‘Demise his faith – Blood his lust!’
Guru the Mad Monk is a 1970 American horror movie written and directed by Andy Milligan (The Physique Beneath; The Rats Are Coming! The Werewolves Are Right here!; The Ghastly Ones; Bloodthirsty Butchers).
The movie’s title was presumably impressed by Hammer Movies’ Rasputin, the Mad Monk (1966).
Plot:
Guru is the chaplain of an island-bound Fifteenth-century jail. In addition to offering religious steering, he delivers prisoner punishments, which vary from having palms chopped off to execution.
Guru helps Carl (Paul Lieber), a jail guard, save Nadja (Judith Israel) from her punishment. Solely Guru’s assist doesn’t come free. He asks Carl to rob graves for him. Guru additionally shelters Olga (Jaqueline Webb) — his mistress, who additionally occurs to be a bloodsucking vampire…
Our overview:
Guru is fast to homicide when questions are raised about his dodgy administration of his jail and church. When out-of-luck drifters present up searching for the Lord’s assist, Guru and Olga swiftly relieve them of their lives after providing a little bit of false hope. Yep, Guru is a sick bastard, however I couldn’t assist however type of like him. Guru is performed by Neil Flanagan. Flanagan offers a good efficiency, however he’s a reasonably innocent and mild wanting man.
There are elements of Guru’s character that give him a number of extra layers than your common mad monk. Guru actually loves his jail, and his relationship with Olga is fascinating. He genuinely sees himself as a drive for good, and when he stabs a drifter to loss of life (in an admittedly hilariously faux scene) he reveals unhappy regret.
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Better of all is his relationship with Igor (Jack Spencer), the compulsory church hunchback. His therapy of the hunchback is perversely manipulative. However, sadism apart, he wants Igor, and he is aware of it. Guru lectures the sweetly harmless Igor in a fantastically mad second: “I can say something to you, you ignorant bastard, and also you simply smile… possibly God knew how desolate and forsaken this place was when he gave you to me to speak to… to maintain me from going out of my thoughts. What a gorgeous smile, it’s all you actually have, isn’t it?” His phrases are merciless and made me really feel slightly in poor health, however there’s something oddly touching in regards to the scene. It’s stuff like this that makes Milligan’s movies way more attention-grabbing than your common exploitation image.
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Guru was shot and lower within the chaotic matter you’ll anticipate from Andy Milligan. The digital camera wobbles round in every single place. The edits are abrupt and with none acknowledgement of continuity. Actors soar between totally different elements of the set because the shot strikes to the following. Whereas not as exhilarating as Milligan’s greatest, there’s nonetheless vitality in Guru that’s simple.
Although the poster screams that Guru is “A GORY TALE OF TERROR!” shot in “BLOOD DRIPPING COLOR”, it is vitally tame. The movie ends in a bluster of poorly executed violence, however apart from its manic conclusion there’s little bloodletting. There may be, nonetheless, one prolonged scene of torture spliced in out of nowhere that’s improbable in its ineptitude. Model palms go flying, ping-pong ball eyes are stabbed, and a head is awkwardly decapitated. It’s nice.
Guru, the Mad Monk shouldn’t be the perfect start line for these new to the demented world of Andy Milligan. Nonetheless, these already well-versed in his sadistic stylings will lap it up. It options the requisite mean-spirited dialogue, entertaining performances, sick and foolish acts of depravity (gentle although they could be compared to his better-known works), and a loving relationship between a mad monk and his hunchback.
Dave Jackson, visitor reviewer through Mondo Exploito
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PS. I simply completed studying Jimmy McDonough’s The Ghastly One: The Intercourse-Gore Netherworld of Filmmaker Andy Milligan. To say it surpassed my expectations could be an understatement. To make a slightly daring assertion: it’s the perfect biography I’ve ever learn — filmmaker or in any other case. I anticipated to be entertained by the e-book, positive. I anticipated a number of laughs and a few attention-grabbing behind the scenes tidbits. I didn’t anticipate to learn a superbly rendered portrait of a one-of-kind maniac — a e-book that paints Milligan’s universe so vividly.
At occasions McDonough’s writing had me in hysterics, different occasions shocked into open-mouthed stupefaction. And I definitely didn’t anticipate the deeply private and uncooked connection McDonough delivered to the story. The e-book’s closing chapters lowered me to tears. Sure, a e-book about Andy Milligan, director of Torture Dungeon (1970) and Fleshpot on forty second Road (1973), made me cry a bit.
Even earlier than studying this e-book and studying in regards to the particulars of Milligan’s superb and sadistic existence, I knew there was one thing particular about his movies. There’s a hatred seething and effervescent in movies like Seeds of Sin (1968) and The Ghastly Ones (1968). Milligan places his points with motherhood, household, and sexuality out for all to see, solely they’re veiled behind erratic enhancing, sleazy cinematography, inventory music, and inept violence. With McDonough’s biography contemporary in my thoughts, his movies tackle an excellent darker and extra fascinating that means.
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