Tenderness of the Wolves (1973)

Director Ulli Lommel is probably best known on UK shores for the once banned The Bogey Man (and it’s self-plagiarising sequel) and The Devonsville Terror. His third feature film, made in 1973 and produced by Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Tenderness of the Wolves, is arguably his best.

Tenderness of the Wolves is based upon the real-life crimes of Fritz Haarman, a German butcher beheaded in 1925 after being found guilty of twenty four murders, the dismembered bodies of his victims sold off as stock to unsuspecting customers in his shop. In order to maximise the costumes and props available to him, Lommel’s film is actually set some years later in post World War II Germany, although still manages to retain the social and economic climate from the era of Haarman’s crimes.

Disapproved of by his neighbours and acquaintances, Haarman is none-the-less tolerated by his peers due to his continued ability to supply them with an abundance of quality meat during a period of great impoverishment. The film opens with one of Haarman’s neighbours being kept awake by his nocturnal activities, but rather than complaining about the strange banging from her neighbour’s apartment, she pleads through the wall for “just a little of your meat” only to be told that she must wait, as the meat is “scarce” and there is only “some bones.” The neighbour’s actions are symptomatic of many that appear willing to turn the other cheek as long as they continue to benefit from Haarman. Even the local police, suspicious of Haarman’s procurement of young boys, are unwilling or unable to take any action, even going so far as to offer him a job!

Needless to say, Haarman relishes his new position and abuses the trust and authority that his employment provides, offering his apartment as sanctuary for homeless and runaway teenage boys, rather than taking them to the local police station. Once inside the apartment, the youths are servile and compliant to Haarman as if accepting of their fate and the body count rises.

With rumours intensifying that Haarman is the child-murderer, the police realise that they are unable to protect Haarman any longer and finally shake off their reluctance to act. After seducing a teenage boy (used as bait by the police) and returning with him to his apartment, Haarman sexually molests the boy before biting deep into the youth’s neck. Whilst drinking the boys’ blood, the police enter the apartment and bring an end to Haarman’s killing spree although Haarman continues to attempt to assault the boy as he is led away…

Kurt Raab in the role of Haarman gives one of the most compelling portrayals of a serial killer ever commited to film, no doubt assisted by the fact that Raab (according to Lommel) was very much obsessed with Haarman. The scenes of Haarman watching children at play has an extra uncomfortable resonance once we are aware as to what atrocities Haarman is capable of. Lommel’s direction maintains an air of unease throughout despite not being particularly graphic and will strike a chord with anyone familiar with M or The Strangler of Vienna.

Hunchback of the Morgue (1973)

Tormented and love struck hunchback involved in a whirlwind of grave robbing, corpse mutilation, decapitation, dismemberment and burning rats!

Director Javier Aguirre’s 1973 epic The Hunchback of the Morgue quite possibly represents the pinnacle achievement of Spain’s one-man horror industry, the irrepressible and sadly missed Paul Naschy (Jacinto Molina). Playing to the strengths of his own script Naschy is the titular hunchback, Wolfgang Gotho, who passes his time between working in the Feldkirch Hospital morgue hacking up bodies for medical research or visiting his only friend, the terminally ill Elke (Rosanna Yanni).

Elke’s eventual and predictable death sends Gotho on a killing spree as he absconds with her corpse to the catacombs beneath the hospital. Professor Orla reassures Gotho that he can bring Elke back to life in return for Gotho’s assistance in securing materials for his research and relocating his laboratory - including the two items essential for any state-of-the-art medical lab; acid bath and iron maiden! After experiments involving dead tissue from exhumed corpses prove fruitless Gotho is soon dispatched to the local women’s reformatory in order to secure living flesh for the Professor’s nefarious purposes!Unsurprisingly Orla neglects any attempt at reanimating Elke focusing instead on creating a monstrous humanoid.

Needless to say with Elke’s corpse looking a little tatty round the edges courtesy of natural decomposition and providing the local rats with three square meals a day, Gotho takes great umbrage at the professor’s continued disregard of his beloved Elke and the stage is set for a final bloodbath in the bowels of the hospital…

There are some great moments to cherish here, ranging from some well executed carnage courtesy of Pablo Perez to Naschy being attacked by (real) burning rats as he protects Elke’s corpse! Naschy even allows himself the added bonus of a sex scene although manages to keep his sweater on throughout and the film secured Naschy the prize for Best Actor at the 1973 Paris Convention of Fantastic Cinema! It would be fair to say that 1973 was one of Nachy's busiest years and most productive, managing to cram in 9 other films into the year including Curse of the Devil, The Mummy's Revenge, Vengeance of the Zombies and Horror Rises From the Tomb!

