I just managed to sit through "Rosso Sangue" aka "Absurd" aka "Antropophagus II" aka "Horrible" (add to those about 10 other aka-titles -- surely this should already tell you we're not dealing with an excellent picture here).So D'Amato delivers a straight-up horror movie this time. Is it any good? Barely. It is a relaxing film, though. Because between the handful moments of gore, you'll have plenty of time to doze off & catch a nap since there's hardly anything going on.The mighty George Eastman wrote the script and I'm sure it must have read a little something like this when he handed it over to his buddy D'Amato: "I say nothing in this film, I'm indestructible and I kill everybody". Now you just figure out how to turn this into a movie, Joe.And so did Joe, being the talented man that he is. Also, some distributors tried to market this as a sequel to D'Amato's "Antropophagus" aka "The Grim Reaper". But it's not. Just because Eastman looses his intestines again in this film, doesn't make it a sequel.D'Amato pretty much turned it into a plain slasher flick. In a way, "Absurd" is like John Carpenter's "Halloween", only with Eastman's evil bearded face to scare you instead of a masked Michael Myers and without the likable Jamie Lee Curtis to root for. Eastman escapes a hospital, kills his way through a whole town, eventually ending up in some house to do some more killing. All this while a priest & a cop are on his trail, blabbering on about Eastman's character being some ultimate creature of evil. So, it's more or less the same movie. Plus, it's a lot worse too, of course. Still, as far as slashers go, there are also a lot worse out there.Now I was under the impression that this was supposedly one of the goriest & most demented horror efforts ever to come out of Italy. Sadly, it's not all that exciting. There's a handful of gory scenes, yes (drill through the head, saw through the head, etc.) and they are amusing to watch, but nothing we haven't seen before. All the rest of the film, is just plain dullness I'm afraid. The climax features a blinded Eastman (his eyes stabbed out) versus a physically disabled teenage girl. You can imagine how exciting them two stumbling about in a darkened mansion turns out to be. The ending tries to be shocking, but it's basically just a happy end.I remember once being impressed with "Beyond The Darkness" aka "Buio Omega". Maybe I should re-watch it to see if it still holds up well, because D'Amato is rapidly loosing some filmmaker credit with the stuff I've recently seen by him.

While I've seen over a dozen of Joe D'Amato's films, this was my first foray into his horror films (unless you count Emanuelle and the Last Cannibals, and his Caribbean Horror/Porns, which I have seen.)For the first half of the movie I wasn't that impressed. But, the second half was relentless, suspenseful, brutal and agonizing. I've seen hundreds of horror/gore/splatter/slasher films, but the infamous 'oven scene' (which I won't spoil) had me literally covering my mouth to keep from making too much noise.The rampage of the second act works well because the horror comes from the THOUGHT of what is happening, rather than the more visceral deaths of the first half. There is blood and gore, to be sure, but Joe D'Amato shows a modicum of restraint, letting the suspense build in a way it was unable to in the first act.So, if you decide to give this film a try, and I hope you will, stick with it. Not only does the film really get going in the second half, the final shot of the film has to be one of the most unexpected, shocking and unexpected moments I've ever seen.

Back in the 1984 Feb i watched this film as a 9 year old. In those time it was perhaps the most violent of all features. I didn't catched up from the start but i managed to see in the end , than next day when i returned from school this movie was running again on VCR. The whole family was watching it. The horror which i felt was started at the moment when the nurse in hospital is caught when the deranged blood thirsty killer is conscious again and than he grabs her , than starts to insert a running drill machine in her head which crosses her brain completely from both sides. I had a very bad feeling because my nerves are not very capable of tolerating such scenes, i could had vomited as stream of blood was oozing out like water from tap. When the man like beast escapes and than he in one moment he enters and sees a butcher inside a meat shop than he lifts a chopper to kill him. I ran away because i couldn't handle any more of it ,i layed down in a quilt and shut off my ears not to hear the screams. I even missed the oven death but than i saw the final minutes in which a crippled girl 1st destroys his eyes and than cuts his head off with a big Axe to save herself and other man .Here this beast man was so strong that she had to hit him several times the Axe and her cloths were badly stained by his blood in the process. Thanks to youtube i managed to see some few momewnts of the film again after 25 years. From there i know that Russo sangue a.k.a Absurd is sequel to anthropophagus(Italian movie) which is even more brutal and grue some than this, there in this very same person was acting as Grimm reaper and was not only killing but eating its victims all due to a very mysterious disease at an island. I both like and dislike this film. Thanks Us.IMDb i knew more about the time of its release and the actor George Eastman as Grimm reaper. One should only watch it if he/she is not a faint hearted and have weak nervous system because you can feel too much awkward , in my opinion such movies should not be made in 1st place and if done than it must be for adults only. Regardless of good direction acting story or music such films contain too much gore violence present example is saw trilogy. Watch it but carefully, don't let young people see it

Joe D'Amato's "Rosso Sangue" aka. "Absurd" of 1981 is sometimes named a sequel to D'Amato's shocking highlight "Antropophagus" of 1980. This is not really true, as while both films star George Eastman as the vicious villain, and both films are extremely gory, the story lines have nothing at all to do with each other. I loved "Antropophagus", which is not only tremendously gory, shocking and disturbing, but also scary as hell. I also enjoyed "Rosso Sangue", but it is not nearly a great as its aforementioned predecessor. The film is, once again extremely gory, and exploitation-icon George Eastman is once again predestined for the role, but the film is not nearly as scary as "Antropophagus", and neither is it anywhere near as shocking. A small town is infested by a genetically mutated man (Eastman), who has the urge to brutally murder everybody he sees, as a result of a nuclear experiment gone wrong. Not only does he have the urge to murder, however, his mutations also made him very strong and immune to injuries... The film's main qualities are the great score, the extreme gore, and George Eastman. The huge Eastman really is one intimidating fellow, who always fits in his mostly sardonic roles. His greatest moments were Mario Bava's 1974 masterpiece "Cani Arrabiati" ("Rabid Dogs"), and "Antropophagus", but Eastman truly is an enrichment to any of the films he starred in, and "Absurd" is no exception. While he is not quite as scary-looking as in "Antropophagus" here, Eastman single-handedly carries the film with his maniacal performance. The other performances are quite forgettable, but this is not really of any importance. Overall, this is not nearly as great as "Antropophagus", but it is definitely a film that any fan of the very brutal kind of Horror/Exploitataion should enjoy. Recommended to my fellow Italian Horror buffs.