Ti West. What a
rollercoaster of a career he’s taken me on! The House of the Devil was amazing original and
really promised something really great. Cabin Fever 2 : Spring Fever was kind
of meh, but fun. The Innkeepers was fantastic and equally impressive as The House of the
Devil had been. Second Honeymoon, his entry into anthology horror V/H/S was
alright and had that classic West twist ending, and M is for Miscarriage, his part of The ABC’s of Death was
just a lazy insult and really nowhere near the quality of story that one comes to
expect from Ti West… so what was The Sacrament going to be like? Would it be a
reclaim of the magic West certainly can deliver, or would it fall into the same
disappointing pit that several others have?
First off, The Sacrament has a great poster as you can see above, a great trailer as you can see below and all great premises
that make fantastic movies. But West takes a risk with The Sacrament. Well
really several risks, namely that his story has a familiar ring to it as movies
like both René Cardona’s Guyana: Cult of the Damned (1979), and Kevin Smith’s Red State (2011), and certainly the “swanky” on the edge documentary filmmakers of
yesteryear, the infamous Alay Yates and his missing crew ofRuggero Deodato’s
Cannibal Holocaust 1980.
The basic set up is this; Fashion photographer Patrick
Carter’s [Kentucker Audley] former drug addicted sister Caroline [Amy Seimetz] went
to live with a religious community at an undisclosed location. Vice
correspondent Sam Turner [A.J. Bowen] decides tags along with cameraman Jake
[Joe Swanberg] to document the community and the Carter family Reunion in hopes
of a new rad story for VICE.
They pack up and take off to a cool very VICE like montage
and music, taking us through the opening credits, which I’d possibly have left
of and gone right into the story, just like VICE does if I was trying to mimic
before setting them down in the unmentioned jungle area. Armed guards meet them
at the makeshift helicopter-landing patch in the jungle area before they are
shown on the back of a truck and taken towards the camp to meet up with
Caroline.At Eden Parish they are met
with more hostility. Forced to turn off their camera Sam starts to worry about
this gig. When Patrick’s sister Caroline finally show up, she’s fill of, apologizes
and explains that the Kalashnikovs are merely a precaution as both government
and locals in the area are not to happy about their self-made community in the
middle of nowhere.
Still uncertain if they will be granted an interview with
either Caroline or the parish’s mystic leader figure Father [Gene Jones] the
team get right to work and start interviewing people in the community who all
praise the community whist Father delivers messages of peace and love over the
P.A. system. Later that night Father grants the documentary team a
brief interview where he answers the investigatory questions in a defensive manner
before politely calling the interview to an end and inviting the team to a
celebration in honor of their visit. It’s during this late night festivity that
Savannah [Talia Dobbins] ay young mute girl, approaches Sam and hands him a hand
written not with the sentence “Please help us” written on it. The parish
members engage in a creepy religious chanting. Worried for his whereabouts, Sam
and Jake look for Patrick, but can’t find him. Tensions build, and it becomes
apparent that Eden Parish holds secrets and dark sides that certainly are not commonly
associated with Paradise!
Just in case you do not know anything about the movies I
mentioned initially, I’ll stop there. I wouldn’t want you feeling that I
spoiled anything for you. Instead I’ll get right into the pros and cons of this
film a movie that certainly will find its audience, will be a great thrill for
some, but at the same time is a movie that could, should and would have been so
much better if only a few things had been taken into consideration. At least
in my opinion.
Style wise West totally nails it. It is like watching a VICE
documentary, and believe me I’ve seen almost all of them. The Sacrament boasts
cool hipster vibe, and a cool soundtrack, addressing the viewers and has
documentary hosts/journalists breaking the fourth wall whenever possible,
dodgy cinematography, candid camera chats shot with extreme dutched angles –
because its all ad hock documentary right! Even the font and explanatory texts that
add narrative to the piece work just like VICE documentaries do. The only real difference is that The Sacrament
is trying to come off as if you are seeing the unedited footage.
This brings in a definitive Cannibal Holocaust/Blair Witch/Cloverfield
tone to the footage, which is supposedly acting as candid material. It works,
but being someone who has worked professionally with television for the last
twenty years, the somewhat too good and well-edited “raw footage” often takes
me out of the atmosphere West is after. This is also where I start to loose
interest, because personally I find that the found footage/raw material gimmick
is losing it’s shtick and in a movie not to unlike this one, I’ve seen it for
real in stuff like Barbet Schroder’s magnificent General Idi Amin Dada (1974)
and if you’ve seen enough Mondo movies you’ve seen the Jonestown documentary
footage too.
