How far can an artistic filmmaker’s freedom go before he/she hits that wall of pure prudence? Having experienced the most deplorable material from A Serbian Film and Scrapbook to Atroz and Melancholie de Engel, my quest to find the next boundary-pushing piece of work just escalated to an enormously difficult challenge.

Congratulations Guerrilla Metropolitana…objective met with a speechless void, to boot.  

It's a stretch to say that Metropolitana’s films are “enjoyable” since they are based on multiple taboo subjects revolving around maliciousness, depravity, dehumanization and beauty all at once. It tends to scramble your thinking when you’re a viewer being suffocated through relentless visuals of graphic, hardcore sex and human degradation while presented with a symbol of exquisiteness such as a soaring butterfly amongst the fury.  

Juicy X is a normal-looking, heavyset woman who takes extreme pleasure in beating and raping a mystery woman without much semblance of background or identifying history. The shocking nature of the attack isn’t as staggering as the ruthlessness, as there is barely a moment to clear your throat in between the crude toys, humiliation tactics and rag-doll treatment of this unnamed victim. There are moments of excruciating pain so forceful that it causes the sufferer to choke and gag from the brutality.  

During the vicious acts to follow, the film’s investor (Elektra McBride) watches from a live stream, while pleasuring herself, sporting a gimp mask and oxygen tank. There is forced penetration at gunpoint, self-infliction with selected arousing tools, and merciless control over the woman’s mind, body and soul throughout the agonizing one hour of pure claustrophobia. However, rather than trying to duck and hide away from this exploitative projection of anger and hostility, it’s mesmerizing when the director (Guerrilla) appears from behind the camera to instruct Juicy X on furthering her annihilation on this poor woman.  

Guerrilla’s own self-gratification soon dominates the situation with uncensored and unscripted actions of the moment, which become improvised and unfathomable events while surrendering to his own insatiable madness.  

Bearing witness to the realism of unadulterated savagery, the animalistic tones break our own barriers as to the level of cruelty vs stimulation we can (or choose to) handle. The normalcy emitted by both antagonists is more disturbing and traumatizing than most of the violation itself. Thus, is part of the brilliance of The Benefactress as you want to stop watching but are commanded to finish this twisted game of defilement until the horrifically, alarming end. Just have a hot shower ready to wash your eyes out and clean the filth now clinging to your skin. It’s superbly exhausting.

THE BENEFACTRESS (An Exposure of Cinematic Freedom) is distributed by Blood Pact Films, an independent label dedicated to bold, uncompromising voices in underground cinema.