Grotesque (2004)

Grotesque is a Japanese exploitation horror film that came out in 2004.

How I watched: Tubi

For the short of it: Surgeon abducts and tortures a young couple.

The long of it? *Sideshow bob groan*

Not gonna lie, I've been avoiding this movie for a long time. I originally saw this movie months ago and was so put off by this movie, I just shelved it. Wished I wrote up the post at least! However, I thought I was desensitized enough to watch this movie again. So here I am.

Will talk about majority of the movie so you were warned, bruh!

This will be a rather shorter post today because there simply isn't a whole to say about it and my dwindling cognitive abilities make it even harder to write anything anymore.

Starting off without a hitch, this creepy ass guy is in your stereotypical kidnapper white van lurking in the shadows. As if it couldn't get any more textbook cheesy.

A young couple just so happen to go walking through this tunnel and they literally didn't know what hit them. Talk about wrong place, wrong time, eh?

They regain consciousness and to their horror, both of them are strapped up on a table angled vertically along with their mouths bound and gagged. With no explanation at this point, this guy just non chalantly gets to work and starts just torturing them. Stabby here. Stabby there.

I wish it were only stabs. Warning for the squeamish but almost immediately he takes a screwdriver and plunges it into the guys mouth through the ball still gagged. Ugh.

This next scene is just sickening. He proceeds to sexually assault the girl right in front of him. And then the guy. I don't think I need to say much at all it was just so idk GROTESQUE. Just the fact that they are both strapped to the table unable to do anything about it strikes a new level of depravity yet they are also forced to witness the other being violently assaulted. Beyond sickening. Hella graphic. What a terrible day to have eyes.

Remember, I watched this movie twice so twice the many cursed days to have eyes. I can't remember how many times I had to look away with such a god awful look of disgust on my face that I'm glad no one else in my vicinity has to see.

So this surgeon guy eventually reveals that he's a sadist and it hella excites him to make people suffer, to put it lightly. So now sets the precedent for the next scene for when he says when the real excitement for him begins.

He changes the orientation of the tables and does more unspeakable torturous acts. I wish me saying cutting off limbs as the worst part but nah, there was a fuck ton more evil shit he cuts off.

That's really all there is to the movie, I guess? Not really plot to this movie at all, really just a guy abducting and torturing 2 random people from almost beginning to end. Now that I mention it, I hate the ending.

Spoilers if you don't give a fuck.

So the ending had this: the guy move the victims to another telling him he has remorse for his actions and once he nurses them back to health, he will let them go. They both let their guard down and chill for once in a long time since the ordeal started. He even seemed to have some genuine care as he tries to delicately help them gain his trust. However, he drugs them. Once they come to, they reawakened in the same torture chamber. Apparently, this evil dude loves to dangle that glimmer of hope in front of their faces and proceeds to torture them but to death this time. He has last seen burying them while he proceeds to sit in his van once again ready to get his next victims. End. Seriously. Weird ass movie.

I feel like I need to take at least 3 showers to wash away the sins of me even watching this movie not once but TWICE. It still never gets easy watching exploitation films. I'll give this a shot in the dark and say those kind of films are not my fancy.

However, I wanted to see what over people has to say about Grotesque and from the peeps at r/DisturbingFilms:

Feels like I am going crazy here. I don't think this is great. I don't think this is worth a watch. I definitely don't think this is a fun movie. You know how some movies are just so bad they're good? Like unintentionally funny? I tried with all my might but for the life of me, I cannot see how I can find humor in watching Grotesque. It's just too morbid for me to get chuckles out of it, even with the lowish tier special effects. But that's just me. Update: I now realize they were talking about the CANADIAN movie also called Grotesque that came out in 2022. D'oh!

I guess I take that back. The only thing I was able to get a LOL out of is when I realized that the surgeon actually looks like this sketch from this video that went viral. It's uncanny, Lisa!