Meat Grinder

Title: Meat Grinder
Rating: 2.5/5
Genre: Splatter Horror
Release Date: 2009
Language: Thai

Firstly I apologising for the lack of details with regards to the director and actors within the film, but it would seem there is little information in this regard and this isn’t entirely surprising. It seems fairly odd that Thailand has become known amongst the ‘Asian Horror’ craze as the holders of the ghost story throne yet this recent release is without mention, perhaps not coincidentally in part due to the lack of any ghosts. In fact, this feels far more akin to a 80s style slasher film but not without a reasonable budget and a sense of intelligence to it – two things rarely seen in modern re-visits to this classic style.

With the lead protagonist, a woman called ‘Bus,’ desperately trying to maintain her family’s coherency, feeding her child with little food or money whilst her husband spends all his earnings on his gambling addiction, it is only when he loses their home that he leaves for good and lets her pick up the pieces. Deciding to open a noodle stall to desperately work off her husband’s debt, it is only when a customer dies at her doorstep that she comes up with an idea of where to obtain her meat supply. With her reputation for delicious noodles increasing, the homes new owner demands compensation; the pressures mounting on her and with her supply of meat rapidly disappearing, she soon resorts to extreme lengths to keep her business running.

The cinematography carefully avoids contact with the eyes wherever possible, showing you less and leaving more to the imagination (not that there isn’t a decent amount of gore) and allowing a slow build up in what is on view whilst still allowing the plot to develop. The further use of black and white, rapidly cut together to demonstrate the reflections of her own childhood on the present situation and how it has shaped her, exemplifying the lengths of her diminishing sanity as the pressures rise. This style of filming also helps to lend a sense of distrust towards many of the characters; a sense of something being hidden from the audience and keeps us questioning the events as they unfold, taking care in contrasting the use of light and dark in conjunction with a variety of stock music to alter the atmosphere in a perhaps somewhat blunt but nonetheless effective manner.

It seems they have a decent understanding of how the genre has developed, straddling between the serious and the comically excessive violence with the most unlikely of protagonists; the sweet young lady who is capable of things many wouldn’t believe and her injuries as a result of her murderous demeanour provoking friends into offering to help ‘protect’ her. It is this awareness that becomes the films main strength but even this self-awareness is incapable of changing the fact that it feels dreadfully unoriginal with perhaps more than the occasional subtle nod to films such as ‘Delicatessen’ and ‘The Shining’ within the slasher bundle. It isn’t bad, but the violence feels lacking in style and won’t appease gore hounds, only the lead role ever feels multi-dimensional, and the editing is too disjointed to adequately display her psychological torment. It tries to accomplish a lot and the result is sadly a little disappointing.