What starts off so perfectly as an authentic VICE report
simply fizzles into generic “keep the camera rolling” mode, despite candid from
the heart confessions of what Sam and Jake are thinking and experiencing. I’m easily
disappointed in movies that set off to be one thing, as in this case, a VICE
documentary and then end up being edited found footage movies, where certain
angles may have been shot at random by the second camera that they have, but that
camera was left behind, and that’s a big continuity error – especially when you
end your movie with a text claiming that this footage is the only first hand
account of what took place at Eden Parish. I also don’t like the fact that it
goes movie drama style when signaling that it wants to be VICE, and that’s also
why I’d leave the actor and director credits off the start of the movie if this
was my flick. Hell, I would have made it with unknowns, in three segments and put it out there as an authentic VICE documentary. Now THAT would have blown socks off an audience!
Most the cast are the backbone of the Mumblecore movement
and there’s certainly nothing wrong with their performances, on the contrary, they are awesome and sell it perfectly. The main problem
for me is that they never really manage to generate any real empathy, or
concern. There’s so much more that could have been done with the characters.
Sam could have been much more cynical, or given a more dimensional approach
seen as he has a pregnant wife at home and on several occasions refers to them.
There’s something of interest there a cynical TV producer out to exploit and
mock something “sacred” whilst having his own strong values even closer to
heart. Or why not have cameraman Jake be more push and risk taking? Then
there’s Patrick, the swanky fashion photographer who more or less is the
initiator of the journey is missing for a huge chunk of the film, why not use
his character more, have him being a sleazebag taking photos in that risky
borderline sexuality style that VICE photographers do? There’s a lot more that had been possible with
these characters. Caroline could have been used to shed more light into the
inner circle and workings of the parish, the one to shed light on why it’s so
fantastic there, and all those “dark sides” mentioned at times during the corse
of the film. She could even have built the Father character to a bigger,
mightier omnipresent, enigmatic or anything person. Instead this is somewhat
done through supporting actors in sound bites and interview snippets explaining
what and why Eden Parish is heaven on earth, but it doesn’t add anything to the
mysticism of Father. He never really comes of as a great leader, despite
sporting shades and khaki suit, but just another bloke with a bunch of
followers looking to him for salvation. Neither do I sympathize, or gain any
kind of emotional recognition with Father and his parish as there’s not really
anything unique in there… to be honest, it could be called a re-boot of the afore
mentioned René Cardona Jr. flick Guyana: Cult of the Damned (1979), because it
really doesn’t add anything. (Just Google
the 1978, December 4thissue of Newsweek
and you’ll see certain images that are almost identical to The Sacrament)
With that said, this is certainly precisely what West was after,
to recreate a piece of history with contemporary imaging. There’s really no way
that you can look at the Newsweek or news reports of that time and not react to
the simple fact that they are despite being almost forty years old, still just
as exploitative as some of the VICE reports. Perhaps it is all a commentary on
how easily manipulated we human beings are in a world where nothing really
holds any real value, the infortunes of people following false prophets are
reported on every day. It could well be a reflection on the VICE generation
where everything is met with a Meh and a witty tweet update. It could also be a
comment on how easy we look at the value of others lives in our very busy and
cynical world.
There is certainly something bitter in the after taste of
The Sacrament, and at the end of the day, I have to say that it did capture my
attention, it did draw me in and it did what it was supposed to do, i.e.
entertain me, although the final act was a rather big letdown. I was expecting
something else, not a low key, simple observing, almost accidentally “caught up
in the events” story. Ti West can do better that this, and despite using his
familiar tricks of an ordinary world, low key eeriness, and building a
magnificent tension within the space of it’ universe, the air seeps out towards
the end. The Sacrament is a damned fine piece of craftsmanship and a really anxious movie as it slowly
builds, leaving that West trait of creeping unease seep in as it moves towards its
climax. Within the Ti West universe, it’s a decent piece that will sit well
just below the notches that The House of the Devil and The Innkeepers carved in
genre cinema.
This is a movie that has me polarized, there's some really great things going on here, but at the same time, there's several things that bug me. The real down side of The Sacrament is that it doesn’t really
explore or bring anything new to the table, at least not for someone who has been
around the block a few times and seen a reasonable amount of exploitation fare.