Previously only available uncut on DVDR from Midnight Video sourced from Japanese VHS, Hunchback of the Morgue has since been unleashed on DVD in a sumptuous limited edition from German company Anolis, boasting book-style packaging, an anamorphic widescreen print, introduction and audio commentary from Naschy, 32 page booklet and much more. A pricey package but well worth the effort of tracking down. Also available on DVD from Mya Communications as a cheaper and less impressive alternative.

Human Pork Chop (2001)

Human Pork Chop begins with a police search of an abandoned apartment. During the search, a skull belonging to local missing girl Grace Li is discovered. A number of suspects thought to be involved in the disappearance (and probable murder) of Grace are brought in for questioning. Main suspect is motel owner Hok, whose wife Yin is also arrested along with local youths Gigi, Keith and Joe. Although initially denying any involvement, the terrible truth about what really happened to Grace is recounted in lengthy flashback sequences, interspersed with the continuing police investigations…

After a night out with Gigi, Grace explains that she has nowhere to go following a fight with her boyfriend. Gigi suggests that she could stay at Hok’s motel and Hok is happy to agree on the basis that Grace works at the motel. It is soon obvious that Hok is involved in prostitution and drug dealing and we get the impression from Grace that she is certainly no stranger to selling her body or using drugs.

Before too long Hok starts to receive complaints about Grace’s poor appearance and her drug use. Warned by Hok to clean up her act, Grace leaves the motel but not before relieving Hok of the contents of his wallet! After a chance meeting with Hok, Grace is brutally beaten in the street by Hok, Keith and Joe, despite stating that she is pregnant. Promising to repay Hok, Grace fails to deliver the funds and is eventually tracked down to the apartment that she shares with her grandmother and new born son. Grace is taken to Hok’s home where she is held against her will and subjected to further beatings, scalding and has plastic straws melted over her legs. She is forced to sleep in a cupboard and made to sit in the fridge. After Hok discovers that Grace has found his secret drug stash, he replenishes his supply with a quantity of pure drugs to teach Grace a lesson and ignores Yin’s warning about the strength of the drugs.

Grace takes the drugs and overdoses on the kitchen floor whilst reminiscing about happier times. Assumed to have simply passed out, Grace’s body is left on the floor overnight. The following morning Yin realises that something has gone wrong and after placing the body in the refrigerator for a while, Hok decides that the corpse must be disposed of. Wearing plastic overalls and facemasks, Hok dismembers the body with the aid of Keith and Joe who are then given the job of dumping the body parts amongst the garbage around the city. The hands, feet and head are boiled down in the apartment and the skull stuffed inside a cuddly toy. Hok and Yin move out and advise the others to keep a low profile however Joe is arrested and the story unfolds.

The film then ends rather abruptly with a brief voice-over stating that Hok, Keith and Joe pleaded guilty to manslaughter, illegal imprisonment and interruption of a lawful burial, receiving sentences of life imprisonment.

Produced and directed by Bennie Chan, Human Pork Chop mines similar territory to both The Untold Story and There’s a Secret in my Soup, with all three films reportedly based on factual events (HPC and Secret… dealing with the same case). Chan’s film has attained a certain notoriety for its’ depiction of the gruelling abuse that Grace Li suffers during the second half of the film despite the footage not being exceptionally graphic for a Category III film. By far the most disturbing footage is an episode where Grace is forced to eat faeces from a blocked toilet before having her face scrubbed with a fresh deposit!

By the end of the film there are several plot flaws that remain unexplained. There is no real reason as to why an investigation into Grace’s disappearance is being carried out. It also seems rather inconceivable and naïve of Hok to leave Grace’s skull behind a cuddly toy in an empty apartment when he has gone to such lengths to dispose the rest of the body! Minor grumbles aside Human Pork Chop is a chilling example of oriental cinema at its’ finest.

Cannibal Ferox (1981)

"Make Them Die Slowly!"

