Der Todesengel

Two bastards severely raped the woman and threw her in the forest. And a bit later she revenged them... It's the plot of this very long film. I suppose it was shot by TV camera. The movie contains many unnecessary moments and physically impossible things. One of the main heroes is the thin man and in one scene he punches the stomach of another guy and pulls out his guts. Absurd! The acting is awful, porn scenes are too soft for announced hardcore porn, gore effects are also bad made.

The movie is dedicated to Jesus Franco and Joe d'Amato and contains the scene where Manila May bites off the cock of the rapist. This scene is more graphic than the same moment in Joe d'Amato's film "Le notti erotiche dei morti-viventi".

I don't recommend you to watch this film. It's awfully shot and disgusting. This is the real VIDEO NASTY, but it's not so interesting as Joe d'Amato's or Jesus Franco's films. Don't watch it. 1 out of 1

Sexy model Manila (Manila May) is brutally assaulted by a pair of vicious slime-balls who abduct women to work in their prostitution ring. More than just a little off her rocker, Manila seeks revenge by murdering her attacker's whores, and then dons PVC hot-pants and hooker heels to teach the men an even harsher lesson.

As I type this, exploitation fans worldwide are mourning the loss of cult Spanish director Jess Franco, who devoted his life to creating cinematic sleaze; Franco's spirit lives on, however, in Andreas Bethmann, a man who also understands the artistic merit of a crotch shot, the allure of extreme misogyny, the appeal of sadism and the importance of gore, and who doesn't let a lack of technical prowess stop him from doing what he loves most—capturing as much of it on film as he possibly can.

Der Todesengel, one of Bethmann's earlier films, doesn't stray quite as far into XXX territory as some of his later work, but it's still 'hardcore', capturing moments of deviancy guaranteed to disturb all but the most desensitised of viewers. Rape, torture, and murder are the film's main selling points, with the dubious highlights including an emasculation via blow-job (bad guys never learn), Manila pleasuring herself with a decapitated head, the old 'pole up the hoo-ha and out the mouth' routine, and a gunshot in the 'holiest of holies' that erupts out of the skull.

It's clumsily directed, the acting is lousy (Manila May IS a porn star, after all), and most of the splatter is inept, but it's performed with such enthusiasm by its carefree cast of reprobates that one can't help but admire it just a little.

A little.

Those Germans, they are known for their splatter scene. Timo Rose, Buttgereit and so on, but what they didn't dare was putting some explicit scene's in their movies. Mostly those movies aren't that good but do have some fame due the theme's used. Bethmann is someone different. He's known for his X Rated Kult label and his adoration for Joe D'Amato. Knowing Joe you know that he uses a lot of nudity. And that's what Bethmann uses too. This is one of his first attempts. And of course with German splatter you have a problem, first of all, it's in German without subs, second most of those flicks clock in above 2 hours. This one you could choose from 90 minutes (without the nudity) up to 161 minutes, guess what, I suffered the 161 minutes. The storyline is written in two seconds. Girl cars broke down, two guys helping her, they rape her, she takes revenge. What happens in between are scene's that have nothing to do with the storyline, a breaking up of a relation for example. Further on the gore isn't available for a whole time. In fact, the blood flows but in laughable ways. But we can forgive him, it's his first world wide known film (after Insel der Damonen). You can see when a guys head smashed in by a baseball bat he's waiting until the blow to spit the red stuff out. Again a funny scene when a guys girlfriend is pinned to a tree, he's calling the police to come to the forest to rescue him, huh, do coppers know where to go. You get it, it's full of those stupid sentences. There's one scene that may be offending, the necro scene. When the raped girl goes banana she turns out to become a lesbian slayer, but first she has to kill some men. By taking them at her home she copulate with them, killing the unlucky guy and decapitate him, The head is then used to to bring it between her legs, full explicit. An ode to 'Nekromantik'. And the word has fallen, most of the girls go full nude, frontal and not in 70's fashion if you know what I mean, that's the reason why this flick is banned and cut for most than 70 minutes! It shows some girls explicit but it isn't porn because there are no cum shots or penetration shots. It's watchable but acting is extremely low. Bethmann had success with it and made Angel of Death 2, in fact nothing to do with number one and he made more explicit XXX horrors like Rozza Venezia and Excitus with porn stars. It isn't that easy to find his movies you really have to dig the net. Anyway, it's German.

Bethmann, who sees himself as German Joe D'Amato, made with "Todesengel" a really entertaining piece of pure Sleaze. The story is about a raped model (played by porn star Manila May), which takes bloody revenge. A mixture of amateur-gore, bad but entertaining acting, some semi-hardcore scenes, much blood and extremely bad taste. Anyone who can find some interesting in the work of Joe D'Amato should take a look. Watch out for the uncut version (2 1/2 hours long).

Hardly likable, this notorious rape and revenge from Mr Bethmann seems to say more about his fears than his desires. Actually more, rape, rape, rape and more rape, lots of gore and then some revenge, with a twist. Badly shot, appallingly scripted, this rambles along as two nerds who can only get a girl with a gun, falter and stumble in their attempt. Plenty of fear of castration on display and they even get other girls to do the torturing, pathetic mumblings seems all they are able to contribute. Some memorable set pieces, but does one want to remember them!? All in all a real mess but one cannot argue that one does not get what it says on the box. Beware, be prepared and shower afterwards.