FRENCH BLUE (1976)

  This starts off with what's billed as the world's first porno cartoon as a pre-credit sequence then once the movie starts we get a behind-the-scenes look at French director Lasse Braun trying to figure out the mechanics of what might the world's first double anal penetration put on the big screen. In between these scenes we get a bunch of shortened loops also directed by Mr. Braun. One particular gross loop is titled CAKE ORGY and it mixes an orgy with a food fight. Probably of interest nowadays as a historical artifact more than anything all that titillating. Also more comical than stimulating. AKA PENETRATION and LASSE BRAUN'S PENETRATION (these versions appear to remove the animated sequence at the beginning)  

                Playing here on a double bill with another porn/comedy from 1975:

NECROPHOBIA (1995)

  I never knew there was another European movie about fucking corpses released in the 90s before catching this one as part of a Halloween horror movie marathon recently. Clearly influenced/ripped-off from the granddaddy off all corpse-boppin flicks the German NECROMANTIK films this Dutch entry doesn't quite live up to the grossness of it's predecessors but is still worth a look for sickos and miscreants into the weird. The plot concerns a lady who gets tied up by her lover who then proceeds to kick the bucket while in the act of humping and lay there all dead on her for a week. This leads to some serious mental issues for our leading lady. There's chainsaw hijinks, meathooks put to good use, a car chase and, of course, dead people diddling. The best part is that it's all wrapped up in an hour in case you're in a hurry.  

SPEAK NO EVIL (2022)

 I've seen the trailer for the American remake of this Dutch/Danish horror flick before every new movie I've seen in a theater for what seems like the last year. I can't say that I was very interested in watching it but I kept hearing about how brutal the original European version was so I decided to check it out. While there are some rather brutal events at the very end of the movie(involving a child and a naked Dutch couple) I can't say there's really much here to recommend this to anyone. I've read that the director, Cristian Tafdrup, was attempting to make the point that people are generally more concerned with being polite than appearing rude(inn this case even in the face of some pretty obviously bad signs). While this may be a concern in Europe I'm not sure folks being overly polite is a problem I run into very often being an American(specifically being a New Yorker!). The film leaves the viewer feeling the same frustration that the FUNNY GAMES movies do and I was certainly no fan of those either. 

AMSTERDAMNED (1988)

  For a Dutch slasher movie from the 80s this one is surprisingly well shot. It gets a bit bogged down in the police procedural stuff midway through but pulls it out with a boat chase and enough of a mystery to make things not boring. It's also pretty unique to have the killer in scuba gear and do most of his killing from the water. It gives the kills a very JAWS-like feel. 

The English dub has some pretty heavy Dutch accents. 

BECAUSE OF THE CATS (1973)

 This movie starts off pretty good with a gang of upper-class hoodlums breaking into a house, graphically raping a man's wife right in front of him and forcing him to watch. From there it turns into a police investigation story where this one cop becomes obsessed with bringing these spoiled rich kids to justice and that's not exactly my favorite type of movie. There's also a girl gang, called The Cats who get involved in a murder, some cats get wacked and some crazy cult stuff goes on. Sylvia Kristel who would go on to become EMMANUELLE the next year gets very naked here as do pretty much all the females in this. Maybe worth a watch but the whole movie doesn't live up to it's crazy opening bit. AKA THE RAPE, C.A.T.S. and BRUTALIZATION.
 This was based on a 1963 book that I'm guessing they couldn't film back then since it was so graphic.

Rated X in England!: