zaknaud I find it both refreshing and horrifying that a director has chosen as the subject of his horrific discussion with the audience to be the American family. Few directors really play with three elements that are plainly displayed here in detail and used so effectively. One, he uses pauses and silence to emphasize tension. Very little music at all was played and it was soft and gentle, almost non existent, the director wanted us to pay attention more on the action and less on the score. Two, the characters he has written are drab and lonely, and we see their plight like we might see any neighbor who argues in the night, or wears makeup to cover a bruise, but here we see into their home and we see how they deal with their loneliness and anger. What was at first hidden from us is now plainly in front of our faces, and what at first seems perfectly logical then turns into a bloodbath of terrible fantasies turned real. Three, that with each successive film the emotional quotient goes up, and we are left more exhausted by what we have seen then horrified. This kind of horror is in my opinion is the greatest exercise in the genre. Horror is just that, horror. To be horrified by something is simply to have a natural reaction of fear or disgust, and most horror films today never want to push the limit, never want to look at what really scares people in their daily lives. We have settled for the man in the mask for so long we have forgotten that there are far more frightening things that lurk behind the doors of the neighborhoods we live in, and behind the eyes of the people we know.

HumanoidOfFlesh The first short "Cutting Moments"(1997)simply blew me away.It's an incredibly depressing and cold journey into into family alienation,murder and masochistic self-mutilation.A young wife Sarah played convincingly by Nica Ray desperately wants to be loved,but her husband Gary Bettsworth has no remaining feelings for the woman,so he turns his jaded sexuality onto his son,whom he abuses.She dresses up in red to become more appealing to her husband(unsuccessfully)and after that Sarah horribly mutilates herself.She scrubs her lips bloody before cutting them off,the final act of utter desperation that encourages her husband to indulge into obscene act of feeling.A truly masterful short filled with despair and horrific gore.The second film "Home"(1998)plays almost like a remake of "Cutting Moments" and has similarly disturbing tone without relaying on excessive gore.We see another dysfunctional family living in their own private hell and that makes the climax more bleak and depressing."Home" is not as good as "Cutting Moments",but it surely left me emotionally drained.The last film "Prologue"(2003)tells the story of a young teenage girl,who was brutally attacked and raped one year earlier.She emerges from the hospital in a wheelchair and arrives back home with her parents.Soon the emotional horror begins as a young woman decides to confront her attacker,a local artist called Benjamin Miller,who draws obscene sexual pictures of a young girls.Still "Prologue" seems to be the most optimistic film of the trilogy and I really recommend it.Douglas Buck is certainly one of the bravest directors around and I can easily say that I liked "Family Portraits".9 out of 10.

ElijahCSkuggs Family Portaits shows us the horror of dysfunctional families......but in a oh-so skewed, unbelievable look. The flick contains three shorts which all revolve around family life and the super dark side that sometimes is apart of it.The first one Cutting Moments revolved around a insane wife who's been hardcore ignored by her hubby, and a secret side-plot of molestation. With some funny over-acting and some nice direction, plus some nice bloody scenes, it was easily my favorite of the three.The second, Home, is again close-knit in the same way Cutting Moments was with a messed up family, but it instead deals with how a past family life can affect future ones. This one was entertaining enough and again delivered some dark humor, but also made me realize how the rest of Family Portraits will play out. Slowly.The third one, I just didn't care for that much. Prologue, surrounds a sad-tale of a young girl who had some seriously bad luck, and ends up confronting her demons. It's a cool idea, but the short felt way too long, and probably was compared to the previous two. It was just very tedious in it's delivery and made this guy bored and ultimately not care for what would transpire later on.Overall though, Family Portraits was a very cool indie horror/serious drama flick that should appeal to many horror fans who dig low-budget, slow-burn flicks.

Darren O'Shaughnessy (darren shan) An excellent trio of short movies, which can be viewed individually or together as one complete piece -- on the DVD, the choice is yours. The first, "Cutting Moments", is the most graphically brutal of the three. It explores a relationship where a woman no longer feels that her husband has any interest in her. To feel some sort of a connection with him again, she horribly mutilates herself. This is a hard one to watch. It may repulse some viewers, but it's shocking for a valid reason, but just for the sake of it.The second short, "Home", is similar to the first, only with less visual horrors on display. It's about a man who wants desperately to be normal, but whose upbringing leaves him with little hope of achieving the quiet middle ground he so craves.The third, "Prologue", is the longest, subtlest and most assured of the three pieces. It follows the recovery of a young woman who has lost her hands in a recent accident, and slowly, artfully fills in the gaps, explaining what has actually happened.These films deserve a much wider audience than they've currently enjoyed. Buck is one of the most interesting directors to emerge in recent years, and hopefully he'll get the chance to work on a larger canvas soon. In the meantime, do whatever it takes to track these works down -- I'd class them as essential modern viewing.