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      Guru, the Mad Monk

      1970 1h 2m Horror List
      Reviews 21% 1,000+ Ratings Audience Score A prison colony chaplain exploits his position to gain power through murder and grave robbing. Read More Read Less Watch on Prime Video Stream Now

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      Guru, the Mad Monk

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      Audience Reviews

      View All (14) audience reviews
      marja d Come on, there are "horror" film so bad they're wonderful, and this dreck ranks high, almost to Plan 9! Rated 4 out of 5 stars 03/31/23 Full Review dave s When you watch Guru, the Mad Monk, it's hard to imagine a more inept piece of moviemaking. I suppose if someone made something with the same horrific production values as Guru and then added the annoyance of filming it upside down and out of focus it would be worse, but that seems unlikely. What's wrong with this piece of crap? Horrible acting, laughable dialogue, incomprehensible plot, a terrible score, baffling editing choices, murky lighting, non-existent continuity, periodically out of focus cinematography, and, to top it off, the inability to frame a shot properly. How hard is it to frame a shot that includes the subject's entire head? How did this thing ever get any funding? How did the cast and crew feel when they saw the final cut? The questions never stop. Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars 03/30/23 Full Review Audience Member Father Guru is the chaplain of a prison colony and he's a seriously bad dude. Along with his mistress Olga ... who is also a vampire ... and his deformed hunchback assistant Igor, he uses his position to murder people and extort money. Carl, who works tending to the prisoners, comes to Guru for help when his girlfriend happens to end up in the prison. They fake her execution, and then Guru blackmails them, forcing them to stick around the prison. When the Archbishop shows up to have Guru replaced and transferred to another church, all hell breaks lose. I love Andy Milligan. His films are not good. In fact, they are really really bad, but they are bad in a fairly wonderful way. They are like a community theater Grand Guignol production ... way too talky and with lots of stilted theatrics, but utterly sincere and kind of endearing. So many bad films are just ridiculously dull. Milligan is not. Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 02/01/23 Full Review Audience Member Epicly bad to a level that must be admired. Rated 3 out of 5 stars 01/21/23 Full Review Audience Member A really, really low budget historical horror(ish) film with costumes that look like they're the very cheapest vaguely Medieval Halloween warehouse last minute on the way to a costume party purchases. The story is a basic, earnest, fannish attempt derived from Shakespeare and mid-20th century horror films. The performances are passable; the editing occasionally clunky; the constructed sets, cheap and flimsy. That Andy Milligan somehow got the use of big old stone church in New York City to shoot much of the movie in is a bit remarkable (and I'm rather curious about the story behind it). Neil Flanagan is quite enjoyable as the Mad Monk (who's really more mercenary than mad). The opening credits have a nice 40s feel to them. The score is quite competently professional. Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars 01/12/23 Full Review Audience Member The plot is so-so, but interesting. It doesn't develop enough, but it works. Short running time, which makes this film a breeze to sit through. The setting is good, the characters are lacking, but overall, the movie is watchable. Rated 3 out of 5 stars 02/02/23 Full Review Read all reviews Post a rating

      Cast & Crew

      Movie Info

      Synopsis A prison colony chaplain exploits his position to gain power through murder and grave robbing.
      Director
      Andy Milligan
      Screenwriter
      Andy Milligan
      Production Co
      Maipix Organization
      Genre
      Horror
      Original Language
      English
      Release Date (Streaming)
      Sep 1, 2016
      Runtime
      1h 2m
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