Penance is the third and final film of the August Underground trilogy.If you have seen the first 2 you will know of the grainy, amateur camera work used. This time it seems the killers have bought a new camcorder. The picture is much better quality but still amateur like making you believe that this is for real.Again, it's very gory and disturbing for some but doesn't have quite the intensity of some of the extreme scenes in Mordum. Still it's a class act and Fred Vogul has done yet another great job both directing and acting. The effects are fantastic and it's certainly pushing the boundaries again although not as much as Mordum.Not for everyone but a very good view for gore hounds.

So what's the message in Penance then? A guy brutally murders people because he hates himself? Well f**k me what a revelation! This bombshell aside, there appears, not surprisingly to be no valid reason whatsoever for this incredibly crapulent and nauseous creation. If it's purely infamy Vogel's looking for he's gone about it the right way, but hey Vogel, why not surprise people and at least try to make something remotely intelligent, then you can throw in as much filth and degradation as you like and still get taken seriously? The thing is, Vogel doesn't have the minerals to create anything of any quality or depth, and Penance is a hollow exercise in pushing the boundaries of what is watchable. It's utterly devoid of any subtext whatsoever.Ironically the only thought provoking element in this film is Fred Vogel himself, who co-writes, directs, produces?, and stars. In much the same way as Argento used to perform the stabbings himself in many of his films, Vogel has a vested personal interest in the violence displayed here. Writing, directing and playing the central character seems to be giving Vogel the closest experience possible to fulfilling his ultimate fantasy without actually having to get arrested, although one could argue that even the inclusion of such a young girl in the filming of this offal is worthy of a stern ticking off. Has she seen it yet? I wonder. Charming. Now don't get me wrong, I'm a lover of extreme violence in cinema when it is in context. Henry, Portrait of a Serial Killer, Man Bites Dog, Peeping Tom - these are all violent films - Henry especially, but they also deal with serious themes such as alienation, voyeurism, the boundaries between audience and spectator, and in particular, audience complicity. Vogel's film, on the other hand is designed purely to shock and/or titillate. The only comforting thought one should be drawing from this experience is that you're not turned on by imagining yourself sexually and violently abducting people. If you are, then perhaps you should be applying for a job at Toetag films. In Penance, Vogel seems, more than anything to be exploring his own psyche - his own capacity for the kind of behaviour he's mimicking, and it really does look like he's ready to take the plunge.Beware Vogel - when you're staring into the abyss, the abyss is staring back at you!

To call this crap as a Horror or gore or even as a movie is an insult to those words it is a video recorded by amateurish avoidable actors the video has no plot or storyline we are subjected to watch two sadomasochistic serial killers on their achievements through their video recording of victim's torture i have watched many super bad psychopathic horror movies but none could conquer the number one super bad movie spot in my list as this one doespros:nothing to findcons:everything from camera,acting,background score and screenplayif u want to have a instant headache and nausea please do watch the first 10 minutes of this super duper over hyped horror crap,the camera keeps on rotating and changing its angle everywhere giving u what u wanted.Puleezzzzzzzzzzzzzzz,don't believe the over hyped horror or in your face gore present in this video(i cant call this a film) spread out by some of the reviewers in netinstead watch movies like salo or ichi the killer if u desperately looking for some ultra violent movies avoid this at any cost

The scariest and most disturbing thing about "August Underground's Penance" is that Fred Vogel and his team of no-talents deemed what they'd shot worthy of release. This is a tedious, protracted, poorly photographed piece of video age masturbation about two losers (a male and female) who waste their lives indulging in psychotic behavior. Unfortunately, that psychotic behavior is boring and not fit for the most amateurish of home movies. There is some gore and ugly nudity, and an alligator eats a live mouse, but none of this redeems the endless, directionless, vertigo-inducing scenes of pseudo-shock that make up this rotten failure. There are no characters, there is no story, the Killers' POV perspective is now clichéd and done to death, and the ultra-shaky camera-work just further illustrates the lack of intelligence and talent behind this abortion. If I ever have to watch another Fred Vogel piece of anti-cinema, I'll poke my eyes out and puncture my ear drums. As penance for making this crap, the filmmakers should refrain from touching a camera for the next one hundred years.