Der Nachtmahr

Awesome film. I saw an excellent combination on the same evening, first a documentary titled Zen For Nothing, about a Swiss girl spending some 6 months at a zen monastery in japan. A very quiet film about finding yourself, some of the characters eventually experiencing a cathartic moment, letting their emotional demons out along the way, meditating, working or just chatting the rest of the time. I knew that Nachtmahr was going to be quite the opposite as I had read about the subject and the rave music and aggressive lights etc, but it was a total surprise to discover that it touched on a similar theme as the zen documentary.Of course the social environments are completely different and it is significant that Nachtmahr is about a teenager's emotional state and the two couldn't be stylistically more different, but nevertheless both films are about finding and asserting one's true self. I actually recommend watching the two as a sort of diptych as they really complement each other: on the one hand the silence, bells and zen chanting immersed in subdued natural winter light, on the other the wild aggressive rave beats and flashing colored electrical strobe lights. Apart from that, I really enjoyed the rave scenes, the visuals the structure or storytelling and the underlying humor as well as the "unpretentiousness" and obvious "not big budget productionness" of Der Nachtmahr. If you liked films like Morvern Callar, Aurora and David Lynch films, you'll like this.. It's not hard to find flaws if you're after the perfect festival winning movie but this film is not perfect and I loved that about it.

Nachtmahr is an intense coming-of-age story with a weird creature and a "hardcore" music. The film has an interesting atmosphere juxtaposing ordinary life with an eerie psycho moments. The party scenes accompanied by raw electro-music are mesmerizing, but they also feel a bit formulaic. The story tackles a multitude of themes (death, drugs, mental health, relationships with peers and with family, ...) but it feels disjointed, lacks coherence, and the open ending ultimately left me with more questions than answers. The acting performances are also quite weak. Despite its shortcomings, Nachtmahr is an enjoyable film mainly thanks to its bizarre vibe. Too bad that the plot is so... unfinished.

THE NIGHTMARE is a hell of a trip. It's a creature feature based on the painting of the same name by the Swiss painter Henry Fuseli. This film is a nightmarish tale of a slow psychological disintegration of a teen who mysteriously gets attached to an ape-like creature after an inexplicable incident at a party. The film is a slow burn and is visually gorgeous. The strobing lights, disorienting camera angles, and pulsating beats, all create a mystifying and moody atmosphere. The bulk of the film is pretty straightforward, but it takes a hard left turn in its third act and enters into the surrealist realm and the ending is fairly ambiguous. It is a very solid and less-talked-about surrealist psychological horror cum creature feature with great production values and good acting about identity and individuality. Not to be missed!

What is this film? Part horror, part mystery, part coming of age, think "David Lynch makes an ET-reboot targeted at high schoolers". This wide spectrum of genres gives the film a nice flow, because it allows the director to mold the story in any way that he pleases. The viewer is kept on the edge of the seat, while the story is taking turn after turn.

Still, a little more focus would have been beneficial. Take, for example, the bold claim I found on the back of the DVD: "The ultimate Berlin-movie of this generation". Whoever sits down to watch "Der Nachtmahr" with this expectation is bound to be disappointed. To be fair, it features some very impressive scenes of raves and clubs but this is simply a back drop, to draw this to the foreground is merely a marketing move. Same goes for the mystery elements. There is enough material to break the wall between reality and fiction but if you are looking for dark, mind-bending mystery, there is other places to look.

I, as a viewer, brushed aside the mystery, the raving, the strobe effects and under all the rubble, found the beautiful story of Tina and "her" nightmare. Whatever it is, she is bound to it; the more people are trying to drive it out, the stronger their bond becomes; until it becomes clear that, while ugly and inapt for posh Berlin suburbia, it is a peaceful companion that Tina learnes to love and live with.

Surrounded by people pushing her around for the sake of "mental health" and fitting into suburbian society, a teenager emancipates into a young adult with a healthy attitude towards the darker sides of life... This might not be a good promotional slogan but viewing "Der Nachtmahr", this is what I will remember.

I watched Der Nachtmahr as part of the Glasgow Youth Film Festival, and enjoyed it very much. Depending how you look at it, it's a monster film or a coming-of-age drama. The film blends both in a smooth way, which introduces clever twists and fresh takes that will appeal to fans of both genres.

Carolyn Genzkow delivers a striking performance that clearly marks the many stages in the struggles of Tina, the protagonist, against the challenges of growing up alienated and misunderstood in 2010s Berlin. Commonplace locations come across as eye-catching visuals because of the lavish cinematography, matched by a booming club soundtrack. Likewise, it's always a pleasure to see Kim Gordon on screen, and an even greater one to hear her voice (the Sonic Youth vocalist has a minor role in the film as an English language teacher discussing William Blake with her students).

Der Nachtmahr is one of those films that don't give you a fully rounded, unequivocal plot with a nifty moral message attached. It requires you to think about it and come up with your own interpretations. That's what makes it so enjoyable to watch: the characters, situations and outcomes are very powerful, and fun to explore as you put them together to understand their significance.

If you're expecting flashy CGI peppered with jump scares, or schmaltzy self-help masquerading as fiction, you won't find it here. Der Nachtmahr is a poetic, low-key movie about monsters, whether real or perceived. The dangerous sound frequencies it warns you about in an introductory disclaimer are probably no more hazardous than those in Lou Reed's Metal Machine Music, but be careful with the flickering lights of the club scenes: a friend of mine came along and had to leave after five minutes to get some paracetamol. And he's not even epileptic (it was just a petit mal migraine, though, no more).