‘Bowels of Hell’: Gruesome, Gross Horror Where The Sh*t Literally Hits The Fan [Fantasia Review]

“My peace is going down the drain.”

Horror has a curious relationship when it comes to turning innocuous and inanimate objects into murderous weapons of destruction, whether it’s In Fabric’s homicidal dress, the psychic killer tire from Rubber, or the cursed hair extensions from Sion Sono’s Exte. That being said, a bloodthirsty toilet is fairly uncharted territory for horror. There’s something immediately intriguing about imbuing such intensely human emotions into an everyday item, especially one like a toilet, which is connected to such private moments. 

The aptly titled Bowels of Hell is a broad, disgusting Brazilian horror-comedy from Gustavo Vinagre and Gurcius Gewdner that’s incredibly tongue-in-cheek with its sick sense of humor. That being said, it has as much to say about motherhood, grief, and acceptance as it does about puerile and repulsive setpieces. It’s a weird, wonderful burst of anarchic filmmaking that’s guaranteed to leave its audience scared shitless.

Bowels of Hell taps into that early Peter Jackson gross-out vibe and the type of film that would make for a sublime double feature with Bad Taste or Braindead. It’s the type of gonzo horror film that midnight screenings were made for, with a playful grindhouse aesthetic that fits the film’s surreal tone. Bowels of Hell feels like one of the fake trailers from Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez’s Grindhouse, only it commits to the bit and delivers a full film of fecal frights. Malu (Martha Nowill), a grieving party planner, finds herself at the center of a crass curse that terrorizes her entire apartment complex, turning its bathrooms into salacious slaughterhouses. 

This brewing cosmic terror somehow occupies the sidelines of this story as a handful of harrowing character dramas that intersect over love, loss, and legacy take center stage. Bowels of Hell argues that adulthood is an inherently painful experience, and the film repeatedly gets caught up with the running theme of transitions. Everyone finds themselves in different phases of existence, some of which are more permanent than others. This extends to focusing on individuals with differences and disabilities, how they present themselves in society, and how this affects their self-perception.