[Film Review] A study of the human ability to endure self-inflicted pain in XXXDarknet: Red Lips

According to the opening credits of the film, the Darknet is a place feverishly depraved to the point of questioning if humanity even exists, with a slathering of heinous crimes committed all for the purchase and pleasure of the sick individuals that find themselves beholden to their inner most sadistic wants. The abhorrent anthology XXXDarknet: Red Lips takes this concept, rips apart its innards and displays it on-screen with intensely graphic detail. 

As the third instalment of the XXXDarknet series, Red Lips is centered on two women who derive their erotic stimulation by watching disturbing videos online. The extreme genre has the beauty of blurring the lines between our world and art, and this film feels like a throwback to the era of real gore videos;two girls-one cup and one man-one jar. Even as a veteran extreme horror film lover, this was a nauseating experience – a display of artistry between unsimulated sexual acts of penis pinning and hyperrealistic special effects, engoring the mind’s ability to decipher between fake and fiction.

The first segment Stiletto is from director Corey Dean Cowley, and is reminiscent of a modernised Women’s Flesh: My Red Guts (1999) by infamous director Tamakichi Anaru. The theme of self-inflicted pain begins as we watch a woman spiral uncontrollably from small acts of self-harm to masturbating ferociously with sharp objects in an act of sheer self-deprecation. Although the focus stays firmly on her descent into violent degradation, her emotional welfare becomes the most distressing aspect of this segment. 

A staple theme of ‘extreme’ is the inclusion of necrophilia, and second segment, Faces of Dissection, from director Simon Spachmann egregiously encapsulates the act of defiling a dead body. This segment brings tones of August Underground (2001) meets Atroz (2015) as two men kidnap, abduct and savage women. The body is treated like an object to be defiled and destroyed – with repeated stabbing to the vagina before the men revel in intercourse with their version of a bloodied fleshlight. Immorality knows no bounds when the men rip an unborn fetus from her womb, desecrating life with impunity like children with ants.

The third segment, Rosebud, from director Tibor Astor is one of the most intensely graphic parts, whilst creatively demonstrating the art of fetish. Through a stack of old television sets, two men embark on solo discoveries – one smothering himself in his own feces whilst jerking off, and the other using his arousal as an opportunity to stick pins in the head of his penis. Beautifully shot, but with vile depictions of self fulfilment, including one of the most dizzying close-ups of an anal prolapse that might ever be shown on screen.

The last two segments are female-focused, awarding an applause to the XXXDarknet series. With “In A Burning Desir” from Niuvis Martin focusing on a woman sexually assaulting her girlfriend, and the wrap-around narrative and concluding segment “Luna&Star” from Slade Wilson next, watching two sisters torture a man in their red room, offering the refreshing respite of watching females inflict violence rather than be at the hands of it. Extreme films often forget women are not always victims, but XXXDarknet provides equality and inclusiveness in its evilness towards humans. 

XXXDarknet: Red Lips is the underground, highly deranged and roided up version of more mainstream horror anthologies such as the VHS series. It takes the concept of anthology and turns it into an absolute onslaught of degeneracy – assaulting the viewer with unfathomed sexual violence against oneself and others. It is a study on the human ability to endure self-inflicted pain – both for the protagonists, and the viewers.

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