Hard Gore (Alpha Blue Archives) Review

Distributor: Alpha Blue Archives Edition Details: Standard DVD Movie Specs: Genres: Golden Age Classic, Feature Film, Horror Also known as: Horror Whore, Sadoasylum, Hard Gore Run Time: 62 minutes Rated: X Release Year: 1975 Director: Michel Hugo Written by: uncredited Cast: Diane Glenke, John Seeman, Joan Devlon, Justina Lynne, Bunny Savage, Turk Lyon, David Book, Toni Scott Release Specs: Audio: English Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono Subtitles: none Video: Full Frame, 1.33:1 Video Format: NTSC Format: DVD Regional Code (for DVD/Blu-ray): 0 (All) Number of discs: 1

Hardgore is a complete mess of a film. It attempts to be a gory horror and hardcore adult film mixture, but completely fails miserably in every attempt that it makes. Maria (Diane Glenke) agrees to be put into the Fox Hollow Sanitarium due to her nymphomania and masochistic tendencies. During her first night at the sanitarium, she finds her nurse (Bunny Savage) dead and stumbles into a satanic cult. The next day Dr. George (John Seeman) and nurse Lucy (Justine Lynne) try to convince her it was just a bad dream, but further encounters show otherwise.

When putting the plot into words, Hardgore sounds like a unique and interesting film. However, the actual execution of the film ruins any potential that may have been buried in initial concepts. The continuity of the film is a mess. Characters who die, return to life. The film also jumps from a horrific scene to another scene almost as if the previous scene hadn't really just happened. Whether the film was ruined by editing the sequences together incorrectly or whether there was never continuity in the script is unknown.

The script itself isn't very good. The film relies mostly on sex scenes, with very little actual plot, to move it along. In the films attempts to be a gory horror film, many of the sex scenes are bathed in blood and in some scenes characters are having sex with corpses, or supposed corpses as some appear to possibly still be alive. With only a few sex scenes not being ruined by blood or corpses. The female cast looks cute, but isn't given any material to work with. The male cast, many of which have proved themselves on other films, aren't given anything to work with here either.

The film was obviously made as cheaply as possible as well. The sets are often rather sparse and sometimes darkly lit to avoid showing where they were shot. The leader of the satanic cult wears a cheap and cheesy red devil mask, not managing to pull it off like the FOX network's Scream Queens does. According to John Seeman, Hardgore was made by several people who usually worked in Hollywood but thought that they could make a better adult film than the adult film auteurs at the time. Reportedly, Hardgore was shot over the course of five days on 35mm film by Hollywood cinematographer Michel Hugo.

What could have been a interesting blend of horror and hardcore sadly ends up being a disjointed mess that was better off being lost to the sands of time. The film is neither erotic nor scary making it a complete loss.

This release from Alpha Blue Archives is not horrific, but leaves a lot to be desired. Hardgore is presented in the full screen aspect ratio of 1.33:1. The print used has scratches throughout, dirt, and some jumps. There are also places of some significant print deterioration. There are places that the colors in the picture are over saturated, causing flesh tones to appear red. This print was also transferred to video tape prior to mastering the DVD as there is an occasional video glitch present in the picture. In some places the picture looks slightly softer than others. There is an ABA bug that comes and goes from the lower right hand corner of the screen.

If there were any original credits, they have been removed and replaced with new credits for Alpha Blue Archives and the title of the film. Overall, the picture presentation is not amazing, but far from not being watchable. Given the age an obscurity of the print, better would be desired but this print is acceptable. Hardgore is presented with an English Dolby Digital 2.0 monaural sound track, which consists mostly of music with some dialog. The track works fine for the material being presented.

Alpha Blue Archives hasn't included any extras on the disc that have anything to do with the feature film. The only extra on the disc is a roughie S&M loop series named “Never Talk to Strangers” (“Never Talk to Strangers — Part 1” and “Never Talk To Strangers — Part 2” which also stars Diane Glenke and John Seeman (Quail — no identification numbers). As to why this was included as an extra I am not sure since besides sharing a star, the loop doesn't fit in with the feature film.

Hardgore is an extremely bizarre film that attempts to mix horror, gore, and hardcore sex and isn't very successful at any of these tasks. The film looks cheap, rushed, and often makes absolutely no sense, alienating any viewer that attempts to watch and comprehend it. This is not a film I can recommend to anyone. Alpha Blue Archives has an acceptable print for those willing to give the film a chance.

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