Mike Logan and Joe Costolani, a thoroughly unpleasant pair of dope fiends are on the run from both cops and drug runners in New York and are attempting to source some top quality cocaine in deepest darkest South America. It’s not too long before our inept duo hook up with the touring trio of Gloria, Rudy and Pat. Gloria is out to prove that cannibalism doesn’t exist, her brother Rudy is essentially security and Pat… no idea. Pat’s role simply appears to be for no reason other than to shuck her togs and shake her booty at every possible opportunity!

Mike explains that their Portuguese guide was dispatched by nearby natives and they’ve since been high-tailing it through the jungle with a cannibal clan on their asses! Joe is struggling along due to suffering from a poisoned wound. An alpha-male kinda guy, it’s not too long before Mike assumes control of the group and is coming on strong to Pat – Gloria meanwhile is routinely referred to as “twat”!

Next morning in a mutual sharing of drug-fuelled, post-coital harmony Pat threatens to cut the breasts off a young native girl before Mike shoots her, showing his true colours. A while later Joe admits to Gloria and Rudy that it was actually Mike that killed and mutilated their guide in order to steal his emerald stash and after Joe succumbs to his wounds Gloria and Rudy decide to get Pat away from Mike and get the hell outta Dodge. Although they soon find that getting out of a jungle teeming with cannibals eager to chow down on some prime human ham is not as easy as it may seem!

The remainder of Cannibal Ferox plays out like the grand guignol relocated from the back alleys of Paris to the jungles of South America. Joe’s corpse is dug up and eviscerated for food, Rudy becomes piranha-chow before being shot with poisoned darts, Pat is hung high by hooks graphically thrust through her breasts and, somewhat befittingly as the real scum bag of the piece, Mike suffers the greatest – losing his hand, his cock and finally his cranium before his spilling brains are hastily gobbled up! And Gloria? Will she make it safely back to New York to finalise her thesis that cannibalism does not exist?

Having kicked opened the door on the Third World cannibal sub-genre with Deep River Savages (aka Man from Deep River) Umberto Lenzi pretty much slammed that door shut on the cycle with this ultra-nasty! Whilst Cannibal Holocaust may be the better film and Cannibal Apocalypse the more enjoyable to watch neither film comes close to touching the sheer brutality on display in Ferox, headed up by pasta splatter stalwarts Giovanni Lombardo Radice, Lorraine De Salle and Zora Kerova! Combining the typical mix of fake gore with the deeply unpleasant real animal slaughter footage prevailent in most - if not all - of the Italian cannibal flicks Cannibal Ferox continues to make uncomfortable but indispensable viewing for even the most jaded exploitation fan. My only real gripe with the movie is the relatively pointless subplot concerning Mike’s girlfriend and the cops that are searching for him in New York. Teaming up together they head into the jungle looking for Mike. If Lenzi was trying to make some point about the similarities between hunters and hunted in the concrete and emerald jungles then it was sure as shit lost on me.

Night of the Demon (1980)

"An evil mutation embarks on a wave of brutal butchery"

Every once in a while you stumble across a film that you can’t help having a soft spot for, despite the fact that you are unable to defend the film in question in any way. Night of the Demon is one of those films for me and I have no idea why. Maybe it’s the fact that I first saw the film on video in the early Eighties, whilst stuck at home with chickenpox, my confinement only broken by trips to the video library to stock up on another 24 hours worth of depravity. You don’t need to tell me that the direction (courtesy of James C Wasson) lacks any kind of flair, that the gore effects are extremely rudimentary and that the acting would fail to impress a sixth form drama coach. I know that the film as a whole is virtually without merit but what Night of the Demon does have going for it however is a rampaging yeti/sasquatch that is more than willing to deal out a fine array of ketchup soaked and frequently ridiculous deaths…

The pre-credits sequence provides a taster of what’s in store for the rest of the film. A lone fisherman is brutally attacked and has an arm literally torn from its’ socket! As the lacerated limb spills copious amounts of blood, the credits roll…

