House of Flesh Mannequins
Written Review
Hi everyone and welcome to MyIndie Review Vlog, the
show that gives you spoiler-free reviews of indie films. My name is Asaf Angel from MyIndie Productions.
Today I will be reviewing the 10-year-anniversary restored edition of 2009’s controversial horror-drama-mystery, House of Flesh Mannequins, written and directed by MyIndie featured artist, highly acclaimed Italian extreme filmmaker Domiziano Cristopharo.
Cristopharo’s directorial debut, House of Flesh Mannequins, is the fourth of his films to be reviewed on the show, after having reviewed Red Krokodil, The Museum of Wonders and Xpiation in Season One of the show. We also reviewed an anthology he worked on 7 Sins, as well as films he produced, Torment and American Guinea Pig: Sacrifice. Thank you, Dom for sharing so much of your work with us!
The birthing pains revolving around the film’s production and extreme nature, can be said to be more than enough to tell a whole new story. Reportedly, due to the film’s extreme visuals and taboo topics, which I will get to soon, Domiziano and others involved with the production, almost ended up in Court in Italy.
House of Flesh Mannequins’ production was held during 2008, with some nerve wracking challenges the likes of actors not showing up on set, stolen funds, massive amounts of re-shoots required to replace parts that were deemed too extreme and other annoying red tape to deal with, due to it being filmed in the United States. Considering all that has happened it is a small miracle the film was ever completed, in any version.
Completed in 2009, Domiziano ended up releasing a cleaner version of the film only in 2012, yet in 2018, he celebrated a re-mastering and re-releasing of his own uninhibited version of House of Flesh Mannequins, the way the film was meant to be seen.
Said to be based on a true story, the plot revolves around a shy and mentally troubled photographer, Sebastian Rhys, portrayed by Domiziano Arcangeli. Sebastian works for the sleazy and shady Mr. Cannoluti, played by Randal Malone.
Running an underground snuff and pornography business, Cannoluti commissions Sebastian to film gruesome acts of murder, mutilation and child pornography, as he provides such content to his very particular kind of clientele.
Sebastian is trapped in mental turmoil fueled among other experiences by his nightmarish childhood, where his demented father obsessively insisted on filming every moment of his childhood and teenage years. Sebastian is also uncontrollably burdened with a fetish to the extreme scenes he documents.
Sarah Roeg, a beautiful young woman, played by Irena Violette moves into an apartment with her ill father, Mr. Roeg, played by Italian horror genre legend Giovanni Lombardo Radice. Sarah is burdened with tragedy as she suffered the untimely loss of her mother and brother some years ago in a tragic fire accident. She now nurses her father, as well as working hard to become a writer.
The apartment they moved into is located in a building owned by Sebastian, who lives there as well. Sarah and Sebastian begin a peculiar and intimate relationship, stemming from Sarah’s inexplicable curiosity and infatuation with him.
The House of Flesh Mannequins is an obscure compound sectioned by closed rooms with windows on each door, designed to cater voyeurism of the perverse variety. Children’s voices are heard in it, and weird acts of sex and mutilation take place in the rooms. Although seemingly out of place, Sebastian visits the place where he can reluctantly indulge his fetish.
Domiziano cleverly, incorporated an array of extreme visuals, depicting torture and murder, built with the aid of special makeup and practical effects. He also gives expression to taboo practices such as child pornography with the aid of juxtaposed sound of a child crying during scenes showing sinister men, or suggesting activity of a sexual nature without showing it.
By intertwining the staged extremities with authentic footage of controversial practices of extreme fetishes, such as extreme masochistic BDSM and consensual body mutilation, Domiziano, in my mind ingeniously casts judgment on social conformity.
Society as a whole deems which practices are acceptable and which are not, and its reach does not steer clear from the individual. Most people will tend to scrutinize any one person who deviates from a set of predetermined values that are defined as normal behavior. The practices which are considered to be extreme, body art and modification such as tattoos, piercings and dermal implants are good examples of such scrutiny, as is visually extreme filmmaking, which brings me to my next point:
Domiziano elegantly infuses social commentary in House of Flesh Mannequins, as his type of filmmaking suffers judgment solely for it’s wildly, not falling in line with what is considered to be normal nature. This judgment neglects to take the work’s artistic value into consideration. Thus, Cristopharo calls up social conformity on its hypocrisy, by giving expression to society’s mainstream content standards, comprised of sex, crime, horrific events and scandals as the best tools to grab the attention of the public, whilst judging their application in the name of art when shown in a more extreme and realistic way.
Along with the extreme nature of the film, Domiziano demonstrates quite an aesthetic style of storytelling. Calmer scenes were meticulously shot with expressive lighting and skillful camera work. I did have a slight issue with the sound as some of the dialogue was a bit too low.
The production value is fairly decent, especially for a debut film done in 2009. The practical effects are breathtakingly impressive in their realism.
There are further interpretations and analysis I could go into, but I’m afraid that might be entering spoiler territory. Also worth mentioning, the film includes appearances by two other known Cristopharo collaborators, Roberta Gemma and MyIndie featured artist, Poison Rouge.
As I’ve experienced with each and every film of Domiziano’s that I’ve seen, House of Flesh Mannequins is likely to stay lodged in your mind long after you’ve done watching it. For me, it will probably require a few more viewings to fully understand its message, as I won’t be surprised if I barley scraped the surface regarding Domiziano’s intent and vision.
House of Flesh Mannequins: 10th Anniversary Edition gets an 8.5/10 on the Look at Me I’m a Film Critic scale!
The film is available on a variety of platforms online for direct viewing, or DVD and Blu-ray. Links included.
Until next time, keep supporting indie film. Watch, share, spread the word. My name is Asaf Angel, I thank you for tuning in to MyIndie Review Vlog! I’ll see you next Thursday!
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