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Monday 8 October 2012

Toetag pictures , and reviews of all of Toetag's movies.


Welcome to a new blog post. One where I'm going to inform you of a Film/FX company any self respecting horror fan should have heard of. That's right, I'm talking about Toetag. They hail from Pittsburgh and in my opinion make some of the greatest horror movies out there. Yes, Toetag is an independent studio, but you really can't tell that from their movies.

They have even handled FX in movies such as Nick Palumbo's Murder Set Pieces, and for the Tom Savini directed segment of Theatre Bizarre entitled Wet Dreams.

But I'm much more interested in telling you all about Fred Vogel's (co founder of Toe tag pictures, along with fellow FX genius Jerami cruise) movies. Having been fortunate to view every single one of them, I thought I'd attempt to open some of my readers eyes to the genius that is Toetag Pictures.

But beware. These movies are not for the faint of heart. Please don't take this warning lightly as we are about to venture into the darkest recesses of Horror cinema, where no taboo is safe, where boundaries will be pushed way beyond breaking point. I will give a basic rundown of the plot, and what I thought of each movie. Here we go. Lets begin with...

August Underground.

This film, as the two sequels are presented in the found footage style and degraded even further after being shot on video. The movie begins with a man inviting the camera man into his basement where he is holding a woman captive. The film doesn't waste any time in getting to the depraved acts of the killer and the camera man accomplice.

When I first saw this film, I was shocked, upset and had never been effected by any movie in this way before. It is still one of the most accurate visions of what a TRUE serial killer would be like, and is all the more disturbing for that very reason. But with what came next, Toetag would go down in history as being the creators as what is widely considered to be the sickest movie ever made.

August Underground's Mordum.

The film begins with the killer from the first movie walking down stairs to a door where we can hear a couple having sex. Not too long after we find out the couple are brother and sister and the woman is also the killers new girlfriend. After this, the movie just gets sicker and sicker. The first twenty minutes or so contain amongst other things, a graphic penis removal and believe me, the sickness doesn't end there.

If your looking for a film to push the boundaries of what is wrong, to show true atrocities, then forget Men Behind the Sun, ditch that copy of Philosophy of a Knife, and pick up a copy of August Underground's Mordum.

I wouldnt say it's a movie you can enjoy, its more something that has to be experienced and something that will stay with you for a long time after viewing it.

August underground's Penance.

The final movie in the August underground trilogy, and this contains what I feel is the most disturbing home invasion scene I have ever witnessed. This sequel isn't as degraded as the previous August Underground movies but it does still adopt the found footage style of camerawork of the previous two movies. Again there are some truly disturbing scenes and the ending is shocking but incredibly fitting. A must see if you have managed to stomach the first two movies.

The Redsin Tower.


This was the first Toetag movie I ever saw. This is where Toetag ditched the Found footage camera work of the August underground movies, and made an awesome supernatural horror movie.

Kim has broken up with her boyfriend Mitch, but Mitch really hasn't took it well. Kim and her friends go to party at the Redsin tower, and Mitch follows them there where all sorts of butchery, possession and even maggot vomiting ensues.

All of Toetag's detractors who said they couldn't make a real movie were proved wrong with this great slice of supernatural horror. The atmosphere in the film is second to none and yes, it is a slow moving movie, but that only helps crank the tension up to unbearable levels and when the gore hits home, you'll be left, mouth agape, shocked into submission. Definitely one of my personal favorite Toetag releases.

Murder Collection V: 1.

What we have here is a shockumentary in the vein of Faces of death or The philosophy of a knife, but one that looks incredibly realistic, unlike the two movies I mentioned previously. It shows a collection of videos from a (fictional) banned web series called Murder. There are eleven scenes, each depicting a murder or murders. My favorite of these has to be Execution, where a group of people decapitate a man in front of a woman and then taunt her with the severed head before finishing her off. An amazing collection of videos and in all honesty, most of them could be mistaken as real footage. Definitely one to check out if your morbid curiosity tempts you it's way, or if you are just a curious movie fan looking for something truly disturbing.

Maskhead.

In Maskhead we meet Syl and Maddie, a lesbian couple who make extreme fetish movies entitled Maskhead where a large lumbering killer tortures and murderers his co stars in these movies on screen. This is in my opinion the least gory Toetag movie, but this movie really doesn't need that much gore as the final scene sees our masked killer use a two by four in a very interesting way. One that will make you either smile with sadistic glee or vomit again and again. The story is gripping, it's dark and twisted and the violence, when it does appear is sickeningly realistic.

Sella Turcica.

Sella Turcica is another amazing movie from Toetag, and is a well written movie all round. Brad and his squad have disappeared while serving in the army in the middle east and ten days later, Brad and ten other men turn up unconscious outside of their base. When Brad woke up in Germany, he had lost the ability to walk and suffers from severe headaches that are made worse by high pitched noises. He is then sent home to be cared for by his family but he goes through some changes. Changes that don't bid well for Brad or the rest of his family.

The film shows Brad's descent into illness well, and the ending is nothing I expected at all, and is brutal and gorefilled,  and has a rather Cronenburg flavour to it. Again,  another amazing independent horror movie, and one that all horror fans should watch.

Do Toetag a favor , and visit their website by clicking here.

All of their movies, and all manner of merchandise can be purchased there and the prices are a hell of alot better than on Amazon or anywhere else I've noticed. Also, for any fellow metal heads out there, they also stock Necrophagia t shirts (something I 've been after for ages, but have had no luck finding, except for the Deathtrip 69 t shirt, which really didn't appeal to me).

Please spread the sickness further, lets open more peoples eyes to these amazing movies.

Darkest regards......Dani.

 

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