The story is overtly parallel with the Jonestown Massacre. The status quo is
reinstated, and the down beat, mind fuck ending that comes with great Ti West films is lacking,
despite the film presenting a bleak finale. Oh, and there’s one scene that is
so fucking stupid that it totally wrecks one of the arcs West has preciously
built to that point, and a moment that is totally illogical in the shadow of the events that have taken place. Perhaps it’s my knowledge of the stories and movies that
without a doubt inspired The Sacrament that ruin my experience, and that
constant desire for West to get back to the magnificence of The House of the
Devil and The Innkeepers.
Ok, time to dig into some serious cult dwelling… time for
some Zé do Caixão! Every country has their own cult character, cult monster, and
cult personalities. Brazil has Zé do Caixão and that’s Coffin Joe to you and
me.
An important key to understanding the world of Zé do Caixão
is presented from the word go with the opening monologue, something that
frequents the majority of José Mojica Marins films. Here Caixão stands amongst
the bushes and delivers the important mantra that echoes throughout the three
movies in the Coffin Joe trilogy: “What is Life? It is the beginning of Death.
What is Death? It is the end of Life! What is Existence? It is the continuity
of Blood! What is Blood? It is the reason to exist!” Words that will return on
several occasions and are of high importance as these words are the philosophy
of Coffin Joe!
A wonderfully EC Tales from the Cryptish Gypsy opens the
movie, wishing us all a terrible evening, mocking us, taunting us and then
cursing us, because if we dare to watch this films, she will take our soul at
midnight! Then crash right into the movie where top hat bearing, caped gravedigger
Zé do Caixão [Marins] just home from a funeral, mocks the mourners before asking his
wife where the meat is as he sits down to diner. But being Holy Friday she
gently tells him that there is no meat on this sacred day. Caixão throws a fit,
slams his plate on the table and tells her that no Bible thumper can stop him!
Moments later he gobbles down a leg of lamb as he laughs at the procession
walking past his window.
More than anything Caixão desires a son to carry on his
bloodline, although his girlfriend Lenita [Valéria Vasquez] has failed to do so
yet. This has led him to become obsessed with his best friend Antônio’s
[Nivaldo Lima] girlfriend Terezinha [Magda Mei], who he is convinced will be
able to birth him a son. This obsession sets off a series of sardonic events
under Caixão’s influence. And it really is a terrifying series of events, such
as Caixão chopping off a blokes fingers in a bar, murdering his girlfriend,
raping his best friends girlfriend, killing same best friend and even his own
wife. But it doesn’t end there, he desecrates graves, taunts the dead, pours
acid on his foes, challenges death and the afterlife. These are the ways of Coffin
Joe, a narcissistic Existentialist, and I’ll return to explain that later.
All strong protagonists need a nemesis, an antagonist to
threaten them. Yes, Caixão is the protagonist, despite his ill deeds, this is
what makes him an antihero. But despite that, he is the protagonist as this is
his film, his story, his fate. Rapidly making enemies, but using his
charismatic powers of persuasion, Caixão lures his way out of every
confrontation, but there’s one he should pay more attention to. The witches
curse and threat of an early death. When all the omens start pointing towards
the curse being an authentic one, Zé do Caixão starts to loose his mind, and
with that his beliefs. As the film rushes into its climax in the cemetery Zé do
Caixão is pushed off the deep end and into oblivion without completing his
quest… at least for this time.
Not only for the sheer cult value and dark story it tells,
but At Midnight I’ll Take Your Soul, and Coffin Joe is fascinating in the way
that at the same time this man is so evil and will stop at nothing to get his
way, like murdering whoever gets in his way, he without hesitation stops an
abusive father from shouting at his son. He turns the tables and gives him a bollocking
on the importance of taking care of his child and protecting the bloodline. This
is of importance to the series and will return in many of José Mojica Marins's
films to follow, the diabolical Coffin Joe frequently protects innocent
children. This also plays a vital role to his degeneration during the last act!
