04/06/2012: Little Deaths [2011]

I glanced through a review of this months ago, on The Wolfman Cometh. As The Wolfman said, Little Deaths is by no means a movie one will watch and enjoy, you will be uncomfortable throughout, and possibly disgusted or disturbed, but that is what it intended. Sometime a movie isn’t made for your entertainment, it is made to make you want to forget everything you saw, and that by no means detracts from how good it is.

Little Deaths is a compilation of 3 different segments. Each story is written and directed by a different individual, none of whom I recognize. The overarching theme of Little Deaths is sex and death, and well you get both en mass. However while every story without a doubt stays true to these themes, (perhaps the last is missing some death), the stories in fact do not connect to each other in any way. In many such anthologies, they sometimes tend to link the different stories in the end or just very subtly throughout. What this really means is that if you want to take a break between any of the segments, feel free, it might be for the best. Then again you can do it all in one sitting and really fuck yourself up.

I think I shall discus the three segments separately first, as they are completely individual. The first segment: House & Home is considered by most to be the best, and I think I might agree. It tells the story of a couple, who appear to be having some trouble in the bedroom, and appear to be discussing the introduction of a third person into their sex lives. Let’s just say, that for the first 20 minutes, this movie could have been pretty realistic, if still dealing with some very dark fetishes. But then everything goes so fucking far off the deep end, I’m not really sure what the fuck happened. I’ll leave that surprise for you.

Sometimes after a hard days work I just like to put my face in the mashed potatoes too.

After surviving the first story, you can feel free to carry on to the second one, with a clean slate. The first story is over, and won’t come back to bite you.  Mutant Tools is, as crazy as the first one got, by far the most far out and possibly the most disturbing of the 3. I’ll give it a major plus for working in Nazi’s and their experiments, but I mean, the weird as hell beast with the, to quote The Wolfman, “monster cock” was arguably verging on Human Centipede level of fucked up.  I don’t even want to think about the poor special effects and make up department whom had to deal with that. (Correct use of whom there?)

I think I understood most of what was happening in that segment, which is impressive considering the fact that I probably should have been trying to drink the images on screen out of my mind by that point. I don’t mean to say this movie has the craziest visuals ever to grace the screen, but it is pretty up there, and I’m not just going to recommend this out of the blue to anyone. That would be like recommending a snuff film to someone who reads playboy. Not something you do to someone.

Just leave it for the night janitor, this is what he is paid for.

Now onto the third segment, Bitch. Bitch is the title, I wasn’t just ending the sentence dramatically.  This one ironically forgoes the whole death thing, although it more than makes up for it with the kinky(?) sexual relationship between the main characters. The weirdest thing about it is that, as weird as it is, these weird, dog  and master, act like an animal and dominate the other relationships do exist, and with the billions of people on this earth, might be more common than I think.  So, as crazy as the relationship is, it seems to have been going fine up and till this point. I mean the guy sleeps in a doghouse, (I’ve roughed it in weirder places) wears a dog mask and even pisses in her underwear door.  Apparently, in your strange, animal and dominatrix relationship that is where she draws the line. What follows is an interesting number of events, and revenge, and I think as messed up as you imagine it will be at the end you spend the last couple minutes hoping the camera shifts so you can see what happens in the bedroom. Of course, it doesn’t, but let’s face it, whatever you are imagining was probably worse. Or was it...?

You know they comes pre-built and in pre-molded plastic these days.

Truly, Little Deaths is not a movie to watch comfortably. It mixes some of the dark themes, with sex and death, and feature some disturbing visuals. The name itself is interesting, with the title possibly indicating that there are three stories. Since Deaths is pluralized and Little is indicative of short stories. However, if you translate Little Deaths into french, you get la petite mort, apparently an idiom for orgasm. Interesting... 

The acting in Little Deaths isn't astounding,but it is through their action that you build the characters, not their skill at delivering dialogue. This is another movie from the UK, and features actors/actresses completely unknown to me as usual, although no problematic accents. There is some guy on IMDb who seems to swear by Holly Lucas, but I don't recognize her name. 

Overall, this is a movie that as uncomfortable as it may have been to watch, and however much some of the visuals may haunt me, that in no-way meant it was a bad movie. It was actually quite a good one, and it didn't stray from what it set out to do, even with three completely separate stories. It think if you watch this without a twinge of discomfort, you may want to question your current relationship if you can compare it on more than 3 major points with anything in this movie. As for whom I'm recommending this to, well I know a couple of people who would be interested, and I recommended it to one, but I won't be lending it to just anyone. Or maybe I will just slip it to a friend, and see what they think, they might get about 10 minutes in before really asking "What the fucking hell?".

Link:

Little Deaths IMDb