Movie Review: August Underground's Mordum

Another one of those movies I watched not out of genuine interest, but merely for the godawful reputation it has for being sick, twisted, violent, and extreme, with little to no redeeming artistic qualities. How did it hold up? Not well.

This movie is based off of an earlier production called August Underground, which presumably is even worse than this. I have to assume that they learned from their mistakes and made the sequel a better film, despite how unbelievable that is. Shot in the realistic home movie style i.e. camera in hand, the film feels authentic if simply for the very low quality of the technology used, and there's something to be said for the film's use of normal looking people. No one looks Hollywood beautiful, a trait that detracts from some films like The Descent, a good movie absolutely, but filled with distractingly beautiful women. August Underground's Mordum at least has that going for it.

The film stars Fred Vogel, star of the original August Underground, Crusty, portrayed by Cristie Whiles, and Maggot, portrayed by Michael Schneider, killers with all of the motivations of Alex in A Clockwork Orange, but not one ounce of the charm. The acting isn't even believable. They don't look like monsters, they look like young actors trying to pretend to be screwed up people. But they just come off as lousy actors.

Describing the plot of this movie is almost impossible. There's sex, murder, robbery, rape, cannibalism, violence, necrophilia, vomiting, and it just keeps going. There's no real story, just a lot of criminal incidents thrown together with no edit points. It feels like you're watching a police evidence tape, which apparently was the intent. Still, I think those would be a heck of a lot more entertaining than this was.

They use shaky cam, obviously, a method I actually approve of when done well. Shaky cam in horror movies is acceptable, and I understand that every little 3 person studio wants to make the next Blair Witch, but this movie makes Cloverfield look like Lawrence of Arabia.

August Underground's Mordum is a borderline unwatchable mess of pointless dialog, unnecessary scenes, and bad special effects made more believable by the constant low quality of every aspect of the film. It looks amateur and almost appears to be a genuine snuff film for the sheer amateurishness of everyone involved. Frankly, I think people making actual snuff films would have more cinematic sophistication and have a little pride in their work.

Without any trepidation I can say that August Underground's Mordum is the worst film I have ever seen, but it isn't for the content. People with little money can make great films, like Primer. People with shocking content and an unusual story to tell can make gripping cinema, like A Serbian Film. People looking to just showcase gore can make any of the SAW films. The makers of all of those films, whether they are good or not, were trying to create films, movies, entertainment. If they wanted to shock, or wanted to scare, or wanted to entertain, or simply had a story to tell, they had intentions. August Underground's Mordum has nothing interesting to say, nothing worthwhile to see, and simply should not exist. Please don't watch it. And if you're curious as to just how bad it is, please don't purchase it. No one involved in this production should ever be inspired to make a movie ever again. I give this my worst rating in the history of my life: 1/2 stars.

.5 *'s out of *****