I’m not sure how much lower it’s possible to sink here. It is probably the single sickest thing I have ever seen in a fictional movie. We witness thoughts birthed in the human mind. Thoughts we would be much better off if didn’t exist. Early on in the movie I caught myself thinking; “You know what could have made that scene even sicker?” That is not a good thing. By the end I was more interested in happy thoughts though. Where are the fluffy bunnies jumping around harming no one?

Art of the nasty. Making a cut. 

There is one character in the film whom isn’t one of the killers, or one of the victims. The killers stop by his place and he seems like a decent guy. He looks like the kind of person you could go out and have a beer with. I never understood if he knew what they were doing, but it doesn’t matter in the end. It just felt like something worth mentioning. There is actually a seemingly normal person in the film. Perhaps they did it to give Mordum more gravity?

August Underground’s Mordum really is one of the most offensive, disturbing and disgusting films that haa ever crossed my path. I find it admirable that the creators have gone all the way to make you as uncomfortable as humanly possible. Mordum is for a small audience and even most of them are likely to become angry, dismissing this as crap with no redeeming value what so ever. I was not entertained by it, but it provides a peak into a reality darker than most. And seeing as how reality always outdoes fiction in sheer, unmitigated gruesomeness I simply cannot dismiss this film. 

8/10