- Directed by: Devon Downs, Kenny Gage
- Written by: Devon Downs, Kenny Gage
- Stars: Robert LaSardo, Lordan James Smith, Tiffany DeMarco
- Run Time: 1 Hour, 38 Minutes
- Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kLrhp8LwsDI
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
This was simultaneously quite good and not so good. Robert LaSardo carries the cast. The gore is excellent and often makes you wince in sympathetic pain. But it’s on the slow side for the first hour. We liked it more than disliked it, but it’s hit and miss.
Spoilery Synopsis
We watch a heavily-tattooed man warming up, and we see many instruments and bottles nearby. And a very bloody table. We cut to Vilnius, Lithuania as the credits roll.
We cut to a dance club with Lithuanian rappers. There is a group of Americans there, and they’re having a gooooood time. The three girls talk about Jesse, Kevin, Brock, and how hot they are. The six Americans are invited to a private house party, and it’s some house.
Amy has to go pee and can’t find an unoccupied bathroom, so she sneaks upstairs. A heavily tattooed woman shows a lot of interest in Brock. She’s Uta, and she’s a tattoo apprentice; she suggests coming to see “The Artist.” Amy goes along with Brock to see the Artist.
They arrive at the parlor, and the Artist comes in. He gets started on Amy’s tat while Uta takes Brock down to the basement for a fun time. After some discussion, Amy pickles a “Love Forever” tattoo from the book. Uta injects Brock with something as they have sex. The Artist drugs Amy with a drink. They both pass out.
Brock wakes up in a dungeon operating room, and the Artist has many surgical tools there. He slices off Brock’s pre-exiting tattoo with a scalpel and then peels it right off. He explains that he’s injected them with a paralysis drug. He then cuts off Brock’s ear as Brock screams throughout. The dog gets the ear as a snack.
“The skin is the ultimate canvas,” the Artist explains as he flays a nice rectangle of skin off Brock’s back. It’s… quite graphic. He takes the “canvas” and hands it to Uta to prepare it in the next room. He then cuts Brock more and watches him bleed out.
Meanwhile, Amy and Brock’s other friends have left the club and gone back to the hotel for sex. By morning, they notice that Brock and Amy didn’t come back last night.
The Artist starts working, tattooing Amy’s face. Kevin, Jesse, and the girls arrive in the upstairs parlor looking for their friends, but the Artist says they left around 4 a.m. They leave, but Kelly notices the tattoo from Brock’s arm is hanging in a frame on the wall. Jesse’s being a jealous jerk because he thinks Amy shacked up with Brock somewhere, and he leaves the group. He goes off to a strip club.
Kelly, Stephanie, and Kevin return to the shop and confront Uta. They all go downstairs to look and very quickly, all three are rendered unconscious.
Kelly and Stephanie wake up in the dungeon, but Stephanie’s on the table. The Artist comes in and calms everyone down before announcing that he has to leave to deliver to the Swiss. He leaves everyone in Uta’s hands, but insists that she not hurt Amy.
Uta skins Stephnie like we’ve seen before, but she forgets to use the spatula tool and tears the skin. She gets angry and slices Stephanie’s throat. Meanwhile, the Artist delivers finished products and we see the skin chunks are literally used as a canvas, as it’s got a man’s portrait painted on it now.
Kelly gets looks and fights with Uta and escapes. She runs down the street screaming but is caught and nearly raped and killed by a street gang–until the Artist shows up and shoots them all dead.
The Artist explains the tradition of family portraits on human skin to Amy. “These paintings are priceless. Every painting is a soul. You sit in a gallery of souls.”
Jesse and his stripper friend come to the parlor and talk to Uta. Jesse finds Kevin beaten and hanging from the ceiling as his friend gets knocked out by Uta. He finds Amy, tattooed and tells the Artist, “This wasn’t the deal. Only Brock.” Turns out, Jesse’s got one of those paintings of himself. Jesse and the Artist argue about what to do with Amy, and that goes badly for Jesse.
The Artist unties Amy and tells her that Jesse’s fate is in her hands now. Amy and Uta fight, but Amy’s more motivated this time– and she’s got a baseball bat.
Next thing we see, Amy has Uta chained up and has cut out her tongue. She slices her throat and then goes over to Jesse, who’s on the cutting table. She says his back is perfect and then goes at it with a scalpel.
Some time passes, and Amy’s the Artist’s new apprentice. We see a portrait of Amy on the wall now…
Brian’s Commentary
The gore here is impeccable and very uncomfortable to watch. Other than that, the acting is atrocious from everyone other than Robert LaSardo, who is always fun. It was terribly slow until the last half hour, when it spiced things up a bit. It was hit-and-miss, but overall, I’d say watch it if you like bloody torture porn.
Kevin’s Commentary
Thank goodness Robert LaSardo was in this, I thought he did an excellent job – and in a larger role than he usually gets. The story concept was good and creepy, and the practical effects were nice and juicy. But the supporting cast was on the weak side, and it drags quite a bit for stretches without enough happening.