Taxidermia (DVD)
Steve Barton
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Reviewed by Uncle Creepy
Starring Gábor Máté, Istvan Znamenak, Peter Blasko, Istvan Hunyadkurthy, Piroska Molnar
Directed by György Pálfi
Distributed by E1 Entertainment
Let me be clear. When a movie starts by showcasing a nude man literally shooting fire out of his dick, it means two things: One, the film has already proved that it has little to no regard for anything commonly deemed as socially acceptable; and two, the viewer (if not repulsed) is immediately enthralled. Yep, one wave of a fire-breathing johnson, and Taxidermia had me at its very warm hello.
This Hungarian import plays like The Godfather of artsy gross-out films by chronicling three generations of a family’s absolute madness. Things kick off as we follow the exploits of a harelipped ne’er-do-well who’s constantly on the lookout for new and exciting things to do with his penis. This guy humps anything he gets near, including holes in the wall. This opening segment features animal death, cock fighting (in its most humorous form; use your imagination, kids), animal necrophilia, self-mutilation, brief but actual onscreen x-rated penetration, and the world’s farthest traveling cumshot.
Of course all this humping leads to the eventual impregnation of an obese woman who gives birth to a baby with a tail who grows up to be an even more obese champion speed eater who incidentally becomes our protagonist during Act II of the film. We follow Tubby as he eats, and pukes, his way to love, eventually marrying another obese women whom he impregnates.
Act III of Taxidermia brings us full circle. It follows the two fatties’ son, and we catch up with him in his thirties. His mom is gone, his dad has now become morbidly huge and is breeding enormous cats in the basement of his store, and said store is where junior practices his profession of choice — taxidermy.
The thing about Taxidermia is that no matter how repulsive a film it is, it’s shot and acted beautifully, echoing the work of such incredible filmmakers as Michel Gondry. It’s surrealistic, darkly humorous, and there’s no possible way you can ever predict just which way the film is going to go. If you have the stomach for it, and we’re sure there’s a vast amount of the population out there who won’t, Taxidermia could very well be the most original film you’re likely to see in some time.
In terms of special features the ball is dropped here big time. All we get is a decent length making-of featurette, but you know what? It doesn’t matter. Even if this DVD were bare bones, we’d still recommend picking it up and giving it a look.
Taxidermia is every bit as demented as it sounds and then some. In between scratching your head and exclaiming “What the fuck?” out loud about six gazillion times, you will not be able to take your eyes off of it. Then again, you also may want to hunt me down and stuff me for recommending it. I’m game. How daring are you?
Special Features
4 out of 5
Special Features:
1 out of 5
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