The mind is most definitely a horrible place.  A lot of horror fans are subconsciously attracted to the blood and guts in horror films; it’s what they are looking for. The Gateway Meat is one of the finest pieces of visceral cinema in recent years.  A true gorehound’s wet dream made flesh by Massachusetts’ own Ron DeCaro. There is definitely much gore in store; however, it is not only the carnage that holds the horrifying characteristics of this film.  The underlying story of love, hate, and despair can be just as terrifying as the violent aspects – and it most definitely is.  For the Better of Mankind Productions has definitely come a long way since their first two releases to The Brightside Trilogy, which began with Eating Razors followed by The White Lie.  Both of these short films were absolute genius in story and creativity.  Total mental and visual rape is what’s to be expected from director Ron DeCaro (president of FTBOMP).  Now he brings us quite possibly the most mind blowing, violent and gory piece of the trilogy.  What you see is not necessarily what you get with his latest and greatest; it is what lies within:

The world is not as we know it.  The president has been assassinated, leaving Markus without his hero.  Along with the loss of his father, we witness a complete downward spiral of Markus and his beautiful wife and daughter.  Satanic and political elements have forced their bloodlust into frenzy.  Necrophilia, rape, dismemberments and other atrocities lead us and our beloved, psychotic family on a journey through the arches of Hell, however, this is only the gateway meat.

The murderous gene seems to have been passed down in this family, starting with Markus’ father.  He recalls the screams and mayhem that had gone on throughout his younger years with his dad.  Not only is this bloodlust in this family man’s mind, but also in the minds of his equally sadistic wife and little girl.

With the intensity and language in some of these scenes, Ron has most certainly pushed the envelope by using his young daughter, seen playing with a victim’s blood and committing some atrocities of her own.  She laughs at the screams and asks for more in moments of utter brutality.  The girl, in her own right, is pure genius. Her role, yet very cute and quite whimsical at moments, is what leads us on a path of disgust at the fact that her innocence seems to be there, but in reality, it is gone.  Keep it in the family is what they say, huh?

Markus is a family man in all respects – loving and caring, yet deadly.  He inherits a house belonging to his recently deceased father that he moves into with his wife and daughter.  It is in this house that the hole to hell is discovered; having been torn open by an invalid friend and victim of the family, and now the gateway has been passed to the next of kin. Along with his group of misfits, the film and its characters take us (the viewers) on a ride through hell, yet never bring us back.

Roland, a character from The White Lie, has returned in this film, but this time we see him in his private life.  He is by far one of the sickest fucks to walk the planet.  Waking up to a little medley of heroin and crushed glass from a light bulb, snorted and enjoyed, he begins his day by sexually violating the corpses of recently tortured women, followed by hitting the streets and cyberspace in search of more innocents to violate.  One scene in particular that is an instant eye catcher is that of a bound and tortured girl being filmed in Roland’s room.  Markus shows up during the taping to witness this girl screaming in agony, at which point he proceeds to take part in the fun by brutally raping her, ending on the usual down note (or up note for us sicko’s).

This film is showing us things that are to come, or perhaps have already been.  What happens when the world as we know it is flipped upside down and ripped inside out to create a masterpiece of drug abuse, alcoholism and violence?  The Gateway Meat!  Having characters from his other two films is what could give a viewer the idea that prior events in the trilogy could be events that have not yet taken place… only Mr. DeCaro can answer this.  For now let us keep wondering what came first in this world of complete anarchy and madness. 

For directing, I give this film an 8.  Ron DeCaro is extremely talented. Though he is still in the beginning stages of full length film making, he has definitely taken a huge leap forward with major progression from his earlier works.  He somehow manages to get his friends and others, who have probably never acted to do things most others could never convince people to do, though it seemed as if a few of them couldn’t pull it off quite to the liking of most viewers.  For most horror fans, this style of filmmaking is not their forte.  Ron stated in many horror forums that in his direction, he not only used his ideas and visions, but the trials, tribulations and heartache that he was going through during the production of this film.  You can clearly see that much was put into making this movie; he bled pure heart and soul into it.  Ron can most definitely go on to become one of the next big names in underground horror. 

When it comes to the story I give a 10.  As many of my readers know, I believe that a gore film should not only be nasty but have a good story to back it up.  Recently, my fellow reviewer TonyRockyHorror and I were discussing the fact that DeCaro uses many elements of real life, such as substance abuse and the question of self-worth, which many people deal with on a daily basis.  Adding these elements into a story that could make any gore fan drool is an extreme plus.  Most gore films are fun even without a story, but that’s the extent of it – however, when adding a deep story to the gore, it makes the film all the more worth the viewer’s time, and that’s one thing Ron DeCaro has accomplished.

The cinematography of the film gets a 7.  The film was shot on a digital camcorder. This method of filming is quite difficult and unfortunately can show a bit too much of what you do not want seen due to the crisp almost in person detail. In editing, Ron manages to overcome these obstacles, which I can only imagine was a tough fete to accomplish.  A few scenes of the filming were overdone and went a bit further than your average viewer can handle, but fortunately, nothing was underdone. Overall, I must say that this film is very pleasing to the eye.

For the acting I give a 5.  This rating is given because of the lack of acting experience the characters in the film have.  I must say, it is common for most underground filmmakers to use the likes of their friends and families to play roles in their films.  Unfortunately for some, talent does not shine.  Looking at it in this aspect, I do believe the rating given is very good.  I must say that not all of the acting was bad, especially when it came to his little girl. Not only is she adorable, but menacing as fuck at the same time… gotta love it!  D. Whitney’s portrayal of Roland as well as Ron DeCaro’s of Markus are also worth a bit of mention.  They had most certainly pulled of their roles as emotionally detached, psychotic characters.

The FX for this film gets a 9.  You want gore?!  You got gore!  This film is non-stop gruesome mayhem.  Putting aside one or two minor flaws, Ron and the Labonte Brothers have done a fantastic job creating FX that were absolutely disturbing and vile!  A fan of blood and gore could not ask for anything more.  All I gotta say is this gorehound is most definitely pleased!

As for The Gateway Meat in its entirety, I give an 8.  This film has been referred to as being a Guinea Pig style film, this is wrong!  Guinea Pig films have no story; they are just there for gore and torture purposes alone.  Don’t get me wrong I like that stuff, but there is absolutely no comparison.  Do not bring this film down to the level of the Guinea Pig films!

All that being said, I can’t begin to tell you how happy I am with this film and how happy I am that Ron managed to bring us this product of his love and hate.