When you think of the most disturbing movie ever, what comes to mind? If you’re not in the absolute trenches of extreme horror, you might say something like Saw or The Human Centipede, and that’s entirely fair. Not every horror fan likes those kinds of body horror, torture p*rn flicks. However, some do, and that’s when we start seeing the real f*cked-up stuff. For a lot of those viewers, it’s A Serbian Film, which has become synonymous with “disturbing,” and for good reason. It’s rife with the worst humanity offers, such as necrophilia and pedophilia, with enough gore to turn even the most seasoned horror veteran’s stomach. For similar reasons, other people might say Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom. Of course, there are plenty of others — in fact, there are whole iceberg charts dedicated to ranking the worst of the worst — but these are just a taste of what people consider the most disturbing.
However, there are some films out there that can give all of these — even A Serbian Film — a run for their money in the disturbing department. One (or three) such example is the August Underground trilogy, which has become a staple of the extreme horror genre.
The August Underground trilogy — August Underground, August Underground’s Mordum, and August Underground’s Penance — follows Peter (portrayed by the film’s writer and director Fred Vogel) as he kidnaps, tortures, humiliates, and kills multiple people. The films are well-known in some horror communities for their use of gore, violence, and sexual content, as well as for generally disgusting scenes involving human excrement.
The films are portrayed exclusively as found footage, with each one's film quality better than the last. The first film is shot by an unnamed accomplice of Peter’s on what could possibly be the worst camera in the world and opens on Peter and the cameraman taunting Laura (AnnMarie Reveruzzi), who is bloody and bound and gagged with duct tape in the cellar. In between scenes of everyday life, such as visiting farms and driving around town, they continue to torture Laura until she dies. Then we see them on the hunt for new victims, including a pair of brothers that give Peter a tattoo at a shop — which gives us a pretty sickening scene of a man bludgeoned to death with a hammer while his brother watches — and a pair of sex workers. The film ends with one trying to escape as Peter chases her down. It’s bloody and brutal, and you’ll probably walk away feeling worse having watched it.
'August Underground’s Mordum' Is the Most Disturbing of the Trilogy
The second film, Mordum, is perhaps the most disgusting of the three, though. This one gives Peter two accomplices that “match his freak,” as the kids say: Crusty (Cristie Whiles) and her brother Maggot (Michael Todd Schneider). The beginning of the film shows Peter catching Crusty and Maggot having sex (for those of you tallying the nasties, you should put one for incest here) and a fight between Peter and Maggot breaks out that carries on until Crusty uses a piece of glass to harm herself and arouse Peter. The second film is definitely more sexual in nature than the first, with there being multiple scenes involving genital mutilation and rape, including one where Crusty uses the severed penis of a male victim to sexually assault a female captive. We also see necrophilia and pedophilia during a scene where the trio murders a father, mother, and their daughter. The gore and general nastiness are also more intense in this film, with there being multiple scenes of disembowelment and rotting corpses throughout and a vomit scene that lasts way too long.
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The third film, though, shows a somewhat different side of the trilogy. It lets us see more of Peter and Crusty’s relationship, including several scenes that would almost be considered romantic — shopping and watching fireworks together, for example — were they not sandwiched between images of a man nailed to the floor pleading for his life and another being disemboweled. However, one of the most upsetting parts of the film is the Christmas scene. Crusty and Peter break into a home and bludgeon the father to death before Peter strangles the mother and tries to sexually assault her. The family’s daughter enters the room and Crusty immediately strangles her as Peter yells “I want to see the light leave!” Crusty ends up opening some of the presents under the tree and lying between the corpses of the daughter and mother while Peter cleans up. The film ends with Crusty committing suicide, remorseful for what she’s done after Peter goes too far and sexually assaults her as she cries. This entry of the trilogy is more of a character study than the others, but don’t be fooled. The gore is just as bad, with a scene of Peter cutting a fetus out of a woman being one of the most sickening of the series.
The ‘August Underground’ Director Was Arrested For Having the Movies On Him
After reading that brief synopsis, you might not be surprised to learn that the film got Vogel in a bit of hot water. In 2005, on his way to Festival of Fear in Canada, he was arrested at the Canadian border for having August Underground and August Underground’s Mordum on him while crossing the border. He was detained for 10 hours and ultimately not charged. The arrest certainly helped sell the idea of Vogel’s work to be some of the most disturbing films of all time.
It’s a story most people who dabble in exploitation and extreme horror have seen before, as something similar happened to Angel Sala, the director of the Sitges Film Festival, who was nearly convicted on child p*rnography charges for showing A Serbian Film at the festival, and to Remy Couture, a visual effects artist who was arrested by Montreal Police in 2009 for the graphic and disturbing nature of his work Inner Depravity. Perhaps the most famous example is Ruggero Deodato, who was put on trial for murder because his 1980 movie, Cannibal Holocaust, was so realistic-looking. Similarly to other films of the same nature, August Underground is a series that makes people question if things like it should be made, and if they are, should they be allowed to be censored, especially if they’re not “important,” which was the case made for Salò when being granted an 18 rating uncut.
‘August Underground’ Is More Than Just a Gross-Out Movie
However, a film being “important” or not is rather arbitrary, isn’t it? Most films, especially ones in the vein of August Underground, can often be cast aside as nothing but shock value-laden slop. Except, they often aren’t, and only given that moniker by people who haven’t actually watched them. August Underground , for all its gritty nastiness, is a great example of what a good found footage film should be. It feels exactly like a real snuff film of a group of people screwing around and killing people in their basem*nt. Not everything is focused on the gore; There are scenes of these people doing things together apart from their crimes, and that adds to the ugliness of what the film is really about. It makes you wonder how all this footage is shot without these people ever being found out for their crimes. By the third film, it tells you that this is all being filmed for the benefit of Peter himself, a man who is so unremarkable that killing is the only “interesting” or “special” thing about him. The series does an excellent job at not only capturing amateur filming as it would really happen, with strange zooms, angles, and focuses but also provides purpose for the things being filmed, something that several popular found footage films (like Megan is Missing) fail at.
August Underground is a horror trilogy that isn’t for everyone. It is dark, full of some of the worst things that humans could do to each other, and more often than not, sickening to watch. With scenes of necropedophilia, cannibalism, sexual assault, and extreme gore, the films rival — and in many ways, surpass — A Serbian Film, but it also shows rather competent filmmaking in the way it goes about using found footage. I actually commend Vogel for what he manages to achieve with them in terms of cinematography and effects, and even for what he achieves with character exploration in the final film. That’s just me, though; if you can stomach watching it, you might feel differently... and nauseous.
August Underground
Horror
- Release Date
- January 1, 2001
- Director
- Fred Vogel
- Cast
- Fred Vogel , Allen Peters
- Runtime
- 70 Minutes
August Underground is available to rent or buy on Google Play.
