August Underground's Penance

Plot synopsis:
August Underground's Penance continues the series's narrative mode of showing the lives of serial killers (now just Peter, and his girlfriend Crusty) through their camera, though this installment abandons the "degraded footage" aspect employed by the first two films, being shot in high-definition.
After killing a man who breaks free of his restraints and tries to escape them, Peter and Crusty visit various locations in town, and enjoy some fireworks at a celebration. Peter is then shown in his basement, taunting a semi-conscious man who has had nails hammered into various parts of his body. Next, Peter and Crusty go on a hike, assault a vagrant they find sleeping under a bridge, and cut a man open so they can pull his gurgling intestines out. The two then attend a party, where Peter does drugs, Crusty flirts with other women, and a live rat is fed to a pet alligator.
Around Christmas, Peter and Crusty break into a family's home. Peter bludgeons the father with a hammer, and suffocates the mother, who he is unsuccessful in trying to rape due to being unable to attain an erection. When the dead couple's young daughter stumbles onto the two intruders, Crusty strangles her. While Peter goes to shower, Crusty opens some of the family's presents, then falls asleep beside the corpses of the little girl, and her mother. Later, while watching a band perform, Crusty goes to an empty room with a man, who she has rough anal sex with. Back in the basement, Peter and Crusty torture and murder several people they have imprisoned. Afterward, they take apart a dead deer, and with a friend's help, feed pieces of it to a lion. The two then enjoy several recreational activities, like shooting on a makeshift firing range, and racing ATVs.
As Peter beats a man to death with a hammer, Crusty drinks some of the spilled blood, then helps Peter dismember a female body. When Peter wakes up from a nap, he and Crusty get into an argument. Peter is then shown cutting the fetus out of a pregnant woman, an act which causes Crusty to break down. When his attempts at comforting Crusty fail, Peter rapes her, then goes into hysterics himself. Peter gets drunk, and proceeds to take his frustrations out on a woman in the cellar, while screaming insults at Crusty, who is still sobbing hysterically upstairs. When Peter passes out, Crusty throws alcohol and other fluids onto his body, while ranting about how much she hates him.
After beating and tying up a woman, Peter masturbates and smears his semen on her. When Crusty walks in on this, she gets into a physical fight with Peter; he beats her while she screams insults and profanities at him. When Peter falls asleep, Crusty spits on him, and strangles his captive to death. With the woman dead, Crusty breaks down again, and begins begging for forgiveness and rambling about how she "wants out". The film ends with Crusty going to the bathroom and committing suicide via self-asphyxiation.

Tags: violence, murder, sadist

Review:
Four years after the over-the-top graphic spectacle of "Mordum", Toe Tog Pictures' "Penance" has finally seen the cold light of day.
Thankfully, the finished film is an accomplished offering that is actually better than its predecessors.Starting with a surprising scene in which things don't go quite as planned for Vogel's character and his equally disturbed girlfriend, again played by Cristie Whiles, the film then takes a temporary break into normality.
Introduced in "Mordum" as a psychotic powerhouse with a penchant for vomiting and abusing her female captives, her character in "Penance" is going through a transformation.
Here, he's well and truly involved and the film's a return to the style of the original "August Underground".Watching the two characters enjoy a break is entertaining and the viewer can enjoy the relative peace before the storm.
Their run-in with a homeless man, realistically played by Toetag fan and competition winner Fuctup, is the first sign during their vacation that these characters won't be at peace for long.For those seeking gore and violence, this installment won't disappoint but it's not the same intense, fluid-splattered, unrelenting roller-coaster as "Mordum".
If anything, it's a hybrid of the first two films, taking the best elements of both and coming up with an end result that's well paced and satisfying.What really works in favour of "Penance" is the clean, crisp presentation of the video footage.
"Penance" will undoubtedly offend a lot of viewers but despite its characters, the film has a moral centre.
There's a moment in the film when the characters watch a lion being fed raw "meat", some of which you wouldn't expect to find in your local supermarket.
But there's also sadness that this is very probably the final installment ever of "August Underground", a series that has reinvented the horror genre and taken viewers to a new, disturbing place.
The shock film, August Underground's Penance, is the pinnacle of holiday filth.
