WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT AND LANGUAGE BELOW
Music producer Flying Lotus’ film Kuso premiered at Sundance Film Festival this week, and it has reportedly sparked mass walkouts, with some calling it the “grossest movie ever made.”
Kuso, which stars Tim Heidecker, Hannibal Buress, Donnell Rawlings, David Firth and George Clinton, premiered at the Park City, Utah event over the weekend.
The movie is the debut feature film by Flying Lotus, (real name: Steven Ellison), and has shocked viewers with its disgusting scenes of sex and violence.
READ MORE: TIFF 2016: Moviegoers fall ill while watching cannibalism film, ‘Raw’
The film is a series of loosely connected short films set in a dystopian future, in which humanity has nearly been eradicated by a massive earthquake in Los Angeles.
“Kuso is the grossest movie ever made,” a review from The Verge stated.
Kuso – which means “crap” or “s**t” in Japanese – features footage of an erect penis being stabbed, as well as a boy attempting to grow a disembodied head in an “orifice” in the forest by smearing it with his own feces.
The Verge reporter Chris Plante claimed that several scenes, including one in which an alien rips a fetus from a woman’s womb, saw “large chunks” of the Sundance audience walking out of the screening.
- Paul McCartney and John Lennon’s sons release 1st song together
- Hot Docs left out of budget 2024 funds as financial woes cloud arts organization
- Calgary Opera’s production of ‘Das Rheingold’ features fantastic effects, costumes
- Quebec artists demand more provincial funding, say many struggle to ‘work creatively’
READ MORE: Shia LaBeouf shuts down alleged white supremacist who interrupts anti-Trump livestream
“A large chunk of the audience left my screening early, when a boil-covered woman choked a man with a strap…” he wrote. “…But the walk-outs continued in a consistent stream up to the final scene.”
Other scenes in the movie reported as graphic feature a woman choking on concrete until her teeth disintegrate, and jokes about rape and abortion.
The Verge’s review did note, however, that there is some commentary about Los Angeles, racism and the bloody history of the United States.
Horror website Bloody Digusting also spoke positively about the film, calling Kuso the quintessential gross-out midnight movie. Reviewer Ben Larned compared it to movies like Un Chien Andalou, The Holy Mountain and Eraserhead.
Mixed reviews appeared on Twitter after the premiere.
READ MORE: Hacker who stole nude celebrity photos sentenced to 9 months
The film’s creator Ellison denied that most of the audience left, tweeting: “It was only like 20 people out of like 400 who walked out. Wasn’t as dramatic as they make it out to be. I tried to warn folks.”
A Sundance representative warned viewers of what the film entails before the screening, saying: “The film you’re seeing tonight will melt your f**king brains. There will be no survivors.”
In a Sundance Film Festival interview posted on YouTube, Ellison admitted he knew some people would hate Kuso.
“There’s no half-stepping or half-kind-of liking (the movie),” he said. “You either love it or you f**king hate it.”
Last August, when Ellison first teased Kuso in a shortened version called Royal, he handed out branded barf bags.
Kuso has yet to get a release date with a mainstream studio.
Watch the trailer for Kuso in the video, above.
Comments