German Horror

[slayrrr666]

Another of the Sister threads to the Mexican Horror thread, this one about horror from Germany. Can be from East, West or solidified, but tell us which German horrors you've seen and what you thought of them.

[Fenril]

You do realize this is gonna have a lot of silent films :

Adrift [AKA Open water 2]. Six young friends on a yatch decide to go for a swim but forget to pull down the stairs. Now their weekend getaway is fast becoming a battle for survival...

[Note: according to imdb, this is indeed a german production; also, it's only vaguely related to the original Open water]

Okay surival thriller, through filled with several dumb character moves that become annoying to watch after a while; the ambigous ending doesn't help, either.


Das experiment. A psychological experiment about wardens and prisoners gets horribly out of hand; based on a notorious real-life case.

Very good thriller, a surprisingly classy handling of rather grim premise.


Der Golem (1917). The second film version of the famous Jewish legend about a a Rabbi who manages to create an artificial man; said creation, the titular Golem, is quite useful for the local village until a series of erroneous commands make him go on a murderous rampage...

Classic monster movie (good luck finding a good DVD print of this, however).


Das kabinett des doktor Caligari . An evil doctor uses his zombie-like apprentice to get away with scams and murders.

Another classic whose influence is seen to this day (in both visual design and story structure).


Nosferatu, eine symphonie des grauens. One of the first (and IMO, one of the very best) screen adaptations of Dracula.

Essential horror movie.


Nosferatu: phantom der nacht . A 70's homage / remake not just of Nosferatu, but of several classic vampire movies.

Beutiful cinematography, this one manages to both pay tribute to and update a few classic vampire tropes.


Unheimliche Geschichten . Possibly the first horror anthology movie, presenting five scary tales narrated by three demons.

Not so good, frankly, but at least it's an historical curiosity.


Vampyr . Dreamlike movie having to do with witchcraft and murderous shadows. Very loosely based in the classic vampire novel "Carmilla".

Great, classic horror.

[slayrrr666]

I've seen 5 true films, though there's a lot more and will be explained in due time:

Premutos: Lord of the Living Dead-A young man finds he is the latest incarnation of the fallen angel Premutos and manages to accomplish his original task that he has failed to do in the previous resurrections, raise the living dead to take over the world. Forget about the goofy, nonsensical plot, utterly atrocious dub job, or pretty much all the different elements you use to determine quality in films, this one is just about the gore and bloodshed, and thus I've got a lot of fondness for this one. In terms of quotient, it tops Dead Alive/Brain Dead in this department so easily it's not a contest, but it seems to lack it in the imagination area which is why that one is more likely the true goriest film of all-time, yet this one deserves to be in the competition regardless. The zombies are great, the action is pretty much wall-to-wall and even manages to bring in a tank into the proceedings without being gratuitous. An easy favorite of mine.

Anatomy-An aspiring doctor in a renown hospital finds that the rash of students disappearing from the class are the result of a secret society determined to practice medicine outside the bounds and rules of normal ethics. Not a true out-and-out horror and feeling more like a thriller, despite their being some pretty decent stalking scenes and a lot more gore in a normal thriller, but the languid pace, lack of action and sense of focus on plot rather than making the film sustain any interest from it's plot so it tends to wander along before it starts delivering shocks.

The Pool-A group of college students celebrate the end of their term year by visiting a friend's large mansion for a weekend of fun and partying, but wind up the target of a homicidal killer intent on killing them off one-by-one. Takes a while to get going, but becomes a fairly interesting slasher when it starts knocking them off in earnest. The kills are pretty brutal and bloody, but tend toward the creative end far more often so it's not and gory as it's contemporaries, yet it's stalking scenes are great and tension-filled, the killer's motivation and mask are pretty clever and it has more than enough action to make up for it's slow beginning.

Beyond the Limits-A gravekeeper tales a female reporter about the fates of two of his most famous customers: a couple of friends who accidentally come across a vicious gangster who tortures them for his own amusement, and a renegade priest is chased by cruel Inquisition members to reveal the secret of immortality. A little loose in the horror connection, but manages to stay in the goriest realm possible but pretty much recreating just about every vile form of torture and barbaric practice as possible and revealing in the moment. The second is the better of the two, as it's somewhat got a horror connection that the first one doesn't, which is more of a gangster thriller than anything else, but overall it's not really worth it.

