Beasts aka Flesh and the Bloody Terror (1988) is directed by Dennis Yu, who has made also other films like Evil Cat. The film is reportedly written by the guy, who plays the revenging father in this film. The film is about a bunch of teenagers who go into woods for a trip in order to stay there for couple of days and have fun. They go and put up tents and so on, but soon we have a clues that some retarded and Deliverance like local idiots are there and once they discover the beautiful and sexy girls, all mayhem lets loose and things continue like in I Spit on Your Grave and other films of its kind. A brutal rape takes place and then it is time for a merciless revenge...
This is surprisingly effective film, but totally brainless and serves only as a piece of violent exploitation cinema. The father just starts to kill the local rapists without any moral and makes nasty traps and acts very primitively. The murders are bloody and shocking and they include a box filled with erected nails in which one character is dropped head first with bloody result and incredible reactions by his fellows. When the victim is suffering with the nail box in his head, the others ask things like "Does it hurt?" or "What's wrong with you?" !! These kind of dialogue can only be found in Oriental (exploitation) cinema, like this. There are also other gross out moments which made me almost cringe. As the rape victim spends time in hospital, seriously mentally damaged, she has a very nasty tooth brushing habit and the puke-o-meter may rise too high for most of the viewers. Only Hong Kong cinema can deliver something like this! Also, if the viewer scares snakes, DON'T WATCH THIS!!! There are hundreds of slithery creatures in here and one scene is very disgusting with blood and live snakes. I have nothing against snakes (I think I consider them fascinating) but couple of scenes were almost too much for me, too! So keep these things in mind, if trying to track down the film, which is actually very obscure and rarely seen, as IMDB ratings and comments (almost non-existent) show.
There is absolutely no piece of any morality in this film and it is pure violent and sicko cinema without any brains required. But that's okay, if one thinks these films are fine and nice to watch. I am also interested in exploitation cinema because they have also very often something "noteworthy" or even artistic to offer. Beasts is not an exception and has couple of extremely atmospheric scenes and gorgeous photography in the forest. Weird camera angles and plenty of fog. So this is not total non-sense even though most of the people consider these pure trash and sh*t. But the main point here is to shock and offer violent imagery, but it is great that the film is stylish too. These kind of films could also be far greater, but Beasts is definitely not as bad as they could be. One has to be a fan of Eastern (sicko) cinema in order to enjoy this and others of its kind.
7/10 as an exploitation "classic" and it is fascinating to watch these forgotten and unknown gems, and it is great that these have been released on VCD in Hong Kong. Flesh and the Bloody Terror aka Beasts is marginal cinema and B horror cinema almost at its greatest!
PS! I've heard from one fellow and cult cinema enthusiast that there is a version of this film with brief hard core sex inserts in the rape scene. In my VCD, there were no such scenes, even though the scene was pretty graphic. If someone knows more about these different versions, you may e-mail me freely and tell me about it! Also, it would be nice to know, what is that other film "The Beasts" (from 1980) directed by Dennis Yu, because IMDB lists two (The) Beasts in its database and Yu's filmography?? Is it only a misunderstood or are there really two different films? So if anyone has any info to offer, contact me freely!
