Uncut 126 minute Print
Cinema de Bizarre
Web: http://cinema-de-bizarre.com
Caligula
2 is an amazing sleazefest from Joe D’Amato starting David Brandon as Caligula
and the beautiful Laura Gemser. The film has been released in Germany and Italy
uncut, but not in the UK, Australia or the US. A DVD-R edition is available
from Cinema de Bizarre. This is certainly a superb, sleazy and outrageous work
of cinema, offering two hours of truly astounding sex, violence and perversity;
it is a cult film par excellence.
Joe
D’Amato, master of low budget exploitation, takes on the mantle of Caligula
after the fame of the Tinto Brass/Penthouse release and makes a film which is
clearly not a sequel but a film which takes inspiration from the legend to
create a true exploration of depravity.
D’Amato
himself sets the stage through the prologue..” Caligula (Gaius Ceasar) murdered his adopted grandfather Tiberius to
assume power. He committed Incest with his sisters, adultery with his friends
wives, pederasty, flaunted the law and was
a glutton, pervert and epileptic”. Quite a lot to live up to but D’Amato rises
to the occasion and does fairly well !
The
film opens with an assassination attempt, which is rather fun since the
assassin is no other than Michele Soavi (another cult film maker) playing Domitius.
Caligula catches him just in time and rather than killing him off, has his
tendons cut and his tongue excised so he can keep in as a plaything.
As
the film develops we find Caligula at his very best attempting to have his way
with a virtuous young Christian girl who kills himself rather than submitting
to his wicked desires. This triggers a story of love, lust and revenge. Her
friend and lover, the Moorish Priestess Miriam (played by Laura Gemser),
deflowers herself in front of a statue of Anubis and sets herself on the task
of getting very close to Caligula so she
may take revenge for her friend’s death.
However,
before this startling, but totally fictional, plot unfolds Caligula must find
funds to support the re-development of his palace and so stages a grand orgy.
To get enough young girls, he has the Vestal Virgins trained for the role. They
are inspected, deflowered in an underwater scene and then taught the skills of
sex on a hunky Greek boy by an aging Roman transvestite. At the same time, of
course, we are entertained by Caligula’s bi-sexual tastes with sex and nudity
galore. While most of these scenes are soft erotica, they occasionally blur
into explicit sex, until the orgy scene itself hits and wallop; there is an outburst
of 30 minutes of explicit sex you will not easier forget.
The
orgy scene is startling and filled with all manner of sexual content. We have explicit
sex of all forms including dwarves and horse fondling. There is even an armed gladiatorial
match with blood splattered over the copulating revellers and a senator continuously
vomiting during sexplay. This is certainly an extreme and excessive
presentation, so utterly over the top it is riveting exploitation cinema.
Caligula’s
madness deteriorates when Miriam stops an assignation attempt on his life (as
she wants to take her own revenge) and Caligula must punish the plotters. This
involves an explosion of violence which includes smashing a baby against a
brick wall, long metal rods rammed up behinds and Senators forced to kill women
and children to save their own skin. Miriam drugs Caligula’s wine and as his hallucinations
increase his dreams of murdered foes begin to haunt every moment of his day.
D’Amato
has certainly pulled out all the stops in this one with more sex, gore,
violence and perversity than in most libraries of cult films. This is certainly
a film which is not for the timid, but if you are sick enough to dare, it is
worth well worth the effort to get a copy.
The
cinematography is pretty damn good for a low budget film, the soundtrack
suitably Imperial and the constant nudity isn’t too hard on the eyes either. Recommended
!
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