The August Underground trilogy is a collection of snuff footage filmed by the murderers, one male and one female, themselves.
The first August Underground is disturbing in the way that it depicts a snuff film so accurately.
August Underground's Mordum, as far as I am concerned, is the most disgusting and upsetting movie ever made.
Thanks to the special features section in Penance we learn that real pig intestines were used in the film making the actors sick to their stomachs!
The effects in this gore-fest are so realistic that the Toe Tag crew decided to use a better quality camera then in their previous movies to show off their skills and attention to detail.
This film shows the character development of the killers and adds that touch of humanity to contribute to the realism to this movie.
And, while Penance may not be as disgusting as Mordum, it does manage to supply a generous amount of its own sickness to the trilogy.Which brings us to the only thing worse than Christmas carolers; home invaders!
August Underground's Penance also has an ending that has to be seen to be believed!
The final scene might leave fans a little choked up.August Underground's Penance is a shockingly gruesome movie filled with anger, torture, and ejaculation.
Running on empty-the lackluster latest August Underground faux snuff video.
August Underground: Penance both sequentially and quality wise comes in third within the faux snuff video series (and I say series not trilogy simply because I know it in my gut that another one will follow in the future most likely out of necessity.) The digital video is clear this go around as opposed to the previous entries which sought to recreate the degraded bootleg VHS aesthetic.
The first seven minutes of August Underground seemed interminable for all of the right reasons as any good horror video should feel.
You would think the depravities shown in the third and final video in a faux snuff series would be taken to Mephistophilian levels unseen before within the gorenography genre, but this is just not the case here.
It didn't portray her absolute joy about this time in her life nor did it display her horror during her final moments as she realized the impending end to both her own and her unborn child's life.
It seems Vogel and company simply ran out of ideas which is shocking considering the repugnant reputation we are dealing with.The whole supposed finale has the feel of a quick dash for cash rather than a true artistic conclusion about the faux snuff phenomena the series explored.
After the somewhat disappointing 'August Underground's Mordum', which often went beyond believability in an attempt to do outdo its predecessor, the team at ToeTag have delivered what must be one of the most nauseating, realistically disgusting and vile pieces of filth that I have ever witnessed.
The film is an 84 minute catalogue of extreme depravity, sexual violence, torture and dismemberment, and hardly a minute went by where I didn't feel revulsed by what I was watching (and more than just a little bit sordid).
But, of course, director Fred Vogel doesn't want viewers to enjoy Penance; he wants them to endure it, which means that the third and final movie in the August Underground series can only be hailed as a success!The aim of Penance is to make damn sure that anyone watching it sees murder as it truly is: an ugly act that is nasty, messy and totally repugnant.
Vogel's on-screen killers, a couple of psychos (played by the director himself and Mordum's Cristie Whiles) who enjoy nothing more than inflicting pain and suffering on complete strangers, are neither glamourised or exaggerated, nor are they portrayed as anti-heroes; they're shown to be real people—albeit bloody scary ones who would be perfectly happy to remove your head from your shoulders without giving it a second thought.Once again, the film consists of random video footage shot by the twisted twosome as they go about their day-to-day business, attacking the homeless, going to rock gigs, indulging in drugs and, of course, raping and killing innocent people.
This time, however, the quality is not that of a degraded VHS tape (as in the previous two AU films), but digital (and in widescreen), meaning that the viewer gets to see every last sickening detail.And what sights they have to show us: Vogel's character wrestles with entrails whilst trying to disembowel a corpse, removes a foetus from a pregnant victim, and (unsuccessfully) tries to rape a woman after having smashed her husband over the head with a hammer; Whiles's soulless bitch slowly squeezes the life out of a child, gleefully hacks up a deer (which is later fed to the scariest lion in existence), and also indulges in her fair share of vicious torture and bloody dismemberment.
The gruesome effects are top notch and praise must be given to effects man Jerami Cruise for successfully turning my (usually cast-iron) stomach several times.With the OTT approach of the second film replaced by the more realistic feel of the first, Penance is a satisfactory end to a unique and very unsettling series of films.
I now hope that Vogel leaves the 'pseudo-snuff' genre well alone and turns his attention to making the zombie film that he has mentioned in the past.As with the other AU movies, I find it a hard film to rate.
