DVD Reviews

Taxidermia – DVD Review

By Jeff Swindoll Apr 24, 2010, 15:40 GMT

From the nightmarish imagination of Gyorgy Palfi comes Taxidermia, a surrealistic assault on the senses following three generations of men who are all damned from birth. ...more

If Tim Burton, Terry Gilliam, and David Cronenberg (with Stephen King watching from the shadows) cinematically ejaculated into some film cans then Taxidermia might well be the result of that mixture. If the image of those esteemed directors doing that makes you feel a bit queasy then you might want to consider skipping Taxidermia as well.

Morosgovanyi Vendel (Csaba Czene) is a lowly private with a harelip in the Hungarian military that is treated like a slave by his commanding officer, Lt. Kalman (Mate Gabor). He lives in an unheated shack next to the outhouses. Vendel escapes into his fantasies, which mostly feature the lieutenant’s daughters and wife. Did I mention that Vendel can shoot fire out of his dick?

One night’s fantasy has the lieutenant’s wife getting pregnant and Vendel getting his noggin aerated by a pistol. The lieutenant takes the offspring into his home though and raises him as his own. Did I mention that the boy is born with a pig’s tail (which his un-biological father snips off)?

Years pass and Balatony Kalman (Trocsanyi Gergo), the product of Vendel’s evening of lust, is a champion speed eater for Hungary. The large lad’s eye is taken by the women’s speed eating champion Aczel Gizi (Stanczel Adel). The two marry and have a son, a surprisingly skinny son.

That son, Balatony Lajoska (Marc Bischoff, think the Hungarian Anthony Perkins), grows up to be a thin taxidermist. The same is not true of his father whose massive girth robs him of movement, but he takes out his frustrations on his boy. Dear old dad is obsessed with raising enormous cats for competition which he only feeds butter.

The sad, lonely Lajoska is mad at his father’s badgering and doesn’t close the door to the cat’s prison well before storming out of the cramped apartment. What he finds when he returns will inspire the oddest artwork.

Masturbation, mastication, fornication, and mummification are some of the subjects covered in director Gyorgy Palfi’s twisted film. It plays as a twisted fairytale with some very adult themes.

One downfall of the film may be a confusing storyline. Maybe it was something that was lost in translation or it could be that some of the fairytale imagery has the viewer confused.

For example, Vendel’s fantasy life is so bizarre that when he impregnates the lieutenant’s wife were presented with those images that we’re not exactly sure that he really does have sex with her but since the jealous husband takes a revenge the next day we’re pretty sure it happened.

The second tale of disgusting speed eating (complete with CGI vomiting) also has a bit of a problem in that it looks like Aczel has married Balatony, but then appears to run off with another speed eater. Yet the next scene shows the two in domestic bliss with the rival leaving the picture with no explanation.

Those minor storytelling grievances might be forgotten when viewing the odd, gruesome imagery that Palfi comes up with. It truly does seem like the illegitimate child (with a pig’s tail) of Burton, Cronenberg, and Gilliam.

Palfi doesn’t mind showing all sorts of humanity, from the obese to the perverse – in fact he seems to revel in it. So those that don’t want to see such then you may not like the resulting film.

Taxidermia is presented in anamorphic widescreen (2.35:1) and is enhanced for 16x9 televisions. Special features include a 42 minute “making of” and the 1 minute trailer.

Taxidermia is stuffed [insert rimshot here] with all manner of odd thing. It may put some off but fans of such oddities and weird films will find something to enjoy. The story has some holes but the imagery is fantastically gruesome.