Professor Nugent is the sole survivor of a group containing mostly anthropology students that set out to discover the secret behind the stories of a crazed creature living in the swamplands. Among the students (and among the victims) is the daughter of the fisherman butchered at the start, who unsurprisingly wants to know about the beast that killed her father. sitting around the campfire on an evening, Professor Nugent tells the stories of the various deaths attributed to the creature, which we get to see in great, gory detail. Witness the poor unfortunate sleeping camper that gets a wake up call of being swung round in circles by the `demon` and then thrown and impaled upon a jutting branch! Check out the two lost, knife wielding girl guides who are shaken about like ragdolls, helplessly slicing into each other, unable to break free! Howl as the creature interrupts a night of transit-based passion by ripping open the back doors and pulling out Mr Loverman before battering him around all four sides of the van before the body slides down from the roof, smearing the windscreen with gore as he goes! Best of all, roar as an unwitting cyclist has his dick ripped off answering nature’s call, before stumbling towards the camera clasping what looks like a slice of raw bacon dripping the equivalent of two bottles of ketchup between his legs!

Deep in the woods, the group eventually discovers crazy Wanda, daughter of a religious zealot and one time unwilling sexual partner of the beast. We learn (once again in flashback) that many years ago Wanda was raped by the beast and became pregnant – although the infant was stillborn.

Needless to say, the demon saves the best until last, catching up with Professor Nugent and his charges at Wanda’s shack before committing more outrageous acts of mayhem, the high point of which has to be the disembowelling of some poor soul, the creature then whipping the exposed entrails high above its’ own head! Despite having the best part of his face charred upon an oven ring, Professor Nugent manages to escape to tell the tale…

It has to be said that Night of the Demon is not a film that is held in high regard than many genre critics although from a personal point of view I have yet to come across anyone that dislikes the movie. I'm more than willing to accept that the film is watchable simply for the amount of time that the titular demon is on the rampage. With a splatter scene every five minutes or so Night of the Demon is essential viewing for gore-hounds and yeti-heads alike! You just know that when a misty point-of-view shot begins, then the red rain is going to fall! A film that's just screaming out for a gloriously remastered special edition!

Schramm (1994)

"Today I am dirty, but tomorrow I'll be just dirt"

Following a newspaper headline announcing the "Lonesome Death of the Lipstick Killer" Schramm cuts to the dying body of Lothar Schramm (Florian Koerner Von Gustorf), his impending demise the result of a decorating accident. As Lothar's life ebbs away, we are witness to a bizarre stream of disjointed flashbacks and hallucinatory sequences, with no real distinction between the two, detailing the life and times of Lothar Schramm.

Living what many would consider a sad, lonely and desperate existence, we discover Schramm's obsession with his prostitute neighbour Marianne (Monika M). Listening through the walls of their adjoining apartments as Marianne entertains her johns, Schramm occasionally masturbates or fucks what can only be described as a rubber female torso. After being asked by Marianne to accompany her on a job out of town in his taxi, Schramm waits outside and observes Marianne dressed in Hitler Youth regalia. By way of a thank you, Marianne takes Lothar out for dinner but is drugged by him once they return to his flat for a nightcap. Once unconscious, Schramm removes Marianne's clothes and takes several polaroids of her inert body during a set piece that must rank as Buttgereit's most accomplished scene to date, the camera rising high above the scenario before slowly beginning to rotate. Waking fully clothed the following day, Marianne is unaware of her recent ordeal at the hands of her kindly neighbour.

Schramm again agrees to escort Marianne on another job, however before they leave, a pair of Christians hoping to spread the good word visits Schramm. The only thing spread is the blood of the bible bashers, Schramm slitting the throat of the man before bludgeoning the woman with a hammer. After stripping the bodies Lothar places them in a variety of sexual positions before snapping off some pictures. Whilst painting over the bloodstains on the walls, Schramm falls from his ladder and lies dying in the position that we found him at the start. Receiving no answer from Schramm, Marianne goes to her job alone. The final shot of Marianne shows her tied to a chair, a look of utter terror etched on her face.

In addition to his fixation with Marianne, Schramm is also haunted by a number of strange visions that include waking up to find a leg severed, having an eye removed by his dentist and being attacked by a vagina with teeth! The most wincing episode occurs when Schramm nails his foreskin to a table but it is unclear whether this is dream or reality.

