PopHorror Let's Get Scared
So the big kicker with Blaze of Gory, a crazed anthology from the U.K., is that that the majority of the material in all 9 segments were lifted from stories from a 16-year-old girl named Blaize-Alix Szanto, who started the stories when she was 12. U.K. director/screenwriter David VG Davies (Three’s A Shroud 2012) got in touch with young Blaize-Alix to get her permission to construct the 9 segments that make up Blaze Of Gory. Some of these shorts had varying degrees of success, and one even features Blaize-Alix herself as director. Packed with plenty of material and running at an hour and fifty minutes, the film is definitely giving more bang for its buck with the amount of quality material featured here. Supposedly, Davies also had to tone down some of the girl’s stories for this anthology.
First up in Blaze of Gory is “The Beer Cellar,” which features a down-on-his-luck pub owner who is trying to crawl his way out of debt by going into the illegal human organ selling business. This one is the one directed by Blaize-Alix, so I was expecting some crazy and intense material. It was good and twisted, especially when we find out the bar owner’s wife knows what he’s up to and doesn’t really give a shit. She is more concerned with paying off her debts and leaving her hubby for a security guard. The pub owner has two missing girls in his beer cellar whom he occasionally visits and gives himself a rub while caressing their hung up, tattered, nubile teen bodies. The couple’s plans to sell the girls’ kidneys run afoul when the captives get free and deliver some unpoetic genital-ripping justice on their captors.
The second tale, “If You Were Here” directed by MJ Dixon, plays out as a supernatural, psychological horror thriller. It definitely makes your skin crawl. We get a woman who is haunted by a menacing figure of a man who seems to have killed her mother, and now he has returned for her. This one has a nice couple of twists at the end. It’s not overly gory, but it definitely makes up for it in the thrills and atmosphere department.
Simon P. Edwards directs the third entry, titled “Sick Little Boy.” It features a young man named Toby who seems to have multiple personalities or schizophrenia. While secluded in his room and tended to by his MILF stepmother, he slips further into his delusional and murderous alter ego. His father is a jealous, overbearing sort who seems to have a very bizarre and distant relationship with his wife, who may have cheated on him in the past. If anything, the whole family is just as sick as he is. Toby decides to put an end to his family’s miserable existence in extreme fashion. Not a bad segment, but it’s definitely morbid and dark material, especially with the psychological vibe going on. I believe it’s a decent entry in Blaze of Gory.
“Young and Naive,” directed by Antoni McVay, features a young woman who is the next target for a murderous stalker. It seems the stalker could be anyone around because every man seems to be slobbering over her. The girl is very naive as the title suggests, and seems to go about her day not noticing any of this… until she eventually falls into the clutches of her stalker. It seems this mad pursuer also has a jealous streak, because he violently dispatches any man who has made a pass at his female muse. This one has a nice twist at the end as well, which I didn’t see coming.
Directed by Yana Kolesnyk, “Abort” features a woman who decides to get a black market abortion in a seedy underground dive. The cretin performs the operation in probably one of the most grotesque scenes in the anthology. The funny thing is, the baby survives and the mother dies. The baby is taken care of by one of the scumbag human traffic sex slavers and grows up to wreak some vengeance on those responsible for her upbringing. This one had a sloppy and rushed ending, but managed to deliver some decent, b-grade gore and splatter.
“Snow,” directed by David VG Davies, is probably the most graphic, gory entry in all the segments in the Blaze Of Gory anthology. It’s easy to see the man has an eye for morbid, disturbing content just by watching this short tale. “Snow” tells the story of a middle-aged woman who is talking to her shrink in a video diary, who works for The Damocles Foundation. We learn quickly that she is mentally unstable in a major way. The woman seems to talk delusionally to her handkerchief or tissue, and even seems to have a split personality, which she voices in a bizarre tone. She spins a tale of killing her rock star husband with the help of the butler because she just wanted his money. Her sole bone of contention seems to be on her beautiful stepdaughter.
In a demented scheme bargained for by sex, the woman gets the butler to perform the deed. It’s performed in graphic, brutal fashion. He eventually pins the daughter down and begins to slowly mutilate her body, starting with her tongue and ending with her eventual disembowelment. It’s a very graphic, disturbing scene, and definitely the most messed up, gory setting in the whole film. Hats off to David VG Davies for being one twisted, disturbed fuck… and I mean that in the nicest way possible!
“Masque Of The Red Rape,” directed by Robert Noel Gifford, features a madman who believes he is doing some important work by killing women. The beginning of this story opens with this creepy rant, so the viewer gets an accurate mindset of what the killer is about mentally, and it’s not pretty. This story is shot as a snuff style video, as we see the killer recording his actions and rants in front of the video camera.
Obviously criminally insane, he kidnaps, tortures and kills female victims he has abducted in the name of his imaginary wife whom he supposedly talks to on the phone. Delusional and insane, he waits for the phone to ring in his head as a command to start killing. This was a short, effective tale with some gore as the killer claims he hears demons in his female victims’ stomachs, which he has to cut open to let out. The killer is effective enough in this. The actor plays a good wacko, and he is basically the sole character who has the only dialogue, unless you count the woman tied up and gagged.
“Monster,” directed by Andy Edwards, has a young girl as the sole killer, and she definitely is the monster in this. This segment opens with a bang and features lots of nice, gruesome carnage. The girl is housed in a mental facility ran by The Damocles Foundation, making its second appearance in Blaze Of Gory. Stacy may be the monster in this story, but the people who made her this way – the priest and the workers at the facility who sexually abused and exploit her – are just as terrible as she is.”Monster” is probably my second favorite tale in Blaze Of Gory besides “Snow.” It balances some decent psychological horror, gore and nudity with some great audio and visuals.
Jason Wight’s “Precious” is a story of exorcism and demonic possession. A mother goes to her daughter’s room to find her brutally violating herself. She calls on the help of a group of exorcists she conveniently sees an ad for on the TV. This group performs the exorcism ritual, but it seems to have done little good, as the devil incarnate seems to be too powerful for them to stop. Not a bad little short, it gets to the point quickly and delivers a crazy orgy of mayhem and visceral display at its conclusion.
During the credits in Blaze of Gory, another segment unfolds, shot in a retro style with the blotchy screen and lines appearing like it came from an old film reel. We get a couple spending a night at a cottage, and the woman disappears in the morning, only for her boyfriend to find her possessed and evil.
Blaze Of Gory covers a hell of a lot of material here. Some of the tales are great, while most of them are at least okay. Overall, it’s a cool indie anthology that has enough gore to keep most entertained. We get everything from kidnappings to abortions to exorcisms to psycho killers. Most bases are covered, but there’s always room for more depravity in these anthologies. Blaze Of Gory is one of the more unheard of anthologies. You might want to do yourself a favor and check it out, especially if your into any of the indie anthology entries being released as of late. Overall, the film definitely goes out in a Blaze Of Gory.
