Billed as "the cruellest Japanese splatter movie ever" (a statement that doesn't do the film's graphic scenes of torture and dismemberment anywhere near enough justice), Grostesque is a survival horror movie that the pre-publicity is claiming makes the likes of Saw and Hostel look like Mary Poppins in comparison. A bold but intriguing claim.

Written and directed by Koji Shiraishi (Carved, aka A Slit-Mouthed Woman) and starring Hiroaki Kawatsure (Chanbara Beauty; Carved) and Japanese porn star Tsugumi Nagasawa (Tokyo Gore Police), the film takes the concept of Japanese extreme cinema to a whole new level.

A girl, Aki (Tsugumi Nagasawa), and her new boyfriend, Kazuo (Hiroaki Kawatsure), are mugged, knocked unconscious and kidnapped by an unknown assailant. They wake up to find themselves bound and gagged in a torture chamber-style basement at the mercy of a man armed with a mind-boggling array of kitchen implements and power tools whose only pleasure is gained from the suffering of others. So begins a slow and sustained assault during which the couple is gradually hacked, mutilated and degraded to the point where death becomes a more desirable option to living. Or is it? When one captive is offered the chance to die in order to save the life of the other, the question of how far one would go for a loved one is answered in the most unpleasant of ways.

Relentlessly intense and explicitly graphic in its scenes of torture, sexual abuse and violence, this is definitely not a film for the easily offended, the squeamish or the faint-hearted.

Grotesque will be released on UK DVD by 4Digital Asia on 17th August 2009 at the RRP of £12.99. No extras have yet been listed, but you'll be pleased to know it's been given an 18 certificate.