Movie Review: FLESH OF THE UNFORGIVEN

By ABBIE BERNSTEIN / Staff Writer

Posted: August 29th, 2025 / 01:57 AM

FLESH OF THE UNFORGIVEN movie poster | ©2025 Primal Motion Pictures

Rating: Not Rated
Stars: Debbie Rochon, Joe Hollow, August Kyss, Adriana Uchishiba, John E. McLenachan, Rachel Stone, Marilyn Desade/Madcox, Dave Andexler, Laszlo Szijarto, Joannie Fournier, Anik Rompre
Writer: Joe Hollow
Director: Joe Hollow
Distributor: Primal Motion Pictures
Release Date: July 22, 2025 (digital, VOD)

While there were others, filmmaker Clive Barker’s 1987 HELLRAISER popularized the concept of pairing otherworldly demonic entities with more human S&M/B&D imagery and activities.

A recent entry in the sincerest form of HELLRAISER flattery is FLESH OF THE UNFORGIVEN, which features an entity known as the Death Dealer. Onscreen and in voiceover, we are informed that “Don’t run from your fears, embrace them” are the words of the Death Dealer, described as “an ancient evil.”

The explanation goes on to tell us that the Death Dealer chooses “lost souls” to make bargains with – if they can face their fears, they can undergo “the becoming,” a life beyond death. Either way, their souls will belong to the Death Dealer.

On a TV, we see footage of bloody women, some in masks, some in bondage gear, chanting “Bloody Mary,” interspersed with comic book art panels.

In the room where the TV is playing, a woman is chained to the bed and a man chained to the wall begs for mercy, but the Death Dealer tells him he is out of time and there will be no becoming.

Then we cut to Sienna (Debbie Rochon), a middle-aged woman having a nightmare in her bed. When she wakes, she reaches for her husband Jack (writer/director Joe Hollow), but he’s not there.

Jack is a novelist who is so behind on the treatment for his latest novel that his publisher threatens to “fire” him if he doesn’t turn it in by Monday. While not a major matter on its own, the use of the word “fire” here is indicative of a more general problem with the dialogue sometimes not being quite right (a studio might fire a writer, but a publisher with a fiction writer would simply demand the advance be returned).

We learn before long that Sienna had an affair with Jack’s best friend. Jack is having a hard time forgiving Sienna, and Sienna is having trouble dealing with Jack’s love/hate attitude towards her.

Then there’s Vivienne (August Kyss), a younger woman who tearfully confesses over the phone to her mother that her marriage is over and she’s lost custody of her sons because she had an affair.

The characters seem to be in a time loop that frightens them but that they don’t try to escape. Sienna’s nightmares intensify and begin to impinge on her reality.

FLESH OF THE UNFORGIVEN deserves a nod for being completed and getting distributed. However, its structure is so hard to follow that it feels a need to give us both a mid-film recap montage, accompanied by a rap song, and a closing monologue explaining what we just watched.

With some movies, this would be redundant and insulting. Here, it’s actually helpful because the action is often so confusing. Alas, it’s hard to care about what we’re being told, because so much of what happens seems arbitrary.

The mythology surrounding the Death Dealer is shown to have relative consistency. However, there is so much attendant fetishism, B&D and sexual torture (including female and male genital mutilation) that the result is a growing sense of feature-length softcore S&M material strung together with dramatic sequences, rather than a horror movie with an S&M motif.

FLESH OF THE UNFORGIVEN doesn’t have the kind of underlying ethos that gives it at least an overall effect of matching its visuals to a narrative principle. The primary target audience may be those who are into sexualized violence for its own sake, and completists for this specific subgenre.

Follow us on Twitter at ASSIGNMENT X
Like us on Facebook at ASSIGNMENT X

Latest Buzz

Movie Review: FLESH OF THE UNFORGIVEN

Demonic deals and B&D nightmares

Article Source: Assignment X
Article: Movie Review: FLESH OF THE UNFORGIVEN

Related

Related Posts:

Leave a Comment

Assignment X Poll

Newsletter subscription status

Latest Buzz

Movie Review: FLESH OF THE UNFORGIVEN

Demonic deals and B&D nightmares

Article Source: Assignment X Article: Movie Review: FLESH OF THE UNFORGIVEN

Related

Related Posts:

Leave a Comment

Assignment X Poll

Article Source: Assignment X
Article: Movie Review: FLESH OF THE UNFORGIVEN