![\"suicide\"](\"http:\/\/smugfilm.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/suicide.jpg\")
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Suicide<\/a> (2001) | Dirs. Raoul W. Heimrich & Yvonne Wunschel | 84 min.<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n Every day in October, a recommendation from John D’Amico\u00a0of a horror\u00a0movie or TV episode available for free on YouTube. Enjoy:<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n What\u2019s the point of horror? Ok, so if you\u2019ll take anything away from this quixotic project, it\u2019s that horror comes in all shapes and sizes. But what\u2019s the point of that<\/em> kind of horror? You know, the kind that journalists and politicians fret about, that you only ever see at 3 AM. That Gabe Lewis\u00a0stuff<\/a>. Torture porn, exploitation cinema, extreme horror\u2014call it whatever you like. It\u2019s a very weird subgenre floating around the margins, complicating and even poisoning\u00a0the well.<\/p>\n I\u2019m not a fan of this stuff, but they are often examples of exceptional filmmaking techniques, so, student of film that I am, I muscled through a few Guinea Pig<\/a> movies, studied up on Cannibal Holocaust<\/a>, and even made it through Men Behind the Sun<\/a>. You get hypnotized after a while. Revolted and fascinated. You know the feeling. If anything is going to shed light on this stuff, it\u2019s Raoul W. Heimrich\u2019s Suicide, the most stripped-down example of the form.<\/p>\n It\u2019s the story of some filmmakers who make their money filming suicides (ever notice how many extreme horror movies are about filmmakers?). We see each death in gruesome detail\u2014some imagery will never leave me, particularly a haunting and anatomically explicit heroin overdose\u2014and each seems to get more bizarre than the last.<\/p>\n So, what\u2019s the point? I don\u2019t know. But it\u2019s something to think about and something to experience. Maybe it allows us to turn over rocks in our brain, visualize horrible things and exorcise them. Maybe it allows us to stare death in the face and survive. Maybe it\u2019s just an endurance test. Maybe it\u2019s just gross and fascinating. Either way, it\u2019s a shade of the rainbow.<\/p>\n https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=POmpsBHbhgI<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<\/p>\n