As a character Zé do Caixão is one of the most fascinating
ones ever to grace the screen. He’s a complete sceptic and doesn’t believe in
ghosts, god or the devil. He speaks his mind and he’s actually an
existentialist. An existentialist in such a way that he’d be able to take on Sartre,
Nietzsche or Kierkegaard any day. I find that the existentialist attitude of
Caixão is part of the key to reading Coffin Joe films. Existentialism is very
much about being true to oneself, having faith in oneself and taking
responsibility for one’s own fate. This is very apparent in the character, everything
he does he does, he does it to benefit himself, to pleasure himself, to create
his of fate. Nothing, no God, No ghost, no devil can affect him as he only
believes in himself. So when Coffin Joe sets a goal, he’ll stop at nothing to
achieve it, and nothing can stop him from reaching it…
At Midnight I’ll Take Your Soul is Brazil’s first
horror film and Marins’ Zé do Caixão is definitely one of South Americas most
known Horror Icons. At an early age young Marins was smitten by the magic of
cinema, when his father, who managed a cinema let him spend time in the
projection room. It was during such a visit that he accidentally saw a
documentary on venereal disease, and the first thing he saw was a vagina
infected with gonorrhoea. Marins states in interviews that this scarred his
childhood and in all his horror films he tried to recreate the horror and
disgust that the image had left with him.
At the time he started making his own films, he’d already
been acting for some time, and his first attempts where at directing he’d tried
out Drama and Westerns. But when he stepped into the realm of horror he was
onto something highly potent and sensitive Inspired by theatre, horror comics
and classic films he came up with Zé do Caixão! But where we today can enjoy
these movies at our own leisure, it has been no easy trip for Marins, who’s not
only films have been at times been censored, banned and seized. During the
sixties he was mobbed on the streets both by fans and “haters” who couldn’t
separate Marins from his character and where convinced he had a pact with the
Devil.
When the Brazilian Dictatorship took over, around the same
time he was making and releasing the Zé do Caixão films, Marins found himself
persecuted, threatened and even jailed as they read political commentary into
his films. On top of that he had the church and clergy all over him condemning
his vile films.
I’m not going to make much of it, but like many other
visionary filmmakers, Marins ended up in the gutter of low budget filmmaking shooting
and starring in smut, pornochanchada films – soft core sex comedies. If you
have seen the 2001 documentary Coffin Joe: The Strange World of José Mojica
Marins, you will learn that he went beyond soft core and into some very seedy
territory, something he himself seems reluctant to talk about, but producer Rubens
Francisco Luchetti is remarkably proud of. Once again an innovative filmmaker
is forced into a territory he didn’t choose, but was driven into by their
passion for making films. Crap films that are forcefully made when an auteur is
forced to become a gun for hire searching for funds to make the movies they
want to. Nevertheless, Marins took the deals, shot the shit, and used his paychecks
to make the films he wanted, and the money from the pornochanchanda films
financed many more films to come.
There’s some confusion to the lineage of the Coffin Joe
films. Marins character Caixão does return in several films, although the
Coffin Joe series is only three movies, À Mela-Noite Levarei Sua Alma (At
Midnight I’ll Take Your Soul), 1964, Esta noite Encarnarei no Teu Cadáver (This Night I’ll
Possess Your Corpse) 1967 and the final instalment, Encarnação do Demônio
(Embodiment of Evil) 2008. Despite this Coffin Joe does appear in something
like a dozen other Marins films. But here his role is more that of a narrator
or Cicero, such as he does in O Estranho Mundo de Zé do Caixão (The Strange World of Coffin Joe) 1968. You could
compare it to something like Wes Craven’s Freddy Krueger, who appeared in a bunch of
official films, but also hosted TV Show Freddy’s Nightmares and featured in the
strange The Freddy Krueger Special (1988) which aired on MTV to tie in with A
Nightmare on Elmstreet 4: The Dream Master.
Thanks to curious fans, late night TV, VHS distribution (remember
them SWV tapes?) and dupe trading of his films by back in the eighties, nineties
Zé do Caixão slowly did arise from the dead. Back with a vengeance, building
his cult, José Mojica Marin now stands firmly amongst the classic horror icons
that have come before him, and to this day he’s still an active filmmaker. In
2008 he wrote and directed the third part of the Coffin Joe trilogy, Embodiment of Evil , and
currently slated to contribute to a segment for the forthcoming anthology film
The Profane Exhibit.
Never mind the videonasties… here’s the moral panic! The one show that put the Swedish video debate right up front and centre and caused a national panic unlike anything ever seen before. And this all happened before the infamous British Nasties controversy.
