SLAUGHTER DISC
Written and directed by David Quitmeyer
Featuring Caroline Pierce and Robert Williams
2005
Steel Web Studios
www.SlaughterDisc.com

"A commitment to sexual equality with males is a commitment to becoming the rich instead of the poor, the rapist instead of the raped, the murderer instead of the murdered." -- Andrea Dworkin

It's been sequelized a seemingly infinite number of times, there have been comic books and toys and halloween costumes, so a lot of people have probably forgotten that at the heart of Clive Barker's original "Hellraiser" lies a statement about the depths to which human beings can sometimes sink, all in the name of sexual gratification. Frank Cotton had been all over the world, had every kind of kinky sex imaginable, and was looking for the next step, anything to satisfy his carnal urges. And as we all know, he ended up torn apart for his troubles.

David Quitmeyer's "Slaughter Disc" is "Hellraiser" for the internet age, trading the slick and powerful Uncle Frank for a porn-adddicted slacker named Mike, upping the ante in its depiction of sex and violence, and carrying with it a firm stance on just how dangerous pornography can really be. Mike behaves like a junkie; when we first meet him, he's whacking off to CLOWN PORN, and has become so entranced that he's blown off his own girlfriend, who's not too pleased to find out her mate has been cheating on her with his own right hand. Next thing we know, Mike is hitting the porn shops, looking for something to take him even higher...or lower as it were. A suspiciously hollow-eyed video clerk points Mike in the direction of Andromeda Strange, whose videos are apparently so sick and depraved that they've been banned everywhere, and are illegal in most states. For our hapless porn freak, this is like the promise of Super Crack to the girls in "Frankenhooker". He is instantly obsessed.

It's at this point that director Quitmeyer makes a point to involve the audience firsthand in Mike's descent into the horrifying world of Andromeda Strange. When he plays her DVD, it's like we are watching it right along with him. Miss Strange does all her on-camera deeds in one room, decked out in tried-and-true "goth" fashion, getting naked and pleasuring herself with a scary-looking dildo (no punches are pulled here, by the way, as actual hardcore penetration is shown). But when things take a sinister, bloodier turn on screen, Mike still cannot turn away. He is disgusted, yet totally intrigued. The climax of Andromeda's video doesn't end with her reaching orgasm, either...but rather an uber-sadistic orgy of blood that would probably make Pinhead blush.

And that's only the beginning of this movie! Mike becomes more and more obsessed, Andromeda Strange becomes increasingly inhuman. But when Mike decides to quit Andromeda cold turkey (or cold jerky...hahaha), he finds that she does not take kindly to being spurned. As the lines of reality and fantasy are blurred (a la Cronenberg's "Videodrome"), we the audience find ourselves no more able to look away than Mike is. I'm sure that was intentional on the part of the filmmakers, and man does it work. Thankfully there's some goofy humor infused now and then, because otherwise this thing would be pretty hard to take.

"Slaughter Disc" sports creative editing, solid structure, absolutely disgusting gore fx, and an exceptional performance by Caroline Pierce as Andromeda. How is she able to have actual sex on screen in all that makeup, get covered in blood on top of that, and still manage to look at the camera and crack a smile after eating some unfortunate man's brains? Pierce deserves applause, as does Quitmeyer for bringing such a strong female character to the screen in the first place. Where pornography damages, Andromeda strange damages back. She is in total control, she's here to see just how far you are willing to go. Does "Slaughter Disc", with its marriage of hardcore sex and gore, go too far? After all, neither are presented in a way we haven't seen before. It's an interesting question to field. But I've never been one to over-analyze things. All I know is that Quitmeyer and his crew have used the digital video medium to even better effect than "The Blair Witch Project" for sure.

It's a horror film, and a well-made one at that. So if you're horrified...you should be. But like "Hellraiser" and "Videodrome", "Slaughter Disc" is about us, holding a mirror up to the deepest and darkest parts of our curiosity. It's a brave movie made by brave people, intent not to titillate the viewer, but rather obliterate them.

(June 2005)