Without too many preambles, I'll cut it short and get to the heart of the matter: this isn't a simple horror film, it's a punch in the stomach, the apotheosis of madness and cruelty as an end in itself. Anyone who prefers slightly softer genres should stay away, since here the brutality is constant, and the wickedness teems at every moment. We are faced with a Japanese gem which, due to its extremely violent and sadistic content, has been banned by English censors and is currently illegal to broadcast and distribute in the UK. This "mild" reaction flattered the director Kōji Shiraishi, who apparently hoped to displace and upset the aforementioned censors.

Some time ago I ventured into watching this very violent torture-porn, despite hating anything remotely close to porn: (but, for films like this I can make the sacrifice). The curiosity of witnessing something so exaggerated, what can I say, undeniably tickled my palate. The footage is so dramatic and shocking that it leaves deep imprints on the mind. Imagine being tense and nervous, on your first date, and being kidnapped, waking up chained in a basement, at the mercy of a depraved person out of control, totally alienated. Project yourself into that dark, damp, inhospitable place, which will be the setting for boundless torture and atrocious evil.

The result can only be a work teeming with anguish, restless terror, pain, accelerated heartbeats with each amputated finger, cries, uncertainty, desperate groans. As if that wasn't enough, the maniac torturer gets excited by these practices, and rapes both of them, forcing them to watch each other's rapes. Yet, just to overcome the border of the most ruthless bestiality, this man, who has medical ambitions, at a certain point, will cure them, deluding them and promising them the much desired freedom. Nothing could be further from the truth. After a few days, the two unfortunates, battered and mutilated, will find themselves hoping to be able to continue living, but the perverse segregator will throw them back into the nightmare.

 
Forget the glories of Hostel, compared to Grotesque we could almost label it as a sentimental story. This product is something beyond all limits, purely deadly, it shocks, annihilates, gets straight to the point, devastates and disorientates the viewer, also thanks to a practically non-existent plot, which must be digested before being understood.

Competence Shiraishi's technique is undeniable, dark and rough photography accompanies most of the scenes, the splatter is very present even if it is not always credible. Shigeo Ôsako is quite chilling in the role of the smelly amputation doctor, a shame about the ending, which tends to be slightly messy. For a few, absolutely few, the choice is yours, I have warned you.