Each of Jorg Buttgereit's movies have shown a consistent improvement and maturity from the previous effort and the trend continues (or should that be concludes, given Buttgereit's recent lack of activity in the director's chair) with Schramm. Uncomfortable, disturbing but essential viewing, Schramm blends sexual and violent imagery together and fuses them into an indistinguishable whole in the eyes of Lothar Schramm. Along with Nekromatik and Nekromantik 2 Barrel Entertainment's 2001 DVD release of Schramm forms an essential trio of superlative releases of Buttgereit's movies and must surely be considered the definitite version of the film available. Boasting a new digital transfer from the original 16mm negative with clear english subtitles spread over 32 chapters, extra features on the disc include two separate audio commentaries, a 35 minute making of, several Buttgereit shorts and music videos, a bizarre boxing match between members of the band Mutter compered by Buttgereit, trailers for all of Buttgereit's movies and an extensive stills collection courtesy of the director himself and producer, Manfred Jelinski.

Rob Bewick

The Grapes of Death (1978)

On her way to the village of Roubelais for a rendezvous with her boyfriend Michael, Elizabeth and her travelling companion Brigitte appear to be the sole occupants of a train travelling through France. A male passenger boards the train and sits in the same compartment as Elizabeth, who notices that the man’s face appears to be decaying before her very eyes. Deciding to escape, Elizabeth stumbles across the body of Brigitte before finally fleeing the train.

Finding herself in a small village, Elizabeth seeks assistance from a local farmer and his daughter. The farmer acts a little strangely and is also decomposing. Elizabeth discovers that the farmer has already murdered his wife and is offered help in escaping by his daughter before it is revealed that she too is stricken with the same affliction.

Escaping from the farmhouse into the surrounding countryside, Elizabeth meets a blind girl, Lucy, who is also lost and alone. After telling Elizabeth that she has been sent away from her own village by her partner Lucas for her own safety, Lucy and Elizabeth return, hoping that they can eventually progress to Roubelais. Arriving in the village as night falls, Lucy and Elizabeth seek refuge in Lucy’s home although it isn’t too long before Lucy goes wandering to find Lucas who has fallen victim to the disease that has gripped the rest of the villagers. When Lucy eventually finds Lucas, he takes her home, crucifies her on the front door and decapitates her!

Seemingly alone in the village, Elizabeth is befriended by peasant girl Brigitte Lahaie who is hiding out in the Mayor’s house and appears normal and healthy, bearing no apparent physical traces of the disease – cue obligatory Lahaie nudity to prove her point! Local construction workers Paul and Francois arrive in the village with the knowledge that something unnatural is happening and expose Lahaie as one of the afflicted, before eventually rescuing Elizabeth and fleeing the village.

The trio make their way to Roubelais and whilst awaiting police helicopter assistance Elizabeth searches for Michael. Finding him, Elizabeth discovers the horrific truth about the contaminated pesticide that has decimated the countryside…

Far more conventional in comparison to the majority of Jean Rollin’s output, The Grapes of Death is often dismissed out of hand as a sub-standard rehash of Night of the Living Dead. Filmed in Siberia without a shooting script, Rollin’s film is closer in content to Jorge Grau’s eco-terror epic Living Dead at the Manchester Morgue than Romero’s trend-setting zombie opus although there are several moments that specifically recall Night of the Living Dead, the most obvious being the early menacing of Elizabeth whilst attempting an escape by car, echoing Barbara’s similar plight during the opening segment of Night…

The horror fan often left frustrated and alienated by Rollin’s more ethereal and languid movies may well find something to enjoy here whilst long time Rollin fans will certainly not be disappointed. Older viewers may be amused to discover the film includes an appearance from Francoise Pascal; former Penthouse Pet and star of Thames Television’s Mind Your Language sitcom!

Anthropophagous 2000 (1999)

Joe D’Amato’s Anthropophagous the Beast is not a film that is likely to be remembered for its’ high quality acting or involving plot line, but rather for its’ outrageous gore scenes, including a foetus being ripped from the womb and George Eastman attempting to eat his own intestines after being disembowelled by a pick! No surprises then to find that this remake/homage was helmed by Teutonic splatter maestro Andreas Schnaas, the director responsible for the crimson lashed Violent Shit trilogy and the equally red Zombie 90; Extreme Pestilence.

Plot wise Anthropophagous 2000 varies little from D’Amato’s original; a group of people arrive at a village only to find that the inhabitants have met bloody and gruesome deaths (a discarded newspaper bearing the headline of “Maniac Terminates Village”). Multi-millionaire Nikos Karamanlis has turned into a flesh-eating maniac and after cornering several imminent victims, a flashback sequence serves to inform us how Nikos the man became Nikos the man-eater. Stranded at sea in a dinghy with his wife and child, Nikos kills and eats his family following an argument with his wife.

