Two years after Deep Web XXX, arrives XXX Dark Web, another extreme horror anthology that this time is dedicated to the searing contents of the darknet (dark web).
Sewn around a frame episode in which a boy is overcome by the voyeuristic act after watching five extreme videos, XXX Dark Web (2020) brings together depravity and obscenity without any taboos, elevating itself to one of the most extreme and explicit films of recent years.
Conceived by Domitian Cristopharo (Doll Syndrome, Red Krokodil), XXX Dark Web focuses on the rottenest part of the sexual sphere by shining the spotlight on autoeroticism, fellatio, sodomy, various forms of violence, lesbian and S&M siplets confined to deviant settings. The result is a chilling portrayal of pain and death that here verges on realism thanks in part to practical effects (Athanasius Pernath, Grazia D'Amaro, Baco's Props) crafted by expert hands and highly polished cinematography that captures ailments and suffering but also the squalor in which sexual disorders proliferate.
Alex Hernández, Domiziano Cristopharo, Emanuele Marchetto, Adam Ford, Daniel Valient and Lorenzo D. Zanoni are the names of the directors who with XXX Dark Web give a journey into the arms of perversion, throwing the viewer into a dimension that nullifies feelings and fuels a general sense of unease and discomfort triggered by the deplorable and shocking actions immortalized in some of the segments, especially in the concluding one. In fact, the latter is a snuff film in which the director himself indulges in a real form of extreme self-harm by amputating the little finger of his left hand and then practicing self-cannibalism.
The film is a TetroVideo & Enchanted Architect co-production.
“Curiosity Killed the Cat" is the title of the frame episode that ends after the credits.
Lorenzo D. Zanoni ("Gully" episode in OLC: Final Contagium) and Domiziano Cristopharo. The latter also handled the photography and FX specials (Athanasius Pernath).
The protagonist of the story is a young man (Franz Dicarolo) who, after viewing hot footage, will receive a surprise that will not be to his liking.
Domiziano Cristopharo also directs and handles the photography of the first episode, "TeknoBarbie", in which a provocative self-effacing woman (Chiara Pavoni) dances half-naked, illuminated by strobe lights.
There are several hidden frames in this segment while among the highlights is the stitching of the female genitalia.
In the cast: Chiara Pavoni (Xpiation).
Ruthless in expressing the concept of pain, the very young and talented Mexican director Alex Hernández (Blood For Flesh) directs "The Prosperity of Vice", an episode characterized by a suffocating atmosphere dominated by a deep sense of oppression and squalor. The atrocious "The Prosperity of Vice" opens the door to sodomy, abominable torture (emasculation by biting, suction of the intestines with a vacuum cleaner through the rectum, teeth destroyed with a wrench, amputation of the lower limbs, stitched-up penis) and vile acts at the hands of two insane torturers against a man possibly guilty of some crimes in the past.
“The Prosperity of Vice" also astonishes because of the peculiarity in which the bloody "spectacle" of the victim's death is staged.
In the cast: Enrique Diaz Duran, Juan Manuel martinez and Daniel Cruz.
Photography is by the director himself while FX are by BACO's props.
“Dolls", the third episode, is written and directed by Emanuele Marchetto ("Stalker" segment in Deep Web XXX), here also as an actor. In fact, Emanuele Marchetto plays the protagonist, a psychopath intent on giving "life" to a mannequin using anatomical parts of his victim.
The director goes beyond a simple homage to "Maniac" by William Lustig by bringing to life his own original and disorienting idea.
Along with "The Prosperity of Vice" by Alex Hernández, "Dolls" is surely the most powerful and engaging segment of the anthology. The episode disturbs but at the same time captivates the viewer with its ability to lend a surreal harmony to shots that encapsulate illness, depravity, love and death at the same time.
In the cast: Emanuele Marchetto and Valerie Von Otto. Grazia D'Amaro handled the FX.
Written and directed by Adam Ford (Torment), “Deconstructing Roberto", features a boy who, taking part in a kind of experiment, accepts any sexual abuse, even indulging in bondage practices, demonstrating a high pain threshold (needles driven into buttocks, punched testicles, scrotum pierced with needles, knife in rectum, electric shocks in private parts).
In the cast: Alex D'Alascio.
In the amoral concluding episode, "Allison's Mouth fills up with Blood and Semen", musician and director Daniel Valient brings to life a real-life snuff movie in which he himself practices self-injury (hammering and chopping on the chest) and then results in two aberrant acts: extreme self-injury (amputation of his little finger) and autocannibalism (ingestion of part of his own finger).
Undoubtedly this is a visually very disturbing short, certainly as uncomfortable as it is raw and brutal.
In the cast: Daniel Valient, Allison Simon, Cher Nevin, Cole Arpin, Sierra Gallagher and Rebekah Del Rio.