Nosferatu the Vampyre-Not going to go too much into this one, Wernor Herzog's remake with Klaus Kinski and Isabelle Adjani. It's in sound so it's got that over the original, but a little too long despite having a lot of great Gothic atmosphere and visuals, more blood than I expected in such a story and a great feel to it. Still not interested in the original, though.

The other thing is that, as I mentioned before, there's a ton of other German horror scene but I can't count them here due to the fact that they're all co-productions and not true German horror films. Those include but are not limited to:

Alone in the Dark, Bless the Child, The Blood Baron, BloodRayne, BloodRayne 2: Deliverance, Boogeyman, The Breed (06), The Calling, The Cave, Cemetery Man, Cursed, The Devil's Rejects, Doom, FeardotCom, Final Destination 3, Flu Bird Horror, House of the Dead, Jeepers Creepers, Larva, Minotaur, Mirrors, One Missed Call (08), The Relic, Resident Evil, Resident Evil: Apocalypse, Resident Evil: Extinction, Riding the Bullet, The Ruins, The Skeleton Key, Skinwalkers, The Uninvited (09), Virus, The Wicker Man (06), The Woods, Wrong Turn

Now, I ask are any of these German horrors? I thought so.

[Fenril]

Mar 21, 2011 10:23:40 GMT -5 slayrrr666 said:

The Pool-A group of college students celebrate the end of their term year by visiting a friend's large mansion for a weekend of fun and partying, but wind up the target of a homicidal killer intent on killing them off one-by-one. Takes a while to get going, but becomes a fairly interesting slasher when it starts knocking them off in earnest. The kills are pretty brutal and bloody, but tend toward the creative end far more often so it's not and gory as it's contemporaries, yet it's stalking scenes are great and tension-filled, the killer's motivation and mask are pretty clever and it has more than enough action to make up for it's slow beginning.

Just saw this one, Swimming Pool - Der Tod feiert mit.

I liked it, it's a pretty good, standard slasher movie with the usual ingredients. A young, pretty cast, creative kills, a masked killer with a back story, a plucky final girl, etc.

It had a few variations on traditionals slashers that I liked: the characters actually try to fight back (not just the final girl in the last minutes, everyone most of the time), the killer's backstory is really not that important, the acting is okay, the characters are fairly likeable (not at all developed, but likeable enough) and a last plot twist was actually surprising.
The jump scares were done fairly well, too.

The only thing I didn't like was the ending

***SPOILER AHEAD ***

First, it's far too happy considering what the characers have gone through.

Second, it has rather unpleasant implications. Who cares if all the working-class kids got butchered? At least the rich white couple can live happily ever after! Bleh.

****SPOILER END ****

Other than that, pretty entertaining.

[slayrrr666]

Glad you liked it, that's what I thought of it myself. I'm a little higher on it since it uses what I like in these slashers while I didn't really care all that much for most of the flaws since they weren't that detrimental. Overall really enjoyable.

[slayrrr666]

Managed to track down another Germany entry, a German/Austrian co-production called Rammbock: Berlin Undead.

After confining themselves into an apartment complex following a massive zombie outbreak, two strangers try to survive without infection while trying to help the others stranded in the complex with them stave off the encroaching undead hordes outside the building.

This was a pretty enjoyable effort, though there's some rather pronounced flaws here. Most notably, the fact that this one barely lasts an hour in length doesn't allow much time to do anything in terms of getting the story developed, as we know nothing about what's going on, the start of the virus or anything else, they just show up at the start of the movie and an hour later it's over. That leaves a huge mark as to be completely unsure of what's going on, and then combined with the utterly banal human characters that aren't that interesting to follow and what we should be following them, it's really hard to get into this one. Thankfully, all the zombie scenes here are where it's at here, with the undead hordes being quite involved in the proceedings and getting lots of close calls as they swarm around the group trying to get out, the make-up isn't that atrocious and some of the gore gags are done nicely. It's nothing new we haven't seen before, but it's done well what's here so it's pretty enjoyable.

[slayrrr666]

Have another German entry after last night's viewing, Vampyr (aka Vampyr - Der Traum des Allan Grey).

Arriving at a secluded inn in the countryside, a man becomes caught up in the realm of the supernatural descending upon it's inhabitants and finds that the cause is a vampire let loose upon them and he must stop them before he succumbs as well.

