Bride of Project Horror, Day 24: Nekromantik

10/24/2012

I am so sleepy.  I have literally no memory of typing and posting yesterday's blog entry.  I remember watching the movie, and I remember waking up in my bed this morning, but someplace in between those two events, the blog elves must have come and cobbled together a post for me.  I reread it just before I started typing this one, and I honestly don't remember typing some of it.

Back in September, when I solicited suggestions from my friends, Kristin came back with a few that I hadn't heard of before.  (You remember Kristin.  We watched Cannibal Ferox together.)  Last night's movie, Schramm, was one of the choices that I included in this year's lineup, and tonight's movie is the other.  I have to tell you something, Kristin: I still think you're very cool and pretty, but I'm also kind of scared of you now.  Of course, I'm watching these movies, too, so I'm probably in no position to talk.

This might be the most taboo-breaking movie I've ever watched.  Rob is a nobody, bullied wherever he goes, especially by his coworkers.  He's kind of like the guy in Bruiser.  Instead of losing his identity like that guy, though, he instead finds his identity through a hobby that he shares with his girlfriend: necrophilia.

You know what?  If you read that word and cringed a little bit, you might want to stop reading now.  For real.  I'll understand.

Rob's job with a cleaning agency frequently requires him to remove bodies from crime scenes or public areas, and he brings one of them home as a gift to his girlfriend.  After a night of various, um, amusements (graphically, agonizingly depicted amusements) featuring their new friend, Rob is late to work the next day and loses his job.  Well, girlfriend ain't havin' that, so she and the corpse move out.  From there, Rob just gets worse and worse, taking revenge on her cat, a hooker, and an old man who happens to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.  I won't give away how Rob meets his end, I'll just say that it's an unforgettable climax (pun absolutely intended), and that it looks like he may end up being somebody else's new friend.

First things first: if I never see another onscreen animal death again, it'll be too soon.  I'm not talking about having to put down Ol' Yeller after he catches rabies, or the horse having a heart attack in the dean's office in Animal House.  I'm talking about detailed, exploitative, grisly, unstaged depictions of animals being killed in order to add shock value to a movie.  This movie featured not just one, but two separate animals getting offed.

Second: I knew that I was signing up for a few days of very extreme viewing when I lined up this section of Bride of Project Horror, but I had no idea that I was going to be watching three movies in a row that would feature onscreen penile trauma.  Talk about hitting a guy where he lives...  Schramm still takes the cake on this one, but tonight's was pretty gross and over the top, too.

So, what to make of Nekromantik?  It is truly a gross film, and it doesn't back down from showing some things that you will probably wish you hadn't seen.  At the same time, though, it's pretty well made, in spite of an obviously low budget.  It's got a few moments of fantastically dark German humor.  I have to admit, I actually ended up kind of liking it.

I give Nekromantik three preserved brains out of five.
Tomorrow night:  A Serbian Film, available at FlixFling.com

2 comments:

Kristin Bunyard said...

Hahaaaa!! I'm glad you enjoyed it on some level. Buttgereit is quite the director, ain't he? Schramm is really not for the faint of heart, and I commend you for watching these two flicks back to back. I have soft spot in my heart for Nekro, though, because the scene where he's running naked through the field flinging ---- in the air, well, it's kind of darling and endearing in a way. Poor guy. He tried. He really did.



The sad thing I have to tell you is that you're truly in for the worst of it tomorrow night. Serbian Film is so horrific, nothing you have seen (or probably ever will see) will compare. As my dear friend said about SF: "It is an unending scream of anguish." And it delivers terror on a tear-inducing level all the way up to the final line of the film.



But SF was YOUR suggestion, so I clearly won't win this year for the most damaging film you're going to see. And... get ready for plenty more penile torture. You're not out of the woods yet, dahling!

Danny Holwerda said...

You know what's funny? I almost mentioned that same scene in the review. In spite of his aberrant hobbies, the guy is actually pretty loveable.
I'm bracing myself the best I can. I thought of watching Serbian Film as the final film of the month, but I've heard it's so relentless that I knew I'd need something to cleanse my palate with afterward.

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