It’s been a long time since David Blyth made Death Warmed Up, a punk rock horror nightmare that seemed to suggest he would go on to a long and prolific career in the genre. But like a few other promising directors from the period, he never quite seemed to be able to fulfill that promise – until now. His latest film Wound is one of the most impressively twisted, strange and thoroughly fucked up films you’ll ever see.

Within the first five minutes of the film, we’ve already seen a very graphic and slow castration, as middle-aged Susan (Kate O’Rourke) takes revenge on her abusive father. It’s pretty shocking stuff, but if it suggests that what we have in store in s conventional, if ultra-gory, narrative… well, that’s an easy mistake to make.

Instead, the film is a series of very strange, violent and unsettling scenarios that may or may not be real, as Susan drifts from hallucination to hallucination and we meet her daughter Tanya (Te Kaea Beri) – the daughter Susan believes died in childbirth.

To say much more would be to both spoil the story and to offer a specific interpretation of events – and I’m not sure I wish to do either. Suffice to say, the film mixes elements of horror, BDSM, mental illness and surrealism in a very unique, very disturbing way. There are moments of ultra-gore and some (presumably deliberately) unrealistic effects – two fully-grown children emerging from a giant vagina for one – as well as moments of great subtlety and surprising beauty.

Wound is dark, dark stuff, with a remarkably fragile central performance by O’Rourke. A lot of people will certainly find this too much to bear, in terms of both the narrative structure and the visuals – but if you are up for a challenging viewing experience, Wound will more than satisfy.

The DVD also contains a couple of interesting shorts from Blyth, one an extended music promo for the band Damn Laser vampires and the other a performance piece by a dance troupe. Both worth a look.

DAVID FLINT

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