It's not 'enjoyable', and at times it plods (the first twenty minutes are pretty uneventful), but it's a powerful work that you just cannot ignore, and for that reason Penance gets 7.5 out of 10 (rounded up to 8 for IMDb)..
The long awaited arrival of Toe Tag Pictures third entry into the August Underground series, Penance, is finally here, and was well worth every minute.The story picks up with Vogel and While's characters documenting their violent, savage acts on home video as they tantalize, humiliate and force their victims into submission.
Through the midst of vicious rape and torture are shots of the two hanging out and goofing off just as any home video would show, adding a certain realism to the film.August Underground's Penance combines the dark realism of August Underground with the extremeness of Mordum to make for the strongest entry in the series.
On the other hand, While's character begins to deteriorate, as she slowly comes to the realization of the atrocities in which they are committing; she starts to break down emotionally and physically.The term "Penance," which also serves as the central theme in the film, refers to, "punishment or suffering undergone voluntarily to atone for sin or wrong doing," and can be seen in the last few minutes of the film where the characters, primarily While's, undergo a dramatic change in mentality.
As with the other August Underground films, what happens in the final scene is left open-ended and requires viewer interpretation.Penance, hands down, contained the best acting the series has seen yet with a strong focus on Vogel and While's brilliant performances.
Aside from playing the parts of psychotic killers, at certain times in the film their inner child comes out, which in ways, brings a sense of normalcy to their characters but also makes for some of the most disturbing aspects.
The complexity of these two characters can be overwhelming at times as they often drift in and out of various mood swings.With a much bigger body count than the two prior films, Penance made for some sick special effects, courtesy of f/x wizard Jerami Cruise.
Cruise pays extra close attention to detail and delivers his best effects yet.In the August Underground series, Toe Tag Pictures takes horror, shits on it, and portrays it for what it truly is without glorifying the actions.
These films show the harsh reality of what really happens in the world, where murder and torture happens daily, and takes the viewer beyond scary into a world of true, bloody horror, straight to the point and without any bullshit.
"August Underground's Penance" is basically the personal home video of two sociopathic killers on murder spree.Again two nameless butchers played by Fred Vogel and Cristie Whiles videotape their bloodthirsty madness,but "Penance" shows also their slow decline.First of all I'm not a big fan of "August Underground" series.Still as a lover of extreme cinema who had previously seen "August Underground" and "August Underground's Mordum" I really wanted to see the final installment.This time the faux-VHS look of Mordum has been tossed aside in favor of a more contemporary digital look.The gore effects made by ToeTag crew are very convincing and the violence is dirty and vile.There are some boring moments,but overall "Penance" is not as perverted and repulsive as "Mordum".7 out of 10..
If it's purely infamy Vogel's looking for he's gone about it the right way, but hey Vogel, why not surprise people and at least try to make something remotely intelligent, then you can throw in as much filth and degradation as you like and still get taken seriously?
The thing is, Vogel doesn't have the minerals to create anything of any quality or depth, and Penance is a hollow exercise in pushing the boundaries of what is watchable.
It's utterly devoid of any subtext whatsoever.Ironically the only thought provoking element in this film is Fred Vogel himself, who co-writes, directs, produces?, and stars.
In much the same way as Argento used to perform the stabbings himself in many of his films, Vogel has a vested personal interest in the violence displayed here.
Writing, directing and playing the central character seems to be giving Vogel the closest experience possible to fulfilling his ultimate fantasy without actually having to get arrested, although one could argue that even the inclusion of such a young girl in the filming of this offal is worthy of a stern ticking off.
Vogel's film, on the other hand is designed purely to shock and/or titillate.
After watching all three August Underground films, you will be questioning yourself whether the directors are disturbed for making such a sadistic series, or are you disturbed for watching all three.
The first august underground was dark and disturbing as it mimicked a snuff film so accurately.
Well, Fred Vogel and Cristie Whiles are back as directors and star in the third installment of the series playing the psychopathic killers Peter and Crusty.
Penance takes a different approach, yes, there is still vile scenes such as disembowelment and cutting out a fetus from a victim, but we see more from the killers.
For a film that had a very low budget and unknown actors, it pulled off something so spectacularly disgusting that the series will be implanted in our memory for a long time..
