Mordum — Mordum(Blu Ray/ DVD)

Appearing two years after the first August Underground, Mordum does exactly what a sequel should do- amp things up more, and boy does it amp things up to truly deranged & very highly disturbing levels. As with the first film, this is a pseudo video diary of serial killers- though this time instead of two, we have three killers- each with their own depraved behaviour and kinks.  Here from Unearthed Films- is a double disk Blu-Ray & DVD release of the film- bringing together a new commentary track, a host of new extras, and some archive extras.

August Underground’s Mordum, or just Mordum was released in the year 2003. It was jointly directed by Fred Vogel( who helmed the first film), Michael Todd Schneider, Cristie Whiles, Jerami Cruise, and Killjoy. In total Vogel has eight other credits to his name- these go from gory supernatural slasher The Red Skin Tower (2004), on to most recently The Final Interview (2018) an intense & hard-hitting thriller set in a prison. Schneider has thirteen directorial credits- these go from the hallucinating psychiatric patient horror of I Never Left The White Room(2000), to 70’s tinged throwback horror of ….And Then I helped (2010). Cristie Whiles has no other directorial credits, though she appears in a few later ToeTag films ( who produced Mordum) like the third  & to date final film August Underground film Penance (2007), and The Redskin Tower (2006).  Cruise is credited as doing one of the segments in the Toe Tag anthology Murder Collection V.1(2009), and 2013 short Insomniac- though he is most known for his effects credits- in total he has thirty-four effects credits- these go from Underground horror like Murder- Set-Pieces( 2004), though to big budget fare like Star Trek Beyond (2016), Avengers: Endgame (2019).  Killjoy is most known for being the lead vocalist from US Death Metal band Necrophagia.

Just like the first film Mordum is built around a selection of clips/ video diary entries regarding our three killers- Crusty (Cristie Whiles) a tubby self-harming female punk, Peter Mountain( Fred Vogel) a towering often angry man, and Maggot(Michael Todd Schneider) a gangly, manically chuckling figure with long miss-kept hair & straggly beard. We open with Peter bounding up a staircase and banging on a door- behind it Crusty & Maggot are making the beasts with two backs, and we find our the pair our brother & sisters.

As we go on two masked and bound victims are pulled from out of boxes- the woman is raped & belittled, while the man is made to cut off his own penis- which Crusty & Maggot play with. Two female victims are brought into the trio's dungeon- their clothes roughly pulled off by Crusty, who then vomits on them. Before one has her belly slit & the guts pulled out by Maggot, who then starts humping the hole. There are jarringly cut house invasions with Peter raping a woman, a trip to a tattoo/ piercing parlour where a nose ring is ripped out in a bloody mess, and a trip to a dank barely lit shed with decaying bodies strung up & tied/ crying, victims.

The whole thing is filmed in a highly crude & often cinema verité manner- which is then deteriorated to lo-fi VHS quality, which sells the whole thing even more. The film is shot in & around rundown, and locations piled high furniture and rubbish covered with rotting food, vomit & filth- so at points you can almost smell the film.

I first saw Mordum back in 2010- and can still recall how truly shocked & deeply troubled I was by it, I’ve watched several times more over the years, and of course, the initial gut punch shock has lessened. But it still is deeply impactful & very disturbing, and easily remains the most troubling/ extreme film I’ve ever seen.

 

 

Moving onto this new Blu-Ray/ DVD set- and it's stacked with extras, many new/ exclusive. All of the new stuff appears on the Blu-Ray (along with archive stuff) so I’ll give a rundown of that content. So first up we have audio commentary with Jerami Cruise and Ultra-Violent Magazine's Art Ettinger- this is a nice fairly chatty affair.  They begin by talking about how the film came about- basically, it grew from making a music video with Necrophagia. We find out the film's title is a blend of the words murder & boredom. They discuss how the film blurs the line between real violence and effects- for example one of the early stomach slashes by Whiles was an effect, but a few minutes later the arm slicing was all real.  We find out there was no script, and they planned what they were going to do from night to night. We found out the total effects budget for effects- possibly the whole film, was just $300. Cruise discusses how he set up certain effects- often hiding just out of frame, when the filming was going on. We find out that just before making this film he had been a touring puppeteer. There’s talk about how they all met Killjoy, and how they started working with him. We get a few stories about issues with the police- once on the basement torture scene, when there were complaints about screaming from the neighbours. And when they got surrounded by cops with guns when they were carrying props. Later on, we find out that Cruise still has many of the props from the film- including the white masks. We find out that the barn at Killjoy's place & where they all vomit collapsed soon after the scene was done- so most of the props/ effects were lost. We find out they had refilmed the final scene, as the girl who is hung up naked started screaming because she needed a drug hit. A worth a play track.

 

Next on the new side, we get the following- Mordum Lives (4.40) filmed intro from Fred Vogel. The Most Disturbing Scene (5.12) Fred talking about the film's final scenes. Remembering Killjoy (5.50) Fred pays tribute to Killjoy who sadly passed in March 2018. A Family Affair Of Love And Hate (33.45) a zoom interview between Nathan Hine from Hardcore & Michael Todd Schneider. Stephen Biro Interviews Jerami Cruise (12.02) a filmed interview between the pair. Art Ettinger And Allana Sleeth (11.24) filmed an interview between two of the film's extras. Zoë Rose Smith Interviews Fred Vogel (42.06) in a zoom chat. Dave Parker Interviews Fred Vogel (42.36) Zoom interview between the respected underground horror critic & Vogel. Snuff Purgatory: Severed Cinema Interviews Fred Vogel (56.39).

On the archive side we get another commentary track from the Toetag gang, cuts scenes, Photogallery, and a few other things- there are hours & hours of stuff to sink your teeth into here.

 

I know it’s an overused cliché- but really & truly Mordum is a film to approach with great caution- as well as a strong stomach & a (relatively) sound mind- because this is without doubt one of the most extreme & disturbing films of all time. With this great new Unearthed Films release weighed down with extras- giving the definitive version of this slice of very extreme horror.