German Horror

Nekromantik

We Are the Night

Guten tag, ghouls! We’re closing out October with one last round of horror movies (as if its the last time I’ll review any here lol), and for my last horror theme, I was completely stumped. I’ve had a pretty mixed bag of horror films this month, some were thrilling, some were terrifyingly nothing, and I just wanted to end on a positive(ly spooky) note. There are so many directions and subgenres to explore within my favorite film genre, but I opted for another set of foreign horror films tonight, this time from Germany. Germany has a very fascinating film history. So many influential films from the early 20th century came from Germany, and despite the public’s disdain for the influx of propaganda films during WWI, Germany was at one time the biggest film industry in Europe. During this period, incredible advancements were being made with lighting, sound, and within the very language we use to discuss and theorize about art. Following a slew of formulaic films, German filmmakers began to branch out and explore different genres of film, and due to the general malaise following WWI, horror became one of the most popular genres. One of my favorite horror films, the disorienting and disturbing The Cabinet of Dr. Caligary (1920), was a showcase of the macabre and magical possibilities of German expressionism—an art form that really took off, especially within other horror films like Nosferatu and gothic folklore like Metropolis. As the Nazis came to power, the rich, varied, and robust German film industry came to a grinding halt. Suddenly, Jewish people were being killed and exiled from their towns, their homes, their jobs, propaganda films became the norm, and prominent German filmmakers like Fritz Lang and Billy Wilder fled to America to make more profitable films. WWII and Hitler’s regime left Germany in an unstable and uncertain position, economically, existentially, and artistically. After the horrors of WWII, very little scary content was being produced and some of the most profitable films coming out of Germany were documentaries that catalogued the devastation of the war and the Holocaust. Odd films were being released post-war, that attempted to depict German soldiers as sympathetic and apolitical, and completely at the mercy of Hitler. Antisemitic depictions prevailed and bizarre war movies continued until theatre attendance died down, economic instability persisted, and the rise of television left the German film industry in a strange and unpredictable place. I’m skimming through a lot of history here (which you should definitely read up on) but to make a long story short, Germany introduced their own version of the Hays Code, experimentation and exploitation became a popular subversive art form, and a return to the always-pertinent horror genre just made sense. The last German horror film I watched was The Fan, which was thoroughly riveting, but it was more disturbing in the psycho-sexual way than it was tangibly scary. In much of the German horror that I’ve seen, boundaries are pushed, the idea of any character being innocent can be thrown right out the door, and no taboo is left unexplored. Such was certainly the case for the first film that I watched, Jörg Buttgereit’s 1988 film Nekromantik. Jörg has been quoted as saying that he never intended to be a filmmaker, but he desired to rebel against the German rating system and to shock as many people as possible. And shock he did. This film has been banned in Iceland, Malaysia, Singapore, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Australia, Finland, and New Zealand, and John Waters once described this as “the first erotic film for necrophiliacs”—so needless to say, I’ve been curious about this film for a very long time. This film is as popular as it is controversial, scandalizing every being who views it—regardless of how freaky they consider themselves to be. It is a dark film, both thematically and literally, and there were a few instances where I couldn’t really see what was happening, but that might’ve been for the best. Nekromantik follows a street sweeper who cleans up grisly crime scenes and horrific accidents. Him and his girlfriend Betty have sick and twisted fascination with dead bodies, so he begins to collect parts and organs and places them into jars. One day he brings home a full corpse for him and Betty to enjoy, but he is devastated to find out that Betty likes the dead body more than she likes him. If the premise alone isn’t enough to turn you away from this fucked up film, then viewing it and actually seeing the execution of it will because I’ll be honest, I was sort of into this film until things got a little too disgusting—even for me. In my defense, the cover art for this film is cool, so I wasn’t completely insane to think that I’d enjoy this movie. Nekromantik was definitely intriguing, but it was mostly