This here turned out to be quite an overall confusing entry to rate as the fact that this one is so silent for the majority of it's running time that there's so many stretches of of nothing going on that it becomes a little laxed at times. Thankfully, the haunting, dream-like atmosphere present is of far greater significance and importance to this, which results in both impressive visuals or creative ideas. This is filled with both, from shadows that take on a life of their own independent of their owner, deformed figures or what seems like a complete ignorance of the person within their individual space, or just a series of arresting, unique camera angles that are just from interesting placements or give a different vision than expected, so when it comes to the supernatural take-over of the cabin in the later half it's quite creepy and chilling with it's Gothic impositions and concepts. While the film might be headache-inducing trying to literally follow the plot, since nothing seems to make sense or events contradict earlier scenes, it's not nearly enough to hold it down but it does loose some for these scenes, and overall it's quite enjoyable.

[slayrrr666]

Got another Germany effort down last night, House of Blood (no official Germany title, but it also is shown under the name Chain Reaction).

After surviving a prison bus crash out in the wilderness, a doctor is taken hostage to tend to a wounded inmate, only for the house they choose to seek shelter in belongs to a race of bloodthirsty demons and dispatch the group one-by-one.

This was an overall enjoyable and entertaining effort, though there were some pretty big flaws present. The biggest one here is the needless circular story-telling that happens, as the two different versions of what happens are repeated again as the second half of the story to repeat the first half in order to tell everything again, and it really makes no sense as it employs the exact same set-up with the exact same outcome both times over. As well, the fact that hardly any of the characters are that likable makes for a tough watch when it's really hard to understand why they're together. Though, none of that matters when it gets going and starts to deliver the goods, and this one does a great job at producing copious and over-the-top quantities of gore and bloodshed, from crude surgeries of amputated limbs to hearts being ripped out, decapitations, gunshot wounds and much, much more here that make this a real gorehound's dream. That also means a lot of action scenes here with plenty of confrontations between the two sides, and it's quite a bit of fun especially with the peculiar group of demons present they must battle. Throw in an atmospheric house for the location and it's got enough to make it interesting.

So, seems it might be about time I rank these:

1. Premutos: Lord of the Living Dead
2. The Pool
3. House of Blood
4. Nosferatu the Vampyre
5. Rammbock: Berlin Undead
6. Vampyr
7. Anatomy
8. Beyond the Limits

[slayrrr666]

Got a new Germany effort done last night, The Depraved (much like House of Blood, there's no official German title but it was shown under the name Urban Explorer).

Agreeing to accompany a friend into the underground Nazi bunkers beneath Berlin, a group of ravers find themselves stalked and mercilessly killed by a deranged border guard upset over the German reunification and must find a way to stop him and get out alive.

This was an overall enjoyable and entertaining effort, though it does have some flaws present. One of the biggest ones here is the fact that there's just no end to the stupidity running rampant through the characters, which really takes a lot out of the film. The fact that there's a series of signs prohibiting their continually journey throughout the underground yet continuing to press on forward, failing to recognize the unstable psychopath in their company is a deranged lunatic, continuing to stay in one location that allows the killer who knows the facility quite well and is able to get the drop on them numerous times over to get the upper hand and the irritating feature of continuing to stay in the facility rather than escape after having momentarily knocked him out yet fail to finish him off makes for a series of rather stupid sequences which do hold this one down somewhat. As well, the beginning is a little all over the place with an excruciating set-up to get them to the bunker as they stop every five minutes to tell a story about the Nazi's or to discuss why they're down there which gets old after a while, as well as the pointless encounter with the hunters underground hiding out that just eats up time needlessly. The fact that these don't really hamper the pace of the film nor the overall enjoyment, though, is a great plus and manages to keep this one from becoming quite painful to sit through as once the group gets to the bunker, it becomes all the more enjoyable with a non-stop series of tense stalking scenes, unbelievable brutal kills and a demented, deranged streak throughout that serves it well and really generates a bleak, hopeless future throughout that any good slasher really employs where it's going to be nearly impossible to escape that this taps into incredibly well, as the subsequent chase through the subway station really shows quite well. These make the film feel a lot better than it's troubled start and gives this one it's best features.

The list now reads:

1. Premutos: Lord of the Living Dead
2. The Pool
3. House of Blood
4. Nosferatu the Vampyre
5. The Depraved
6. Rammbock: Berlin Undead
7. Vampyr
8. Anatomy
9. Beyond the Limits

[slayrrr666]

Got another effort done over the weekend, Crocodile Alert (aka Zwei zum Fressen gern).

When a supposedly endangered crocodile is accidentally-released into the wild, a scientist teams with a former crocodile hunter to help track the beast down before it endangers the locals while avoiding the hunter who illegally bought the animal.

