Butcher Block is a weekly series celebrating horror’s most extreme films and the minds behind them. Dedicated to graphic gore and splatter, each week will explore the dark, the disturbed, and the depraved in horror, and the blood and guts involved. For the films that use special effects of gore as an art form, and the fans that revel in the carnage, this series is for you.

In terms of sheer quantity of blood splattered across the screen, the early ‘90s wins for bringing the two bloodiest films to ever grace film. The first is, no surprise, Peter Jackson’s Dead Alive for delivering a torrential geyser of zombie carnage by way of lawnmower. The second is Hong Kong’s 1991 martial arts-exploitation film Riki-Oh: The Story of Ricky, a cult favorite that somehow managed to rival Jackson in terms of splatter. The graphic gore and violence earned the film a rare Category III rating in Hong Kong, a first since that category was typically reserved for erotic films.

Martial arts movies aren’t usually tied to extreme gore, or genre films for that matter, but Riki-Oh leans heavily into the fantastical and the violent Japanese manga on which it was based. That it was directed by Lam Ngai Choi, a director whose work has drawn comparisons to Ed Wood, only further exacerbated just how far Riki-Oh pushed Ricky’s exploits to the extreme. The plot is simple; young Ricky is incarcerated at a prison run by corrupt officials after killing the crime lord responsible for his girlfriend’s death. But Ricky’s way of cleaning up corruption and navigating life in prison means exploding heads, maimed limbs, intestines used as weapons, and increasingly over the top carnage.

Ricky is super powered in strength and ability to receive damage; in one fight scene, he ties together a severed artery or nerve (I can’t be sure, it’s blood-soaked and hard to tell) before getting back into the battle. He punches through most of his opponents, ripping through flesh, skulls, and various other soft spots to let their insides spill out onto the prison floor. The assistant warden and the fearsome Four Heavenly Kings that provide the obstacles that stand in the way are also a bit superpowered, contributing to some of the most outlandish and brutal battles.

Ricky battles each opponent in a plot that plays out like a video game, until he reaches the final showdown between the Warden and he, resulting in a climax so insanely bloody that actor Fan Siu-Wong, who placed Ricky, couldn’t wash the red off of his skin for days. It’s a scene that plays out quite similarly to Lionel Cosgrove’s final ascent to hero in Dead Alive, and one that solidifies why Riki-Oh is mentioned and regarded in the horror space.

Riki-Oh: The Story of Ricky is exploitation martial arts cinema at its finest. A low budget film full of cheesy dialogue (best viewed dubbed for maximum impact), acting, and effects. But holy hell, the gore. So much glorious gore. Special makeup effects artists Chi-Wai Cheung and Fung-Yin Cheng weren’t breaking any new ground here, and the low budget meant some cheesy effects. Except in terms of pure quantity. There’s nothing quite like the splatterfest of Riki-Oh, a viewing experience best enjoyed with a group.