I just saw August Underground's Mordum and Penance finally.
Mordum was pretty weak. As said above, they tried way way too hard with that and it ended up taking away from the realism. The effects were solid, I thought. Toe Tag is known for some of the best gore effects out there right now as far as realism goes. But the film as a whole was too over the top to really be anything but novelty. The one character in particular, the new guy who just ****s everything he sees was really kinda distracting and too silly. Thankfully, he's not in the other films. The most disturbing scene in Mordum was
Spoiler:
when one of the guys was having sex with the corpse of a little girl in a bathtub. The corpse in reality was just a doll, but that made it look even more messed up and creepy. He also remarks how "tight" she is. ****ed up shit, and by far the standout scene in the film
Penance was way better. The best in the August Underground Series. It combined the more believable atmosphere and tone of the original with some really hardcore scenes (including one home invasion scene that makes Henry's feel like Sesame street). It had some over the top stuff in it too, but they made it work a lot better than in Mordum, it didn't feel contrived or forced. And this was the first in the series where it actually felt like they were actually trying to tell a story, and explore a theme of some sort and even make a point with the film. As said above, this is the only one I'd really recommend to most horror fans. It's much easier to appreciate than the first two (though I think the original still is the most authentic and believable fake snuff film I've ever seen) and is much more engaging. Watching both Mordum and Penance in one sitting, you can really tell how much the filmmaker's matured going from Mordum to Penance.