When a film starts with a quote from notorious serial killer Ted Bundy, you know it’s not exactly going to be Minions 3. And so begins Nektromantik 2, Jӧrg Buttgereit’s sequel to his transgressive necrophilia romance (it’s all in the title see) Nekromantik, brought to blu-ray by Arrow.
After her boyfriend’s suicide, which is a literal bloody climax except it’s at the start of the film, necrophiliac Monika (Monika M.) digs up his body and brings it home to indulge in her sexual perversion. When she gets a new boyfriend, Mark (Mark Reeder) she struggles have a normal relationship while hiding her real sexual desires.
What’s clear from the start of Nekromantik 2 is that Jӧrg Buttgereit has improved as a director. The film is slicker than the original and he is more at ease letting the visuals tell the story, to the point where great swathes of the film are dialogue free. There’s even a brief musical interlude. This, however, does add to the films bloated running time, and isn’t really to its benefit as it’s a film which doesn’t have particular depth.
The title itself is completely self-explanatory because this is kind of a romantic movie but about a necrophiliac. It’s not your run of the mill romantic movie, the boy dubs pornography and the girl has sex with corpses, but it is concerned with their burgeoning relationship and the difficulties that this includes, even if they aren’t your usual problems. Katherine Heigel would probably turn it down, though with her current career trajectory, perhaps not, but it can be a considered a romance film.
The plot does lend itself to some dark (very dark) comedy, like how Monika puts the severed corpse genitals on a plate and covers them with cling film, like leftovers, stored to be used another day, but it’s never really funny enough to be classed as a comedy. It’s a shame because more could have been made of this ludicrous scenario.
All it’s really concerned with is being shocking and provocative, which it does, to an extent, succeed in doing. It’s a film whose interest lies purely in curiosity and gross-out rather than anything genuinely interesting or groundbreaking.
The effects are suitably stomach churning and moist, though they don’t really hold as realistic, especially in the dismemberment scene. You never really get used to the site of someone kissing the blackened, rotting head of a corpse. It’s not a film to be watched while you eat your dinner. Nekromantik 2 also contains a scene of graphic, real life animal skinning, as did the first film, which some viewers will no doubt find off-putting.
Nekromantik 2 wants to be repulsive, and not a lot more. It squanders what could have been an entertaining premise and doesn’t give you much else to hold on to.
NEKROMANTIK 2 / CERT: 18 / DIRECTOR: JÖRG BUTTGEREIT / SCREENPLAY: JÖRG BUTTGEREIT, FRANZ RODENKIRCHEN / STARRING: MONIKA M., MARK REEDER, CAROLA EWERS / RELEASE DATE: 3RD JULY
