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Film Reviews

WOUND

By • Feb 15th, 2011 •

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“TIES THAT BIND”

I have been an admirer of the decidedly transgressive films of David Blyth for a number of years now and after an absence from the screen of nearly a decade he has come forth with another of his wildly gothic, acid-hinged mind-fucks. This time it is WOUND.

This film is as he warned me “not for everyone” and indeed it is not…it is also not just another one of those “torture porn” flicks for the HOSTEL crowd. David is an outlaw of cinema in his native New Zealand, a kiwi enfant terrible who will not go gentle into that good mini-plex. He is concerned with the state of affairs in his native country with drugs, the mistreatment of women and children, and of course, the blandness of current cinema, especially in the genre of the horror films being distributed in today’s marketplace.

In watching his latest film we again become voyeurs in his quest to unlock the aberrant psychology in the female dynamic The film boasts strong performances from his two leads, Ta Kaea Beri and especially Kate O’ Rourke. Both these ladies offer themselves up to his direction and the result is there on the screen.

I am not going to spoil the ride by giving away too much in the way of plot points except to say this is a rethinking of the greek myth of Demeter-Persephone where we have a daughter returning from the dammed to drag her mother to Hades, As with all of David’s films such as ANGEL MINE and DEATH WARMED UP the social taboos are addressed in order of appearance – mutilation, incest, bondage and death are laid out on the table for we voyeurs to digest. The devouring nature of David’s vision is never compromised and as such he has now found his audience in the gore splatter world of the current horror film. There is also a gothic sensiblity at work here as we are seeing all this in a dreamscape of the old dark house which is located near a very Hammer like graveyard. His influences are many and they include Polanski and Barker. However it is the films of Jodorowsky, in particular THE HOLY MOUNTAIN and SANTA SANGRE that we can really observe parallels of what David is seeking in his films.

WOUND is an uncomfortable journey of a woman’s descent into madness filled with the richness of dreams and the dangers of sexuality, with a heavy dose of Ken Russell in the making. My favorite review of this film may well be “This is crazy shit” I for one am glad to see David Blyth back at work and I think he would be pleased for me to tell you that no vagina’s were harmed during the making of this motion picture.

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