The CGI ruined Ichi IF you think of Ichi as a brutal, gore filled film I think. Personally I enjoyed Ichi and it's one of my favorite splatstick movies of all time. The part that bugged me the most was when they were inserting needled into the chin of one of the guys. The needle in that scene appeard to float and didn't seem solid at all.

Saw IV
 

Here's how you do it:

Get some oatmeal. Put a mic up to it. Stir it every 8-10 minutes. Scream when doing so. Hire actors to read stuff. Vats of kechup. CGI. Blue lens.

This film is utter dreck.

Way to give people some credit.

"Hire actors to read stuff."

Wow, you've hit it right on the head, way to go you.

there really wasnt that much gore in either of those 2 Cannibal films other than that one room with all the guts in it, there wasnt much in ichi either.

if you're looking for the real gory stuff, try Bone Sickness or Premutos.

Gore Gore Girls. Real, fun innovative gore. Or if you want the granddaddy of torture and cool kills, I once more refer people back to Dr. Phibes. Saw wishes it were Phibes. It also can't hold a candle to Theater of Blood.

I guess it depends on what you look for with regards to gore.

If you are talking purely in the volume of blood and mangled human tissue, then films like Dead Alive and Premutos are leaders.

I can't remember the exact figures, but if I recall correctly, Premutos had well over 100 kills.

However, to me Gore is more than just showing buckets of blood. For it to be effective, it has to make the viewer feel uncomfortable, provoke a visceral response.

There are movies with far less gore that provoke a much greater visceral response. For example, Irreversible. There are only a few "gore" scenes - the fire extinguisher/broken arm scene, the beating of the main character after she is raped. However, the fire extinguisher/broken arm scene alone provoked a much greater visceral response for me than Dead Alive and Premutos together.

The problem with many Hollywood productions is that they try to push the envelope and outdo their contemporaries, however still have to walk a fine line to keep within the boundaries of an R rating. Therefore, they need to have something more than just gore to be a memorable or interesting film (indie films or foreign films that don't care about the MPAA R rating can outdo them in gore).

Exactly. Innovative and interesting albeit less graphic can have a much more lasting impression than quantity of blood alone can produce.