Foreverisacastironmess
Dave Defalco's twisted horror thriller "Chaos" is without a doubt in my mind, one of the most gut-wrenching film experiences I ever had in my life. It's relentlessly intense, and while declaring it "The most brutal movie ever made" is a bit of a stretch as, foul as they are, it doesn't actually have all that many scenes of violent torture in it, the overall effect that you get from watching this movie is disheartening and disturbing in the extreme, as I think it's as much about the grim hopeless psychology of it as it is about the humiliation and pain, and it left me quite mentally exhausted from shock the first time I saw it. The two nastiest scenes really made me recoil and caused my skin to crawl, it was like it was completely real and it was all I could do not to look away. That stuff is *very* difficult to watch. If ever a film deserved to be labelled as sick, this one does. There's not a shred of hope in it, it has no regard for humanity at all. There are no light or comedic moments, it's flat-out mean and ruthless from beginning to end, and it leaves a hell of a bad taste. It gets right down to it pretty much straight away with the first of several uncomfortably nasty and squirmy situations that just seem to go on and on, and there's no rhyme or reason other than I guess, 'watch who ya trust', to why the events happen at all. It's just bad circumstances and random occurrences of cruelty, for cruelties' sake... It's only about an hour and fifteen minutes but it feels more like two and a half hours. And while I was looking at the clock it wasn't because I was bored or anything, it was because it was so coarse and unpleasant to sit through that I couldn't wait for it to hurry up and end already! And the dark tone of murder isn't haunting or chilling like in say, "Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer", it's just something that sets out to blow away your senses with a crude but effective barrage of intimidation, sickening and offensive bodily mutilation, and endless screaming. It's just shocking and isn't anything deeper than that. In other words, it's blunt as a sledgehammer. So I'd agree on that level that it is an empty movie, as there's nothing else you can take from it other than its ability to disturb. But I don't know, for what it is it's a powerful piece of work, and while none of them were positive in the least, it did evoke strong feelings in me the whole way through once it got going. And that is what the high rating's for, I was consistently gripped by the 'story', and it constantly had me on the edge of my seat, it's very engaging and involving.. I don't actually find it to be bad film, just a very unpleasant one to watch. I feel like I've got to rationalise my appreciation here - I love horror but never take enjoyment in overly violent torture and killing scenes in movies, I don't like to see people in pain, not even in a spoofy way, my heart is too damn sensitive for it these days. Horror isn't torture to me. Anyway there was just something in this that was worthwhile to me, if I had given it a low rating it would have only been based on principle, not what I thought of the basic watchable quality of the thing. Kevin Cage is the standout cast member, his depraved performance draws out hatred, horror and nausea, sometimes all in the same scene. The bloodthirsty psycho "Chaos" was so heartless that he shotguns his junkie girlfriend on a whim when she says the wrong thing, and even strangles his own son without hesitation after he's been fatally injured, so what manner of chance did the actual victims have? You keep hoping that anything at all will happen that'll bring this bastard down and make him pay for his crimes, and there are numerous nail-biting moments where it almost does..but not quite. And in the end for all intents and purposes, this self-proclaimed 'Devil' wins out. That ending was ice cold, but also something that I didn't see coming, and appreciated. All in all, phenomenally effective shock factor, scary situations and fearless actors make this a good movie to me, and all I can say is that, if grim realistic horror that you feel right in your gut is your thing, than you certainly won't be disappointed with this one. And while I might personally consider it to be very good, when all's said and done it's most-certainly not something that I could watch every week or whatever, no way. Once a never sounds about right.. This movie gets under your skin and gnaws on you. It wallows in its own muck and likes it there. Needless to say, not an easy pill to swallow for most people, but it does what most horror films want to do on the same basic level. It genuinely and unapologetically horrifies. Take care of yourselves.
Jonny_Numb
Denizens and die-hard supporters of films heralding from the golden age of Grindhouse would be foolish not to see the glaring similarity between David DeFalco's "Chaos" and Wes Craven's 1972 epic of technically wobbly brutality, "Last House on the Left" (in itself responsible for a fair share of imitations): in both films, two thrill-seeking teenage girls are left to their own devices and run afoul of a gang of psychopaths who proceed to defile and murder them; seeking refuge from their heinous deeds, the group winds up staying in the home of one of the girls' parents, who proceed to dish out their own brand of Grand Guignol vengeance against the attackers. While Craven's film still holds up today as an unsettling exercise in human brutality (juxtaposed against a banjo-twangin' soundtrack and dopey humor) that condemns the very acts it most explicitly portrays (by presenting them in such a rough, unglamorous light), DeFalco's artless, subtext-free imitation leans heavily on a BS opening crawl that plays the "based on a true story" card to justify its wretched, pointless existence (comparatively, last year's slick Hollywood remake of "Last House" better understood the fine line between authentic horror and prurient titillation). Having read several reviews of "Chaos" prior to seeing it, I was wondering if its extremes would authentically shock me; while the torment visited upon our clueless teens is indeed horrific, the lack of purpose matched with DeFalco's leering camera renders the rapes and murders as nothing more than queasy adolescent jack-off material. The film culminates in a moronic conclusion where what little logic the film possessed is completely jettisoned in favor of implausible shock value that is less shocking than outright cynical. The one thing that keeps "Chaos" from being a total waste of film is Brandon Trost's ("Halloween II") deft cinematography; it's a shame it wasn't applied to a better project.
Tyrant_Rise
You have to judge this for yourself, do not pay attention to the low rating people are giving this film. I'm giving this movie a 7 rating because it really made me feel like I was there and I didn't get bored or turn away from the screen, accept the disturbing scenes.This movie is worst than Hostel 1 & 2.You need to be fully warned, seriously. This movie made my stomach turn and I'm still disturbed about what I saw and I kind of wish I didn't see this movie. The leader of the pack was extremely vicious and psychotic and played his part to the max. The way he tortured and sexually mutilated these women was bad enough but for it to be be shown in graphic detail in this film was just too disturbing and the violence was worst than any movie I've ever seen.I couldn't even enjoy the scene with Chantal Degroat showing full frontal nudity either, not that she's not a beauty woman. It was just way too disturbing, she's the woman who plays Emily, who by the way is a gorgeous actress who I have to say was extremely brave to even consider doing a part like this.The ending was not a happy ending at all, although I have to say those useless bigoted cops got what they deserve in my opinion, I don't want to say anymore without spoiling the ending.
sitenoise
Kevin Gage is good as the killer/rapist. He cuts a nipple off one of the girls, makes her eat it, kills her AND THEN rapes her. He shoves a Crocodile Dundee sized knife up the other girl's butt. Nice moves but without any merit. Everyone else in this movie is an embarrassment. The acting is painfully bad.This is another film that's supposed to be a message ABOUT torture porn instead of simply BEING torture porn; the film begins with a written message saying as much and hopes that by alerting parents and potential victims to the scaries out there, maybe it will save a life.What a joke. What a wimp of a filmmaker. Who cares if Roger Ebert didn't like your film? I didn't like it either because it totally sucked.
