First and foremost, a warning: DO NOT watch Blood for Flesh during dinnertime! While it’s far from the sickest movie I’ve ever seen, I’ll tell you right off the bat it has some of the most disturbingly realistic gore effects I’ve seen in quite some time.
Alex Hernandez’s Blood for Flesh follows a woman and her brother as they flee a savage cannibal tribe stalking them in the secluded outlands.
Blood for Flesh is a pretty unique movie, which I believe redeems its various flaws. I wasn’t a big fan of the narrative, since it was almost completely eschewed in favor of disturbing moments and in-your-face grotesque imagery. The director divides the story into chapters, and every five or ten minutes a new chapter interrupts the flow of the movie just as I’m becoming invested in seeing how everything fits together.
One thing this movie has that I for one haven’t seen anywhere outside of hentai porn is sex from the vaginal perspective. That’s right; during one scene, you get to see a dick thrust toward the camera and eventually ejaculate at the audience. If this were an interactive movie a la John Goodman’s Matinee, I’d feel sorry for those sitting in the splash zone.
Actually, sex and violence seems to be the primary focus of Blood for Flesh. There are a few violent rape scenes (both male and female characters), incest, self-surgery, literal emasculation, and a strange cunnilingus scene that you’ll never be able to scrub from your imagination. If you’re into this sort of thing, Blood for Flesh is definitely your type of horror movie. Personally, I was hoping for a thoroughly developed story to balance out all the stomach-churning gore and unnerving editing effects.
Abandon all hope upon viewing, because there’s no light at the end of this tunnel. The movie starts and finishes on a bleak note. Above all else, Blood for Flesh really showcases what sort of amazing visuals can be pulled off with a limited budget and masterful editing.
Alex Hernández's Blood for Flesh is now available as a bookbox limited edition DVD from TetroVideo.
