With THE MUTILATION MAN, director Andrew Copp brings the audience a dark and surreal tale of a man coping with the scars of physical and emotional abuse, and an all around screwed up up-bringing. Not a great film in terms of technicality (or really in any specific areas...), but somehow the form transcends it's budget and other limitations to become a stronger "whole" than the sum of it's "parts"...
Ivan treks around a sort of "post-apocalyptic" wasteland, putting on shows of self-mutilation for small crowds. Through strange and gritty flash-back sequences, the audience begins to understand that Ivan was abused by his father, and often witnessed the abuse of his mother as well. Basically, Li'l Ivan's home-life sucked. It seems that he uses the self-mutilation not only as a way to make a living, but also as a means to cope with his internal demons and feelings of self-loathing...
THE MUTILATION MAN is a very dark and surreal film overall. There is no straight narrative, and almost no dialogue - instead relying on strange ambient noises, music, and sounds. Sometimes the audio direction is quite powerful, other times annoying. This film isn't quite the super-gory blood-bath that others make it out to be - but it does have more gory elements than your typical horror film, and although the FX budget is obviously pretty low (as I'm sure the budget for everything in the film is...) the gore FX are pretty well done. Jim Van Bebber as the "dad" is believable and threatening (for a film of this nature). Overall - I recommend THE MUTILATION MAN for those that dig dark, nihilistic, "experimental" films - for a better example of a film that I would place in the same general category, try SUBCONSCIOUS CRUELTY...7/10 for THE MUTILATION MAN
Ivan treks around a sort of "post-apocalyptic" wasteland, putting on shows of self-mutilation for small crowds. Through strange and gritty flash-back sequences, the audience begins to understand that Ivan was abused by his father, and often witnessed the abuse of his mother as well. Basically, Li'l Ivan's home-life sucked. It seems that he uses the self-mutilation not only as a way to make a living, but also as a means to cope with his internal demons and feelings of self-loathing...
THE MUTILATION MAN is a very dark and surreal film overall. There is no straight narrative, and almost no dialogue - instead relying on strange ambient noises, music, and sounds. Sometimes the audio direction is quite powerful, other times annoying. This film isn't quite the super-gory blood-bath that others make it out to be - but it does have more gory elements than your typical horror film, and although the FX budget is obviously pretty low (as I'm sure the budget for everything in the film is...) the gore FX are pretty well done. Jim Van Bebber as the "dad" is believable and threatening (for a film of this nature). Overall - I recommend THE MUTILATION MAN for those that dig dark, nihilistic, "experimental" films - for a better example of a film that I would place in the same general category, try SUBCONSCIOUS CRUELTY...7/10 for THE MUTILATION MAN