The programme Studio-S, a weekly debate show aired on Swedish TV, but only one single episode was so potent that it changed the country forever. At this point in time their where only two channels in Sweden. No cable, no satellite, nothing. Just Channel 1 and Channel 2. Here where voices being raised in parliament about the easy accessibility of violent and sexual deviant videos. Most of the movies seemed to be filled with sadistic death and perverted sex. Obviously something that parents wouldn’t want their kids to be watching. And things took a turn for the worse when it was noticed that some of the titles on display in the video stores had previously been banned theatrically in Sweden. Remember this is the country that has the oldest ever board of censors!
So being the only forum to discuss the growing problem, national television got in on the game. They sent out a meaty press release proclaiming that they where going to scrutinise the new phenomena of rental video’s and their content. They where also going to air clips from the programme and warned sensitive viewers of the material to be show.
Now just imagine what this meant to me as a young lad going on eleven… I can’t really remember how I came to see that show, but I certainly remember laying headlong down the staircase, sneaking a peak out of the side of my eyes, trying my damndest not to be caught by my parents who where sat watching. We obviously had a video recorder and the stuff that we where allowed to watch is certainly stuff I would never have shown my own kids at that tender age. Wei Lo’s, Bruce Lee vehicle, Fists of Fury 1972 and Ivan Hall’sKill or Be Killed 1980, where amongst the first films I ever saw on video and they undoubtedly where a vital part of laying the foundation of my passion for alternative cinema. Anyway, my restrained view, and jackass-like balancing trick down the staircase, never really allowed me to see much of the show or the clips, but holy crap did that audio stay with me for a long time. Just imagine hearing the audio of Leatherface’s first appearance in the hallway, snatching up Teri McMinn, dragging her into that back room, hanging her on that meat hook and cranking up that Poulan 245A chainsaw and not seeing the images to accompany it. Boy, my imagination went rampant. The weeks that followed saw my mates and I talk about nothing but that show and the movies we made up claiming to have seen on rented tapes where certainly stuff that still is way too wild to ever have been made, and only a short while later we where crossing off the corrupting titles of that list of no-no’s. And when we worked our way through them, there was loads more to go through, that’s when I fist encountered the Italian stuff!
Nevertheless the programme generated a horrific spin that saw rental shops raided, new laws passed demanding age limits be mandatory and anyone renting tapes to minors and even displaying a range of titles would be taken to court. A bunch of blokes where taken to court and fined and a couple more in it’s wake. Obviously time changed and new things where determined to be dangerous and the focus shifted. Today nobody really raises an eyebrow about video violence and the age limits for watching movies have also become a lot more modest. But back then that one show created a wildfire of moral panic and definitely spawned a whole generation of horror movie fans.
Amongst them the legendary Sven-Erik Olsson, called by some, the funniest man in Sweden. However more than a funny guy, SEO is also a true enthusiast who, not only has a string of hilarious movies to his resume, but has also been a driving force behind a lot of really classic genre cinema releases for the last decades. Recently he’s been getting smaller movies up on national screens to critical and box-office acclaims. Four years ago he named his company Studio-S after the infamous programme and for the last few years he’s been releasing titles connected to the show and finally a long labour of love has been birthed. The Studio-S & Videovåldet box set.
Here for the first time since the second of December 1980 when it first aired, the Studio-S programme is finally released in its entirety. Uncut, uncensored and complete with clips, crying parents, fuming politicians and angled journalism at it’s best. It’s a true piece of Swedish history. But it doesn’t stop there, because this is one of the most spectacular box sets ever released in Sweden, because it also EIGHT DVD’s in all! Apart from Studio-S, there’s a beautiful two-disc version of Tobe Hooper'sTexas Chain Saw Massacre 1974 and single discs of Dennis Donnelly'sThe Toolbox Murders 1978, Ulli Lommel's The Boogeyman 1980, David Scmoeller'sTourist Trap 1979, Hooper's follow up to T.C.M., Eaten Alive 1977 and Norman J. Warren'sTerror 1978. The main disc is also filled with some fantastic extras, how about Måns F.G. Thunberg’s ten minute retrospect on video violence - featuring Jake West and Mark Morris of the VideoNasties documentary, and a outstanding trailer reel with 25 of the movies that where deemed to violent to be seen in Sweden compiled by the one and only wiz kid Stefan Nylén and a terrifyingly detailed breakdown of the video violence debate day for day up till now, and even my little show Skräckministeriet get’s a mention in the later entries. Ironically, as I've worked at SVT, the network that originally aired Studio-S, at their concrete block at the end of town, I know that there are a lot of people there, who are kind of ashamed of the Studio-S programme and what it brought with it. Not surprising as there's was further controversy some twenty-two years later when it was revealed in the SVT show Filmkrönikan (a weekly movie show, now defunct - Hmm how come they took that show off the air?) in 2002 exposed the fraud behind the Studio-S programme (if you don’t know I’m not telling).