unwatchable. It had a low-budget quality about it that made it seem far older than 1988, but its effects seemed incredibly real. This is because, for the most part, the organs in this film WERE real—just borrowed from animal corpses rather than human ones. I was compelled by the dynamic of a crime scene cleaner bf and an insatiable necromantic gf, and despite each disgusting display of horrific hedonism, I was curious to see where their story went. But between the nauseating, not-so-softcore skeleton sex, the senseless raping and slashing of unnamed victims, and the incessantly screechy soundtrack, I couldn’t bring myself to enjoy really any moment of this film. But even with movies that I don’t like, I tend to defend their artistic endeavors and commitment to their craft—I cannot do this for Nekromantik. Because the moment it really lost me, had to do with animal cruelty that—no matter how fictional and fake—upset me far past the point that normal horror films do. This will always be my one singular critique of horror films: why is there almost always an animal death? Like seriously? I can endure watching nearly any horrible thing being done to a human body but I really do draw the line at animal torture or death. How does it help make your point? It’s not artistic, it’s certainly not creative, and it’s not necessary. This factor, more than anything else, ruined this film for me. Not the coitus with the corpse, not the various lovemaking with various organs, not the merciless killing of humans, but the animal stuff. Fuck that! Sorry if that makes me a wimp, sorry if that makes me boring, but I just don’t get it, and never ever will. So yeah, I wouldn’t recommend Nekromantik to anyone that I like, but if I hate you, you should definitely watch it. One film I’d recommend to anyone, though, was tonight’s next film: Dennis Gansel’s 2010 vampire thriller We Are the Night. There were countless German horror films to choose from, but I’ll be frank, I mostly chose this movie so I could look at Max Riemelt (Sense8 hive rise up). But when this film opened with three bad bitch vampires eating an entire plane of people, I knew that I’d be in for a real treat. Now when I think of Germany, I typically think of three things: the Holocaust unfortunately, very old fairytales, and oontz oontz house music. We Are the Night highlights remnants of a dark German history, but it mostly showcases the latter two things by placing the most badass vampire nightclub (since Blade) inside an abandoned fairytale theme park. Our protagonist Lena finds herself at this club after running from the law and escaping the clutches of hot cop (oxymoronic, I know) Max Riemelt, but she’s far from safe here. The club is owned by Louise (one of the aforementioned bad bitch vampires) and her fellow vampire girlfriends Charlotte and Nora follow close behind. Louise becomes very attracted to the quiet but strong Lena, whom Louise is convinced is her lover from a past life, reincarnated. Louise bites Lena, and what follows is a very swift, very violent, very chic descent into vampiric (un)living. Lena is of course resistant to this lifestyle at first, and hot cop Max Riemelt keeps trying to pursue her, but she soon finds her taste for blood and bad bitchery. These vamps aren’t just thirsty for blood, they desire adventure: they’re dancing at the club, they’re driving fast cars through the city, they’re killing dudes, they’re breaking into the mall at night to steal stuff, and I had so much fun watching it all unfold. We Are the Night has one of the most horrendous trailers I’ve ever seen but I’m so glad that I gave it a chance, bad dubbing and all. This film has really clever vampire lore and vampire powers, without ever uttering the word “vampire” one time. It is so hard to find an original vampire film, but it is the first one to really excite me since I watched Thirst last year. I would’ve enjoyed this movie even if it had been a silly, sexy, less-than-feminist, trashy vampire film, but it actually wound up being a really smart, really sexy, uber feminist vampire film, so color me obsessed. We Are the Night had no business being this good—it was riveting, unique, haunting, and beautiful, even. The only shame is that it’s so hard to find a non-dubbed version of this film (but if you have a link, I beg you to drop it in the comments) because Max Riemelt (and his voice) is so hot in a way that I’m not legally allowed to say here. But We Are the Night was still utter perfection to me, which I desperately needed after the trauma of Nekromantik. Between the nudity, the necrophilia, and the horrendous English dubbing, German horror may not be for you, which I understand. But thank you for reading along anyway, thank you for exploring horror movies with me this month, and I hope you’ll tune into whatever bullshit I come up with next week. Auf Wiedersehen, dear readers, and Happy Halloween! 👻