It’s apparent from the off that Schnaas is here for the gore and although he tries to make something of the gossamer thin plot its’ pretty obvious that Schnaas is not going to let something as trivial as a story get in the way of a great deal of extreme, yet often crude, gore scenes.

The tone is set within the first ten minutes, when a girl on a beach is axed in the back, has her fingers chopped off and the skin ripped from her face! Two male campers are next, the first having his face smashed to a bloody pulp and his intestines ripped through a hole in his stomach and his friend has an arm snapped in two before Nikos sticks his arm down his throat to rip out his victims innards! There are numerous scenes of graphic cannibalism including some Zombie 3 style tit tearing! Nowhere near finished, Schnaas then dishes up a full-length, body impalement Cannibal Holocaust style! And didn’t you know that pregnant woman was going to come in useful! This time around, the man-eater becomes the child-eater (again) as the unborn baby becomes the main course in Nikos’ fearsome flesh feast – once its’ been ripped through a hole in its’ mothers’ stomach! Bleeuurghh!!! And there’s still time for a couple of beheadings and for Nikos to try and eat his own intestines before the credits roll!

Not content with directing, Schnaas also hands himself the title role with facial make up that looks like it was modelled on the old UK pre-cert sleeve! If you like fast and furious splatter then Anthropophagous 2000 will certainly hit the mark however despite clocking in at a lightweight 78 minutes there will still be times when your fingers will be hovering over the picture search button.

Rob Bewick

The Burning (1981)

"Don't look – he'll see you, don't move – he'll hear you, don't breathe – you're dead!"

Riding the high wave of the slasher boom Tony Maylam's The Burning opens with Camp Blackfoot caretaker Cropsy suffering horrific burns after a late night prank goes disastrously wrong. Stumbling ablaze from his burning shack, Cropsy throws himself into a stream. Shortly afterwards the camp is closed…

Fast forward five years and following a series of failed skin grafts Cropsy is released from hospital looking like a "fuckin' big Mac – overdone" and harbouring a deep resentment for adolescents. Unsurprisingly doctors believe that Cropsy will have difficulty adjusting to normal life again and not wanting to upset the applecart of medical opinion Crospy picks up a hooker, stabs her in the stomach and pushes her through a window before hightailing it back into the woods to wreak his bloody revenge on the kids of Camp Stonewater – conveniently situated just a short hike from the old Camp Blackfoot!

Up at Camp Stonewater student leader Todd frightens his charges with the campfire legend of Cropsy, whose charred body was never found and who wanders the woods, looking for young victims. It isn’t long before the legend becomes reality and Cropsy is making merry and hacking his way through the stock assortment of oversexed jocks and the chicks willing to oblige. Best moments of butchery include bad boy Blazer being rammed through the throat with a pair of shears before being embedded in a tree and a multi-victim onslaught on a raft!

As the body count rises Todd confides in misfit-cum-peeping tom Alfred that he was sent home from summer camp five years earlier – no surprises for guessing that Todd was one of the kids responsible for the opening prank on Cropsy! Can Todd now confront his past and survive the wrath of Cropsy?

Subtlety is dumped unceremoniously out of the window with this flick, with absolutely no attempts made to disguise the identity of the killer! Whilst the vast majority of slasher movies will chuck in at least a few red herrings or dead ends to disguise the nature and motive of the killer, The Burning happily shows its’ hand from the off! But despite its' predictability, The Burning still manages to hit the mark, courtesy of the fine effects work of Tom Savini, who turned down the opportunity to work on Friday 13th Part 2 in favour of The Burning. The most inspired moment comes during the raft attack, Cropsy rearing like a colossus over his victims-to-be before massacring the poor unfortunates in a frenzy of stabbing, hacking and slicing! And it was the slicing that really earned the film it's "video nasty" spurs in the UK, in particular the shots of a protective hand having its' fingers snipped off before the stumps start pumping crimson! Distributor Thorn EMI attempted to recall and re-cut all copies but failed to do the job properly the first time around and had to recall the film again just to make sure! Subsequent cut copies were routinely date stamped to reflect their neutering.

Rob Bewick