I can’t tell you enough of the cultural value this is a box set, and time capsule, has. This is without a doubt the most important release in Sweden since you first heard the words dee-vee-dee. You really need to get your hands on it as soon as you can, because it’s a must for any Swede that calls themselves a genre cineaste. Otherwise you can NEVER talk about Studio-S and the VideoVåld debate again. Evah! I'll kick your ass if you do without owning this set. If you want to learn more of the debate and moral panic, pick up the box set on the 30-year anniversary, the 2 December 2010 when it hits the streets, or buy the December issue of CINEMA where I've spotlighted the debate, the aftermath and unravel a most shocking conspiracy theory... which now realising that Filmkrönikan was taken off the air after mentioning the fraud, makes it seem even more suspicious.
At the end of last year, the wife and I celebrated our tenth wedding anniversary, and moved into our second decade as a married couple. This gave me the urge to go back and watch the first film that we saw together on our second date - the first date being a Dinosaur Jr. concert thirteen years ago. Luckily she didn't walk out in disgust, but instead realized what she was getting into and has been the biggest supporter of my compulsive cinephillia ever since.
And what a perfect first movie to break in a new relationship with, as Jörg Buttgereit’s taboo breaking Nekromatik is a riot, it has some brilliant scenes and is without a doubt one of the finest movies ever to come out of Germany. It’s packed with sinister sexuality, brooding angst, and wonderful dark nihilism.
Buttgereit followed up Nekromantik, his breakthrough movie, with Der Todesking(The Death King) 1990, Nekromantik 2 1991, and Schramm 1993 – a fascinating suite of movies that all focus on death, sex and the fascination we hold for these taboo crusted areas. Four movies that must be a goldmine for those wanting to divulge into psychological analysis. But that’s not what or where I’m going to go today. I dig those films at face value and take the entertainment value with me from them. Buttgereit vanished from the scene for a few years, working on TV shows, and supplying special effects on Swiss director Martin Walz brilliant adaptation of Ralf König's hilarious gay comic book Kondom des Grauens (The Killer Condom) 1996. The Killer Condom was incidentally designed by none other than H.R. Giger.
Last year Buttgereit returned to feature films with Captain Berlin Vs. Hitler 2009, a comedy based on a play written by Buttgereit,which goes in the vain of Universal Horrors, the many “they saved Hitler’s brain” movies of the fifties and sixties and good old German burlesque. – Keep in mind that it’s always a winner to sprinkle Nazi references in your alternative entertainment.
The quick fix for those who haven’t seen this fantastic film, or for those who need a refresher, goes like this: Main protagonist Rob [Daktari Lorenz – who only ever starred in two early Buttgereit shorts and Nekromantik. He also composed the music for the movie and later for Der Todesking with Herman Kopp and John Boy Walton], is a looser kind of guy, holding one of the most repulsive jobs ever – he cleans up accident places for Joe’s Cleaning Agency. Constantly in fear of his obnoxious boss, sick of his job and with very little future prospects, the light of his life is his cherished collection of pickled human trophies that he steals with him from crash sites. Not to mention his beloved girlfriend Betty. [Beatrice M – who went straight to Wim Wenders’ masterpiece Wings of Desire 1987 after this one, and later returned as Betty in Nekromantik 2 1991]. The prized trophies play an important part in the couples sexual relation as Betty takes romantic baths using the body parts as bizarre bath oils. Rob brings them home, Betty bathes with them.
When the guys at Joe’s Cleaning Agency get a call to dispose of a body found in a near by river Rob hits the mother load, and obviously takes the decayed corpse home to Betty. Needless to say Betty ignites on all cylinders and after making a prosthetic penis out of the end of a curtain rail, the three of them engage in the most bizarre ménage a trois ever put on celluloid.
