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Oliver Renner wrote on 03/08/2012:

It's been the talk of all Cult films lovers and Artsploitation's fans, for over a year or so,thanks also to a very controversial Film Festivals run,that made many walked out of the screenings horrified (for real,i mean!) and just made others love this film, like crazy, almost to make it become like a new sign of a certain re-birth of the greater italian and Euro exploitation/Genre's Cinema of the glorious 1960's/1970's.
I just loved this film, despite its (few) flaws,AND I agree with whomever Awarded it and his incredible lead actor!
I cannot hide to be a fan of that type of Films, especially of the Euro's from 30/40 years ago: they had all just a different class,and artistry back then, and they were exceptionally 'visionary' and 'inventive'. People like Argento(in his first films),Fulci,Lenzi,Martino really knew how to mix mystery and pulp,sex and decadence with a narration rich of glamorous touches,like sophisticated angles,artsy cinematography,editing and soundtracks! And, they say they were actually at times using odd angles and moody cinematography to hide a low budget! If, that was truly the intent, then they were really all geniuses,because whether many directors today(like Tarantino,and Roth) love to admit it or not (a bunch of others,including Ridley Scott and many hip younger ones),they all have studied those films from top to bottom, in order to develop their most actual styles. In fact those flicks were completely ahead of their Time, and not just because of the very often lurid content,wild storytelling and nudity, but because of how they were filmed and suggestively presented. They marked an unforgettable time!
I do hope HOFM(House of Flesh Mannequins) is really just a sign that, at least,back there in Italy, people are finally returning to make those films, because i love them, and i think there's a huge market for them, since i know tons of people,practically 'obsessed' with them!
Cristopharo's film has all the elements of the movies of that Time, and even.. more,if you can believe that! Besides having an incredibly unique art direction and costumes, make up and intense photography, its story never fails to surprise, to shock, to emotionally 'test' its audience! It's like a game: well, if you have taken in all this.. I'm almost sure you'll be able and ready now to watch some other atrocity! And let me tell you: i never saw something like this before, maybe also because back 30 years ago, it would have been impossible to film certain sequences,this feature instead showcases so fearlessly: you gotta give them credit to at least have had the guts to dare that much, to explore what's been truly never presented before(at least to my knowledge!). There are a bunch of real life S/M fetishists and body modifier's performers, mutilating themselves for real in this movie, and there are people also eating glass and swords, cutting their genitals and so on.. Furthermore a few porn actors were hired to contribute a few real sex,however artistically filmed scenes.
Very disturbing! Very 'trippy',and also not for everyone.It's true!
But, if you have got the guts to stomach some of these extremely brutal moments, then you may just follow the movie, which will take you,surprise after surprise,to a walk inside the sick mind of a child who's never really grown up, since he had been terribly abused: this path will be quite an experience, let me tell you, but i can also advice to all of those reading this: it is so worth any of your time and of having to witness, what you'll see here!
This movie manages to create beautiful, unforgettable images, and to become at some point highly lyrical,and truly inspired. It is like a look at the "interiors" of someone abused and abandoned to his frightening life, and it feels so real and emotional, like nothing else you'd be able to see in some of these other flicks available on here! Let's be honest: i love the RAW section of TLA, and I'm a greedy fan, but this movie in particular is something else,
Yes, it may have some plot holes, some other moments that stretch credibility,or will make it hard for you to follow it, but this is also the most significative, unique, stylish film included in this catalogue! And it's truly brave, as they say!
I would have never expected it would take me to Hell and back like it truly did, and I am amazed of how much it still haunts me, and impressed me. We're definitely at another level here.
Much higher quality of filmmaking, almost hyperrealistic tones, like not even Jodorowsky, at times,could reach, and a natural,constant, strenuous emotional strength that could surprise even the most skeptical!
Cristopharo is certainly, after this film, a new personality in international cinema, and i can only hope he'll be able to maintain just these high levels of narration and visionary expression, since, he's able to make work wildly and astonishingly well,even some of the oddest material ever filmed, and some parts of his own script,not always so clear, being that,maybe,the only flaw i could point out, at this time!
The film benefits also, besides,of a brave director and,of an obviously extremely talented and dedicated crew,of an exceptional actor.
Domiziano Arcangeli plays this role as it lays, with so much emotional transfer and so much naked intensity, that it is not difficult to imagine that his private life must have not been that easy, either! Unless he's the best actor of these times, someone must know certain ugly places himself, to be able to so perfectly and realistically reproducing all the sadness, fear,anger, and ultimately the shock, that a human being can be possibly able to stand: he's not only effective,and haunting, he's also an unforgettable presence here, and I just hope they'll use him in better films from now on, than the ones he's been recently seen in!
Then there's the beauty and ambiguity of Irena A. Hoffman so gorgeous, so sexy, and burning, to create a phenomenal 'antagonist' to Arcangeli!
And what a young woman! Wow! She is gotta be some of the hottest actress around: i hope to see her too, in better films,and,most of all, more often!
She plays the new neighbor who starts spying the lead Sebastian, like she's just only bored with her grim life ( a blind father, who's often drunk, played with darkness,by italian star Giovanni Lombardo Radice,and a cocky boyfriend, who looks like a model and behaves like a douche bag).
But she will bring several twists to the very narration of the film, becoming a sort of Femme Fatale...
The rest of the principle cast is decent, but not even nearly close,to the level of Arcangeli and Hoffman.
Then there's the circus of freaks and geniuses, and let me tell you, some of the most beautiful women, I've ever saw, unfortunately,at times, just briefly, and a few guys who could be just coming out of an asylum or of a crack house.
But, they all work so greatly in giving to this film just the right amount of credibility to let you dance with the darkest place in the sickest mind, and make you believe you are not even watching a movie anymore, and when it's over you may wake up in the middle of the night, as i did, thinking i was not even dreaming anymore, since the tragic message of this cruel story may break your heart, after all!
Yes believe it or not, this movie manages to break your heart as well!
A must see! Truly!
PS: By the way, Why is this not included in the TLA nominees for Cult Award? Dear TLA, this movie should win! I hope it's because it just opened and I wish to see it on top of the nominees, at next Year Awards Ceremony!
This is just not a pledge, this is frankly one of the best movies you're selling in this category, and certainly the bravest and most unique!
Thank you!