Re-Flesh — Re-Flesh(DVD)
Re-Flesh is a low-budget sci-fi horror anthology film from 2022. It features some rewarding splatter-bound gore, a decent mix of types of stories going from the more playful to sinisterly abstract, and an effective score/ soundtrack- which blends together stripped-back sci-fi electronica, brooding glitch bound ambience, and even darts into greyly pressing noise matter. Here from SRS Cinema’s Nightmare Fuel series is a region-free DVD release of the film.
Re-Flesh is an Italian made film. It was written and directed by Davide Pesca- who also did the film's effects too. He’s been active in the underground horror scene since 2014- racking up to date sixteen credits- taking in nine features, with the rest being shorts/ segments in anthologies. His features go from Deep Web XXX (2018) which appeared on Unearthed’s Too Extreme For The Mainstream series. Onto Dead Butterfly: The Prophecy of Suffering Bible( 2019) regarding a trapped angel, through to Grand Guignol madness - Show Your Fear( 2020) which focuses on fear & obsessions, and Night Of Doom ( 2021) a sci-fi horror regarding a powerful new drug.
Re-Flesh runs at just over the hour mark and takes in five stories as well as a wrap-around story. The warp around is a grainy black & white affair, featuring a S&M masked and hospital-gowned figure being plugged in for assessment by a high-heeled grim cyborg-faced character. We go from a colour-filmed story of a woman who signs up for an online pet, which starts wanting to feed on flesh ‘n’ eyes. The next story regards a woman who touches some strange debris in an underpass- then starts developing new body orifices. Stories three & four are a little more abstract/ arty- first, we get a bandaged woman wandering a woodland, before getting sucked into a mobile phone to be raped by a tentacled alien. And the second is another black & white segment regarding a strange grown woman attacking a series of people in a field. With the final story is regarding homeless people being given a drug by a tech company, who have very sinister intentions in mind.
Pesca's effect work throughout are impressive- yes, they are clearly done on a low budget, but they are often inventive/ effectively realized/ filmed. Notable moments were a creature crawling through guts, elongated fingers pressing in and out of orifices, wire ‘n’ cables spreading over a body, and a few gruelling tubes in necks & mouths pulled apart effects.
The film's soundtrack/ score is by Santo Bianchini- who has worked on a few other films with Pesca. And it is most effective/well realized- as well as been decidedly varied- we go from stripped back & sci-fied electronica, onto oppressive glitch touched ambience, through to more dense ‘n’ noise bound cues. The whole thing is filmed with great grim flair, and the mix of both black & white, and colour stock works well. All in all, I was most impressed by Re-Flesh.
Moving onto this new region free DVD, and we get a few extras on the disc. There’s a colour version of the woman in the underpass story, and nine minutes of behind-the-scenes footage. There’s a trailer of the film, and a trailer reel.
In finishing, if you enjoy grim 'n' gory science fiction horror Re-Flesh is most certainly a must see!. I’ll most certainly be tracking down more of Mr Pesca filmography, and I very much look forward to seeing what he does next… lets us hope it turns up on SRS cinema too.