Buttgereit poetically and sombrely sets this surreal scene of forbidden erotica to a minimalistic, romanticised piano score which give a strange almost blissful tone to the scene. Rob starts neglecting work and becomes the runt of his colleagues for his tardiness, but when he does get himself off to work, Betty just cant get enough of their new plaything and starts pleasuring herself with the corpse while Rob is out of the house. Rob get’s fired from work and telling Betty, she gives him a bollocking for loosing his job as she now sees her supply of entrails and corpses being shut off. This nails the rift between the two that lead to Betty leaving Rob and taking the corpse with her. In his frustration Rob burns all reminders of Betty and kills the cat he brought home for her. But as we all can relate to, letting go is never easy and he keeps the dead cat in that masochistic memorabilia game we all play with ourselves when coming out of a painful separation. Dwelling in self-pity and self loathing Rob downs a bunch of pills with booze and has a fantastically surreal erotic dream where he’s a corpse, and later in his state of depression he murders a prostitute he’s trying to screw in a cemetery when she laughs at his ability to get aroused. Only when she’s dead on the cold ground does Rob manage to complete his act finally getting that sexual release. Hitting rock bottom of his depression, Rob performs what must be the ultimate nechrophiliac ego trip; he takes his own life whilst jerking off and dreaming of that initial childhood memory which now plays backwards. As both Rob and the movie reach their climax Buttgereit presents us with images of Rob and his blood and semen spurting dick that will stay with you forever. Finally, setting it all up for a sequel, the movie ends as the camera gently sweeps over Robert’s grave accompanied by soft music only to be interrupted as a female foot rams a spade into the fresh soil…
Little things, like the Charles Manson picture on the wall, the jars of preserved pieces of bodies, the skeletal parts that decorate their bed, the slaughter of the bunny rabbit in Rob’s childhood flashback crosscut with Rob performing and autopsy all set the tone of the film in it’s initial quarter. It prepares us for the dark world, which we are about to step into, and establishes Rob’s background and that first incident that made him a nechrophilliac. Yeah, Rob got a stiffie watching that cute bunny die if you want a single line of Freudian analysis thrown in. It’s easy to understand why this movie was banned in several countries Strange stuff freaks the crap out of the censors.
The ending is by far one of the best in the genre, you gag, you laugh, but you can’t resist it. There's a forward motion in the very last scene, with the woman just about to dig up Rob’s body. And in the extension we can only imagine what Betty - cause you know it is Betty don't you - will get up to with Rob’s corpse. Ironically it’s in death that they will finally be reunited, and as I've mentioned on this site before, we always want lovers to have each other at whatever cost so you can interpret a happy ending in there if you want... in some fucked up way at least.
You cannot not like this movie, it's entertaining, fun, repulsive and delightful as it takes a very dark humoristic approach to its content. This is empathised even further by the oompa loopmaish soundtrack by Daktari/Kopp/Walton – what is it with German horror flicks and their synthesizer soundtracks? Wasn't that cheesy keyboard music but yet another reason to dislike the Andreas SchnaasViolent Shit movies? I’ve always had the feeling that the 16” film adds to the charm of this movie, as it’s soft colours and grainy grit bring a atmosphere to the film that is very fitting.
The bloody bathtub scenes, and overall look of Nekromantik where incredibly influential on me when I shot my own thesis film in early 1991. I showed my friend who created the special effects the movie and told him that I wanted the bloody bath in my own film to surpass Nekromantik. A task he pulled off with bravura, and still the highlight of that juvenile short I once made.
It’s easy to think of Lars Von Trier’sAntiChrist 2009 when watching this flick, and there’s no doubt in my mind that Trier’s movie parallels this one on many levels. I got really aggravated whilst working the cultural department of Swedish TV last summer due to the fact that so many of the staffers there where constantly praising Trier for his bold approach to his narrative and the disturbing way he chose to portray his characters inner demons. The statement ”He is so innovative and revolutionizes the horror genre like no one before him.” was uttered on more than one occasion, and it had me gagging at the ignorance of these people each and every time.
