Nekromantik

I remember the first time I saw the VHS box for this movie. It was at a video store in Aptos, CA and I was 19, maybe 20 years old. My buddy rented it and we went over to his house to drink some beers and watch it. I found it really boring and fell asleep or tuned out or something like 10 minutes into it and that was that. The end.

I remember my friend telling me what I missed out on but I never cared enough to bother giving it a proper watch...until now! Aw yeah.

Now that I've seen it, I can safely let you know that this is one sick movie. It's actually pretty hilarious, too. I wouldn't bet anything of value that the writer/director/makeup artist meant for it to be funny, but I'd like to think this is the case. First off, this is one of the cheapest movies I've ever seen. It appears to have been shot on Super-8. This actually is a good thing - clearly dude was incredibly dedicated to his movie and really gave his all to make it come alive (sorry) with the resources he had at hand. Unfortunately for people with any gag reflex or good taste, his dream was to make a movie about a crime scene cleaner who collects body parts and lives with a woman whose fondest wish is to make sweet love to a dead guy with a broom handle (read:wang substitute) stuck into his rotting guts.

I can't say the acting is particularly good. There are also some bizarre scenes (yeah, I know) put in, I suppose, to flesh out the running time. For example, there are two scenes involving someone urinating that take just about as long as it takes to empty one's bladder. So if you're into pee stuff as well as corpse fucking, then boy are you gonna love this! There is also a sweet dream sequence, a ridiculous accidental death shown involving a ladder and a neighbor's pellet gun, and even a short segment of a slasher film seen in a theater that manages to look cheaper than Nekromantik in the first place.

As far as the ick factor, why yes indeed this movie has it, and lots of it. The rotting corpse that Robert takes home is a marvel of wet, rotting revulsion. The scene where he and his girlfriend get down and dirty with it is truly repugnant. What makes it funny, though, is the cheesy romantic music going for broke in the background the whole way through. What wasn't funny, on the other hand, was the scene where a rabbit is killed, skinned and dressed on camera. I'm not morally outraged - I mean, people eat rabbits and wear their fur all the time and someone has to kill them in order for these things to happen. It was just disgusting. So if you're that person who won't watch Cannibal Holocaust unless it's the "animal cruelty free version", consider that a heads up.

The ending has to be seen to be believed. It's absurd and the effects are the worst in the movie, but what an ending indeed. I hear that the sequel ups the ante considerably - I will be checking it out later in this Plumbing the Depths bonanza and will let you know all about it.

Tomorrow: Gummo