HorrorSpeak---Terror Awaits You in Every Forum!!!!: The Butcher (2007)

The Butcher (2007) Korean

I found this one on Netflix, and while many of the reviews on their site state that this film fails, mainly because it is “torture” and not “horror” I have to disagree with their low scores. The short description for The Butcher states, in my opinion upon viewing it, exactly what the viewer will see.

Netflix description---“Relentlessly gruesome, South Korean filmmaker Kim Jin-Won's torture flick chronicles the making of a snuff film from two perspectives: that of the sadistic producers and that of the unfortunate "stars." Their terror captured through vérité-style camera work, the victims are made to endure the agonizing screams of their fellow captives before meeting their own grim fate at the hands the titular butcher in his bloody abattoir.”

Now as the description says, all of the movie is basically POV perspective, as all the victims are wearing head cams. (It does cut back in forth a lot from the victim cams to the stationary cams the snuff film makers have set up and running.) While I found this annoying initially in a BlairWitch sort of way, by the conclusion I realized this is what really added to the what I feel was a successfully delivered disturbing film. Not spooky, scary, or ultra gory, but disturbing. Like it or hate it, I feel there is no denying that it is pretty much disturbing throughout.

Some of the negative feedback on Netflix also states that this movie rips off the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Again, I must disagree. As many of you know I am a DIEHARD original TCM fan. The character of the Butcher is “Leatherfaceish” with his mask, and occasional chainsaw but he is barely in the movie. His film-making colleagues take up the majority of the screen time and dialog. In TCM, the family is simply fucked in the head, and the beauty is that beyond that, we really do not know why they do what they do. In The Butcher, it is clear that these folks are making snuff films for an underground snuff film market. So while it is certain that people making snuff films are fucked in the head as well, they are not in the same league as a TCM family. And perhaps most important, I do not feel that The Butcher even attempts to be like TCM. If anything, it's closer to Hostel.

Think Hostel, in Korean, low budget, shaky POV camera work, and you pretty much have The Butcher.

If you go into The Butcher knowing what you are getting, I think many of you will enjoy it.
Anyone here familiar with this one? I'd love to hear you guys and gals thoughts and feedback.

Here's a clip which will give you an idea of what you will be in for should you watch the entire film.
http://www.moviesonline.ca/TheFeed/index.php?id=The_Butcher2007_Trailer

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"You're a gentleman," they used to say to him. "You shouldn't have gone murdering people with a hatchet; that's no occupation for a gentleman."