DVD review: Tortura (2008)

Munich, a city full of life .... A young woman crawls her way on a subway platform. Her body is covered with wounds. The horrific story she tells the police seems incredible! In dirty rooms and disused subway tunnels live the outcasts of the human race. There they have built their own little world, far from civilization! Here there is only one rule: survival! Four friends are on the way to a nightclub. On the way home they are attacked by a homeless person and kidnapped! But there is a saying - "One should not play with your food." Tortura is written and directed by Marcel Walz and Michael Effenberger. At first the plot might sound very similar to La Petit Mort which is also directed by Marcel Walz and they certainly have a few things in common. The pacing is good with a running time under 75 minutes, the acting is decent but Martina Schölzhorn and Anna Trageser are to be commended - their suffering and desperate screams look authentic as they suffer at the hands of the sadistic and cruel clan of cannibalistic homeless people. Should not forget to mention Anton Grünbach who is good as the leader of the cannibals. There is sometimes poor sound and weak illumination. The camera work and editing is mostly good but the use of shaky cam now and then is a bit disturbing at times. The setting varies from looking good to a very simple design.
There is of course plenty for the gorehounds but it is not as plentiful as might be expected, this is not a gorefest in the style of Olaf Ittenbach instead the gore supplements the terror and plot. We get some innovative methods of torture and cannibalism. The gore fx, all practical, is decent, some effects are very good and some are less successful as fingers are cut off, skin gets removed and entrails are taken out.
This review is based upon the german region 2 release from X-rated, it´s german language only and is uncut.
Rating: 5½ out of 7. Tortura looks pretty good and it´s obvious that the makers are very ambitious. In my opinion Tortura is a reasonable contribution to the so called torture-porn subgenre (in my mind a ridiculous label invented by critics), forget the Hollywood nonsense film Hostel - Tortura is a lot better and it´s made on a much smaller budget. I look forward to see more from Marcel Walz and Michael Effenberger.

/JL