The August Underground films each have their "breath of fresh air" scenes in between - or even during - the more disturbing blood/vomit drenched scenes.
Where it seems most people think that Mordum was the most disturbing in the trilogy, Penance went to a completely different level of grit and darkness.
Penance is the third and final film of the August Underground trilogy.If you have seen the first 2 you will know of the grainy, amateur camera work used.
The picture is much better quality but still amateur like making you believe that this is for real.Again, it's very gory and disturbing for some but doesn't have quite the intensity of some of the extreme scenes in Mordum.
Man uses video camera to shoot 2 underground snuff films August Underground Pt1 & Pt2.Man meets girl and goes about making a 3rd only this time messes the formula up and spends the bulk of it filming himself in various redneck/trailer park trash pursuits.
The scariest and most disturbing thing about "August Underground's Penance" is that Fred Vogel and his team of no-talents deemed what they'd shot worthy of release.
There are no characters, there is no story, the Killers' POV perspective is now clichéd and done to death, and the ultra-shaky camera-work just further illustrates the lack of intelligence and talent behind this abortion.
Don't know why I'm just now getting around to giving my thoughts on AUGUST UNDERGROUND'S PENANCE - I watched it quite a while ago, and typically try to give my 2 cents shortly after viewing.
I'm not a real big fan of this series (or the fake-snuff genre in general...) - but I like to keep up on the latest "shock" films out there, so of course I had to give this one a whirl too...If you've seen the other AU films - PENANCE is much of the same: Guy and girl "serial killers" graphically murder people and then do a whole bunch of boring sh!t - all captured on their cam-corder.Compared to the other two AU films, I liked (and I use the term "liked" quite loosely...) PENANCE more than the first AU film, and less than MORDUM.
There were a few elements to PENANCE that were a bit stronger than AU (the "downward spiral" of the main characters in this entry particularly), but it lacked the gleeful and almost cartoonish violence of MORDUM which made that entry notable.
It starts off with a nice bit of violence, always a great way to kick off an underground film.
From there, it goes to a bit of beauty, which is not without its methods of getting under the viewer's skin in ways not thought possible by the simple video.In one scene, Fred assaults a homeless man, played by the Toe Tag Forum's very own Fuctup34 (whose piercings must weigh more than his head by now).
Toe Tag Pictures has done it again by showing us what the public doesn't want to know.Please, if you liked Mordum, and expect this to have the same all out guts and gore approach, then avoid it.
It's something unlike anything you've ever experienced, especially the soon-to-be-infamous "Christmas" scene (trust me, if you've seen it, you know what I'm talking about, and you agree).Once more, everything in this film has a purpose, nothing is just to make it longer.
It all has a purpose, and it all serves its purpose very well.The reason this film is so great is because you don't just see the horrible, perversion that you saw in Mordum, you see Fred and Crusty having fun, you see them as normal people, then get slapped in the face with another kill.
Perhaps he designed it that way because he may think any ending he could give it would be a cliché, or perhaps it's just one of those things the public isn't meant to know.One theory, nothing has been confirmed by Fred Vogel (though it has been hinted that this may be correct), but one theory on Crusty's breakdown is that in the bathtub was her miscarriage (which would explain her complaints throughout the movie).
For more information on this film, and other Toe Tag Films (such as August Underground, or August Underground's Mordum, as well as The Redsin Tower) or to purchase it, go to www.toetagpictures.com Rating: Acting: 10/10 Story: 8/10 Gore: 10/10 Character Development (one of the most amazing aspects of this film): 10/10 Disturbing Factor: 12/10 Overall: 10/10 The best horror movie to come out in the past 20 years.
First of all , I feel an irresistible urge to say something about those " Fred - Vogel - and his - gang - of - non - talents - made -a horrible - piece - of crap " reviews .
This is not some amateurish attempt at shocking people , this is extreme horror at it's best .That being said , I can go on to reviewing .What we have here , in the 3rd part of August Underground series , is a complete downfall of our beloved , slimy , pathetic characters .
Fred's character still shows no remorse , but apparently disintegrates .Of course , Mr Cruise did a brilliant job with special effects , make - up is also top notch , and acting very good .
It's one of the best horror movies I've seen so far .