Naturally I find Trier a genius too, and his films are among some of the finest, but I admire him even more for the way he plays mind games with the cultural elite and movie critics. I’m sure that he sits down there at the Zentropa offices and laughs at the way people lap up every new approach he comes up with. The entire Dogma 95 movement! Come on, what was that all about – Lets ditch professional equipment, lighting, sound and real actors in favour of natural light, sound and real raw art on film. And the critics lapped it up calling it a revolution, a new wave, a unique experiment. I call it the stuff kids have been shooting on video in their backyards since the dawn of time. Then Trier took it one step further, and in Dogville 2003 he even removed the sets! Actors walked around in Spartan furnished locations with painted markers on the floor for walls and doors. Again the ”Experts” dove in, praising his daring new minimalist approach forcing focus on the actors – really? - is Nichole Kidman that good an actor? Once again, I’m certain that Trier sat down there in Denmark chuckling his ass off, as his ”art” enabled him to get away with whatever the fuck he wanted. Remember his 1998 movie The Idiots? Remember that there where so many discussions about the hardcore insert in that movie? Remember what happened when earlier visionaries tried these tricks? I discussed Thriller – A Cruel Picture 1974 some time back, and how it ended up being banned for amongst other things the hardcore inserts. Inserts that where part of the movies narrative, not just a “lets let the people who are pretending to be retards have a fuckfest in the grass” for no apparent reason like in The Idiots. Well how come the hardcore of The Idiots was considered fine art and not when others use pornographic images in their narrative? It happens all the time, Catherine Breillat, Michael Winterbottom, Peter Greenaway, etc. etc. – Go figure, why do some get the pat on the shoulder and the "fine piece of art there mate" reviews and others are considered smut peddlers. And don’t get me started on that whole bag of praise given to Gaspar Noé’sIrréversible 2002 for being innovative, non-linear and a shocking approach to sexual violation and violence– in our field we call it the rape revenge exploitation flick and nobody ever praised Shaun Costello’sForced Entry 1971, or Buttgereit’sSchraam 1993 for their reverse narrative and offensive violence and sexual content did they. What differs Dame Helen Mirren’s nudity and shagging in Greenaway’sThe Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover 1989, from Tinto Brass’ Caligula 1979. If you where to rant on about Greenaway’s film you’d be considered a connoisseur of fine art, if you rant on about Brass’ film you’d be considered a pervert. At least one of them will teach you some history.
Well getting back on track, I feel that this is exactly the case with AntiChrist, and during those discussions (and more recent ones as it hit DVD a few weeks back) Trier presented his mix tape of the horror and exploitation genres through AntiChrist, and I always make a point of telling people this when discussing the movie. I give them pointers to scenes that probably inspired him –The talking animals (well the Fox at least), the guilt of the dead child, the violence; the dick, balls, labia and clitoris maiming it’s all been done before. Which brings me back to Buttgereit’s Nekromantik.
The way Trier uses these tricks is just the same as the Transgressive art movement and the movies found there. Directors like Nick Zedd, Richard Kern, Kenneth Anger, George Kuchar, Curt McDowell, John Waters, Andy Warhol and definitely Buttgereit, all made movies that set out to rupture our stern views on basic values and emotions. I frequently claim that the beauty of Art is in the eye of the beholder. If you feel that Jesus Franco, Jean Rollin, Bo A. Vibenius, Ingmar Bergman, Akria Kurosawa, Bruce LaBruce, Bruno Mattei, Claudio Fragasso, or whoever is art, then I’m not going to argue. It’s your definition that set’s your experience, not mine, not theirs, but yours.
Now that’s a daring statement, because it would be easy to say that all horror and exploitation is after the same effect, to provoke the norm, and in the lot cases it is true. But only a few actually make a distinct definition between arty transgression, and gore, eroticism and shock value as pure entertainment – luckily exploitation directors make the movies that still are watchable. So the next time some stuck up cultural persona tells you about the daring symbolism of AntiChrist, tell them to check out Jörg Buttgereit’sNekromantik films an orgy of Corpse Fucking Art to quote Buttgereit himself, then they can waste your time when the have an authentic frame of reference and not the last poxy article published by some dick on the culture pages of the days newspaper.
Image:
Full frame 1.33:1
Audio:
Dolby Digital Stereo 2.0- German Dialogue with optional English French and Spanish subtitles.
Extras:
This Blood Pictures edition is packed with extra features: An audio Commentary by Jörg Buttgereit, it’s in German but if you speak the lingo decently enough you can follow it. Interviews and Outtakes with Buttgereit, a making of featurette, Trailers, still galleries and Buttgereit’s early short “Captain Berlin” Yes the same character he recently returned to feature films with.