This was an overall enjoyable if slightly flawed effort. One of the biggest pluses here is the fact that there's a lot of time spent with a real crocodile in here, something that adds a lot of believability to the attacks and stalking done here by letting the cast interact with a physical being for once. Keeping the shots brief until the finale is also quite impressive at not overexposing the limited effects either so that they have a greater impact but more importantly allows the danger to come a lot more naturally with a realistic creature on display which is a great advantage in a creature feature. Likewise, those early attacks aren't bad at all either with a sparkling attack in the sewers while looking for several disappearances in the area and it even leads into a fine escape attempt from a car during the attack which furthers the action further. A secondary attack on swimmers after leaving a baited attempt to track it leads to some fun as well, and it all builds nicely to the finale where everything comes into play as the attack on the hideout leads to not only a firefight with the illegal hunters but also a lot of crocodile stalking and killing which helps it's extended length quite effectively throughout here. Otherwise, this one does tend to run into problems with the fact that the large majority of time is spent in here not doing much of anything. There's not a lot of attacks at all so the croc is kept off-screen a lot so it tends to feel like an afterthought to the two main human drama stories in the relationship between the hunter and his estranged daughter as well as his burgeoning romance with the scientist as they travel around the countryside with the reporter who's some of the most aggravating comic relief in the genre, and in the end this ends up leaving a large section of time without any attacks or action scenes to really try to reel in viewers. Likewise, the fact that this supposedly sets up the sequel in much the same manner doesn't really do much of anything at all in this one and comes off as rather lame and hackneyed to utilize such a finish, but it's more about how long and lifeless the scenes between the attacks really are here.

The list now reads:

1. Premutos: Lord of the Living Dead
2. The Pool
3. House of Blood
4. Nosferatu the Vampyre
5. The Depraved
6. Rammbock: Berlin Undead
7. Crocodile Alert
8. Vampyr
9. Anatomy
10. Beyond the Limits

[slayrrr666]

Got another new one done last night, Twisted Sisters.

Following a series of savage deaths, the police's insistence on a young woman as the culprit gradually reveals the existence of her malicious twin sister out for revenge for her better life and tries to stop her.

This was a rather enjoyable effort if only slightly flawed. One of the biggest pluses here is the fact that there's a lot of time spent trying to determine if there's actually any sense of whether or not she's the one doing the killing. This manages to pull out two or three different tactics to ensure it's not all that easy to determine what's going on, as the twin angle is played off in the last act so the remaining sections up until then utilize both the split personality feature in that it really is her while in a stupor or the fact of manipulating the surroundings to ensure she won't get caught, and it's quite good at doing these two tactics throughout here. Likewise, the film also manages to feature some incredibly brutal and graphic scenes in here that are wholly enjoyable and quite exciting to really play up her deranged and mental state with a slew of over-the-top graphic set-pieces filled with blood and gore including scenes of castration, tons of dismemberments, slit throats and the craziest sequence where she cuts open his stomach and shoves in an assortment of fireworks before setting them off inside his body, so this one really tends to get overloaded with the blood and gore. Coupled with the rampant nudity as well, this one's certainly not all that bad but does have a few problems. The fact that the revenge makes no sense seeing as how the entire thing is based on pure circumstance is a little troubling, as there's very little about it that would make someone start such a campaign to destroy someone that insignificant. Her job is decent at best, her boyfriend is about to propose marriage but hasn't yet and there's no evidence of her social life so it's not like her life is really one that needs ruining to the extent this one does, much less even in the first place so the purpose of choosing that particular point to strike is highly confusing. Same as with the cliched and overused method of turning her psycho, with the abusive foster-parents after their true parents died which is hardly original and not all that convincing. The other part here that does need mentioning is the fact that, because this one is set-up as a mystery for the most part, the film is pretty slow to get going in the first half with the large amount of time spent on uncovering the reasons for the attacks while also playing out her home-life which takes a while to get going. Otherwise, this one is pretty enjoyable.

The list now reads:

1. Premutos: Lord of the Living Dead
2. The Pool
3. House of Blood
4. Nosferatu the Vampyre
5. The Depraved
6. Rammbock: Berlin Undead
7. Twisted Sisters
8. Crocodile Alert
9. Vampyr
10. Anatomy
11. Beyond the Limits

[slayrrr666]

Based on last night's viewing, it's not close enough of a true effort to get ranked here but I am mentioned it as an FYI sort of situation in the Hammer/West German co-production To the Devil a Daughter.