People sometimes don't get it, a director has no influence on media, when it comes to promoting the movie, if there is no studio or producer behind. He never wrote that the movie was "snuff" or horror, Brutal is a dark tragic comedy about 5 wanna-be criminals and how life sucks in general. How much people suck! The film festival and the magazine that promoted the movie in Greece, mentioned words like snuff and horror, but that was only a small part of their review and promotion, but somehow some people thought that it was such a movie, and they judged it in that context. There were even people who wrote bad stuff because the viewers during the first official screening were laughing a lot- YEAH IT IS A COMEDY!
The movie had a lot of haters somehow, who had no idea why this was so different and why it had some success. The preparation for this movie was long and what looks like natural amateur actors, are actors who really tried their best to become the parts. For about three months before the first shooting, the director together with the three main actors were trying a number of dangerous techniques to find ways to let themselves loose during filming. That is what looks so authentic inside and the reason some claim there is no direction or acting. The actors were surprised, because they didn't know what would happen next, if they would get insulted or hurt, it was all part of the process they agreed to be involved into, and it shows.
There are moments in Brutal that capture the reality of wanna-be criminals, they don't look like cinematic villains, they are real and sometimes far more dangerous than the fake bombastic criminals in movies, who have clever things to say and always stay cool. Brutal is realistic in terms of film-making and as a story. It is funny because it's real and has no filters. The movie doesn't expect you to like it, it doesn't give you a good time, you will not enjoy your popcorn, but that was the experiment and the exercise, how to create something anti-cinematic.
I agree that the camera technique was mixed and it was not always necessary to be shaky. This helped to create a hype and that is why some used to call it found footage or snuff. It is interesting if you see it as a hybrid between genres that don't mix. They called it road movie like an American one from the 70's, indeed it has similar moments. Neo-noir was the best term, because of the structure inside the movie, it starts with long talks, it builds up and it gets to the brutal final act. Someone mentioned that the action and the horror look like they jumped out of cartoon shows, which is true. It gets closer to EVIL DEAD when it comes to violence, but Brutal doesn't try to shock or scare. The language is one of the heaviest in Greek cinema, with a huge number of swear words and slang that nobody uses in movies, it is the real deal, and this is the only thing that shocked the audience when the movie first screened. It was more than expected and it went really far, the people on screen are talking about extreme stuff and make fun of them, like everyday people do.
Brutal is politically correct and incorrect at the same time. Don't get fooled thinking that this was amateurish, the script was originally 96 pages long, but no actor has read more than 5 intentionally. The director plays the main villain, for guiding and directing the other actors live on set. There was no real improvisation though, it was all part of the script. In the end, Brutal is a whole film school compressed in 90 minutes, success, failures, mistakes, greatness, everything is accepted and helps, if you try something different. You can write any critique good or bad, but you have to understand that this movie was made with nothing but one single camcorder, no lights, no crew and the director was part of the action in almost the entire movie. No extra cameraman, no special effects artist, this is exactly what people shoot with their cell phones or what they shoot in concerts, but somehow this turned into a movie that screened in theaters and has some deep meaning about what the stupid human nature is and how close we are to animals and beasts.
