There are two things one expects from extreme horror director Jorg Buttgereit – Germany, angst. Although the sick mind behind Nekromantik is only one of the three moving parts which makes up this anthology film, few could complain that they’re not getting what they signed up for; namely angst, German style.
Three German horror directors, three short films. Of the three, Buttgereit’s is the most straightforward, a take on Hard Candy, Jorg Buttgereit style. Weighing in at barely fifteen minutes, one is glad the director didn’t stretch it to feature length, as there’s more than enough forced surgery and dismemberment (with the emphasis on the member) here as it is. The second film, by Michal Kosawaski is less conventional but equally horrible – a depressingly timely body swap story with a neo-Nazi twist. There’s no catharsis to be had in seeing the Nazi swap places with his victim though, and this too is punishing viewing, in terms of the violence and the shrieking, purposefully annoying acting. One is glad when it comes to an end and wary too, dreading what else the anthology has in store.
Thankfully, it saves its most reserved, paced-out story until last, in Andreas Marschall’s Alraune, an erotic odyssey in which a snotty artist, enamoured with an escort he met in a Berlin nightclub, finds himself embroiled in an underground world of designer drugs and steamy sex. It’s something of a relief from the violence and torture of the first two stories at first, but no less troubling, its extra breathing room only giving it further space to draw the audience in before bringing on the trauma.
Together, the three stories deliver a miserable, grotesque snapshot of modern Germany. There’s a slight emphasis on punishing the guilty, but the theme is a loose one. Buttgereit is generous to his less established co-stars, not delivering too hard an act to follow, but still setting the mood in remarkable style.
Although there’s nothing here that will trouble those who have suffered through Nekromantik and its sequel, German Angst certainly delivers on the intense, upsetting arthouse horror expected from its talent. As the 2004 movie Three… Extremes was to Korea, this is the extreme German horror movement in a nutshell. You can’t say you weren’t warned.
GERMAN ANGST / DIRECTOR: JÖRG BUTTGEREIT, MICHAL KOSAKOWSKI, ANDREAS MARSCHALL / SCREENPLAY: JÖRG BUTTGEREIT, MICHAL KOSAKOWSKI, ANDREAS MARSCHALL, GORAN MIMICA / STARRING: LOLA GAVE, AXEL HOLST, MICHAEL ZENNER, LILA LORANE / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW (US), TBC (UK)
