GUINEA PIG - JAPANESE HARDCORE GORE SERIES
Characterized by its graphic violence and mutilation, this hardcore gore series has garnered worldwide controversy and has allegedly inspired killers with its brutal carnage.
Guinea Pig is a controversial Japanese gore film series that consists of six parts. The series achieved global notoriety mostly for the first two films as they were rumoured to be real snuff movies - even the FBI got involved.
The series' original concept, envisioned by manga artist Hideshi Hino (who wrote and directed two films in the series), was to create adaptations of his own manga. The series is characterised by its graphic violence and mutilation, which has garnered itself worldwide controversy. In fact, one or more entries in the series were suspected to have influenced Tsutomu Miyazaki, a serial killer who kidnapped and murdered four young girls. The second film in the series, Guinea Pig 2: Flower of Flesh and Blood, was partially withdrawn from the market, and has achieved particular notoriety because of an incident in which American actor Charlie Sheen is said to have watched the film and believed that it depicted the actual killing and dismemberment of a real woman, prompting him to report it to FBI.
See the list of Guinea Pig Films below:
1. Devil's Experiment (1985)
Guinea Pig: Devil's Experiment (ギニーピッグ 悪魔の実験, ) is a 1985 film directed by Satoru Ogura, and the first entry in the series. The film depicts a group of men who kidnap and graphically torture a young woman in a variety of ways—these include pouring maggots on her, hanging her up in a net, and poking a needle through her eyes.
2. Flower of Flesh and Blood (1985)
Guinea Pig 2: Flower of Flesh and Blood (ギニーピッグ2 血肉の華) is a 1985 film written and directed by Hideshi Hino, based on his horror manga works, and is the second entry in the series. The plot revolves around a man dressed as a samurai who drugs and abducts a girl, takes her to his home, dismembers her, and collects her body parts. Specifically this film caused wide media attention, as in 1991, American actor Charlie Sheen is said to have obtained a copy of the film and upon watching it, he was convinced that Flower of Flesh and Blood was a genuine snuff movie, so he reported it to the FBI. Subsequently they opened an inquiry and the directors had to prove with a making of movie, that the gore was not real. Additionally the film is rumoured to have inspired serial killer Tsutomu Miyazaki—also known as the Otaku Murderer—who murdered young girls in the Saitama and Tokyo prefectures. Miyazaki had an extensive collection of videotapes, many of which were horror films - one of the Guinea Pig films was reported to have been found in Miyazaki's collection.
3. He Never Dies (1986)
Guinea Pig 3: Shudder! The Man Who Never Dies (ギニーピッグ3 戦慄! 死なない男) is a 1986 film directed by Masayuki Hisazum. The story centres around an unlucky salaryman named Hideshi. He attempts to slit his wrists and realises that in fact he cannot feel pain and that he has turned inmortal. He then invites a co-worker to his home, asking him to bring sharp gardening tools. Hideshi then uses those tools to decapitate himself, only to find that he indeed cannot die. The co-workers girlfriend arrives at some point to find the gory scene - her husband unconscious from shock and Hideshi in separated body parts. They clean up the mess and Hideshi finally announces that he feels reborn, ready to return to work the following day. Though He Never Dies features graphic imagery, it is more darkly comedic in tone than its predecessors and its successors.
4. Mermaid in a Manhole (1988)
Guinea Pig: Mermaid in a Manhole (ギニーピッグ マンホールの中の人魚,) is a 1988 film written and directed by Hideshi Hino, based again on his horror manga works. Sources differ on whether it is the fourth or sixth film in the series. The plot of Mermaid in a Manhole follows an artist who has become estranged from his wife. One day while visiting the sewers beneath the streets of Okinawa, he encounters a mermaid, that he had previously met as a child. After noticing that she has tumours growing on her body, the artist offers to help her, and brings the mermaid to his house. Eventually her illness gets worse, countless worms of various sizes burst out of her body.
She begs the artist to kill her, so he does, stabbing her to death then dismembering her body. Later, the artist's two neighbours, who were intrigued by what the artist had been doing after one of them found a fish head in the trash, go to investigate, but flee after they come across the artist holding the pieces of the mermaid while chanting about her death. When the local police take control of the scene and investigate, they find that instead of the dismembered body being that of a mermaid, it was in fact that of a human woman instead. The neighbours are interviewed, and everyone suspects the artist to have killed his wife, a statement which the investigation finds to be true; hallucinating, the schizophrenic artist had murdered his own wife. She had been suffering from stomach cancer, which explains the tumours. The story has an open end - a single scale is found in the bathtub in the artist's house.
Unlike its predecessors, Mermaid in a Manhole is more of a body horror film, has more of a cohesive tragic plot. This film is generally considered to be one of the best parts in the series.
5. Android of Notre Dame (1988)
Guinea Pig: Android of Notre Dame (ギニーピッグ ノートルダムのアンドロイド, Ginī Piggu: Nōtorudamu no Andoroido) is a 1988 film directed by Kazuhito Kuramoto. It revolves around a scientist who tries to find a cure for his sister's grave illness. The scientist needs a "guinea pig" to perform experiments on. A stranger approaches the scientist, offering a body for the experiments, for which the scientist pays. When the experiments do not go well, the scientist becomes enraged and hacks the body to pieces. The stranger approaches the scientist again and supplies another body so the experiments can continue.
6. Devil Woman Doctor (1990)
Guinea Pig: Devil Woman Doctor (ギニーピッグ ピーターの悪魔の女医さん, Ginī Piggu: Pītā no Akuma no Joi-san) is a 1990 film directed by Hajime Tabe.
According to Salvador Jimenez Murguía : "despite being chronologically labelled as the fourth in the series, this film is often referred to as the final Guinea Pig film." Devil Woman Doctor tells the story of a female doctor played by Japanese drag actor Peter. The film takes the form of several vignettes in which she encounters numerous patients, including a woman whose heart explodes when she becomes scared, a yakuza member who has a tumour with a human face growing on his stomach, and a zombie who lives a relatively normal life with his still-living girlfriend. The doctor then skins a man to “remove” his tattoo. In the final scene, a group of four men discuss their particularly bizarre conditions. The first patient produces soybean under his feet and can spit eggs containing infant aliens from his mouth, the second has an elastic penis, the third constantly emits smoke from his body, and the fourth has a heart which moves around inside him. Rather than horror, the tone of this last film is more akin to a surreal comedy.
