Nekromantik (1988)

Rating: N/A

Dir: Jorg Buttgereit
Star: Daktari Lorenz, Beatrice M

[5] Looking through old TC’s, I find I’ve often mentioned it, but never reviewed it; now seems as good a time as any. Like Hot Love, it’s an eternal triangle – only this time, one of the members is dead. Rob (Daktari Lorenz) works for a company who clean up the bodies after car accidents, etc. – he likes to take bits of his work home with him for his girlfriend (Beatrice M) to play with. This story really starts when he gets a whole male corpse for a bit of three-in-the-bed (in case you’re wondering, the answer is a piece of metal pipe!).

Unfortunately, shortly after that Rob is fired and Betty runs off with the corpse. Rob tries other ways of getting sexual satisfaction; he kills a cat and bathes in the entrails; he watches a stalk and slash movie, but has to walk out; he takes a hooker to a cemetery and can’t do anything until after he’s killed her for laughing at him. Finally, he realises the way to ultimate release can only be found through his own death…

The whole film is bizarre, to say the least, yet thanks to the sympathetic portrayal, the most disturbing thing is the killing of a real rabbit in a dream sequence (just about permissible, in contrast to say Cannibal Ferox, as it was done without cruelty, and illustrates the processes that have turned Rob’s mind) – in the rest of the film, it’s easy to feel sympathy for the man without having to share his deviation. Thanks to Lorenz’s performance and a haunting score, it’s a movie you can appreciate, if not enjoy. Exploitation it isn’t.