Original Post Date: 12.31.16
This is it! This is what THIS FRESH BLOOD was meant to do. The exercise of watching relevant horror movies –for the first time– in order to discover that new piece of hidden treasure that would shake me to the core, has finally paid off. Last night I watched Nekromantik (1987) and I am still overwhelmed with awe and admiration. Continue reading if you would like to know why, and proceed with caution if you are easily offended (or underage).
A few notes before moving on:
- THIS FRESH BLOOD is reviewed here at marathmarath.tumblr.com immediately after watching the movie in question, however, due to the fact that Nekromantik was too much for my brain to process last night (12/30/16, 8:27pm PT), I decided to wait until today to put my thoughts in writing. Plus, I devoured as much information as possible about the man behind it all, Director Jorg Buttgereit, so I was in reading mode all throughout the night.
- THIS FRESH BLOOD is spoiler-free, however, due to the juicy (LOL, juicy) nature of the scenes, I simply could not avoid giving away specific details of the story which may or may not ruin the movie for Nekromantik virgins.
- Nekromantik is not for everyone, so this is your last chance to click away if you get offended by sex and death (or if you are underage).
Oh Robert, you creepy Robert. You who had the perfect job picking up corpses off the road and keeping a body part here and there for your own private collection. Oh Robert, why did you get fired? All you had to do was remain out of trouble, show up in time, clean your locker, and look somewhat normal. Oh Robert. Oh Robert, didn’t you know your girlfriend Betty was there just for the good times and not for the bad? Losing your job, thus the ability to providing decomposing corpses for lovemaking, was bad. Oh Robert, didn’t you know Betty would leave you and take with her the last corpse you two ever shared? Oh Robert, poor Robert.
Dear weirdo (yes, you reading this post), what do you see in this next picture? Is it a naked woman putting a condom on the corpse’s penis which is made of a pipe tube? Do you also see the corpse resting on a dirty bed with chicken wire as a headboard? Do you see the grimy walls? Do you smell decay and feel the cold air touching your skin? Does it make you sick?
Nekromantik left me feeling exhausted and mildly nauseous, but not in a bad way (if there is such a thing). When the Director decided early on the film to insert shots of a real rabbit being killed, skinned, and gutted (by the way, in a couple of articles I read last night I learned that the footage was from a rabbit farm where the animals were unfortunately destined to suffer that faith regardless, and was not shot, as one would think, just for the sake of Nekromantik) to show you the reality of death, of real death, was when I found myself wanting to look away or pause the video but I continued watching, uncomfortably. Later on, at the end of the film, the Director played that same rabbit sequence but in reverse while also showing the culmination of the grand finale. This would fuck with your head; life to death + death to life, human/pretend + animal/real.
Talking about the grand finale, the suicide/ejaculation scene, it was a unique moment in cinema. It really was! Looking beyond the obvious, a fully erect penis ejaculating while its necrophiliac owner stabs himself to death is pure poetry. Poetry! That which gives you pleasure, will terminate you; that which heals you, kills you; that which drives you, ends you. Brilliant.
There were other great scenes in the movie: the hanging corpse slowly bleeding over the plates, Betty taking a blood bath with her sunglasses on (OMG I love the meme I made and posted above, as well as on my IG – you’re welcome, internet), the threesome sex scene, Robert’s jar collection showcasing the body parts, the cat’s insides being used as an exfoliant by Robert (fake cat, also, I am going to hell LOL exfoliant), when Robert goes to the movie theater and leaves in the middle of a scene when a girl is being brutally attacked (this one left me scratching my head…), when Robert pays a prostitute for a good time at the cemetery, the peaceful dream sequences from Robert, and when an unknown woman (Betty?) digs with a shovel at Robert’s grave at the very last scene before fading to black. (Yes, there is ‘Nekromantik 2’ which I still need to watch.)
Last night when I was doing research for both the movie and the Director, I came across a lot of hate and a lot of love towards them. This seems to be a recurrent stand for issues that shake the morals of society. Both extremes do share something in common –the passionate feeling for or against it. I am one-hundred percent for it. Art is art (is art!), and if you skillfully mix it with the biggest human taboos and present it in the form of an organic, grainy, I-can-almost-taste-it film, well, you have a winner right there.
I would like to end this post with a quote from Director Jorg Buttgereit, from a 2014 interview with Virginie Selavy from Electric Sheep Magazine:
“… to me the so-called artistic freedom is very important. And this freedom can’t be harmed by a fan wanting to have ‘Nekromantik 10’ and also by a guy who says, this tape should be burned. In the end it’s the same for me.” – Jorg Buttgereit
This fresh blood left me feeling overjoyed.
- Marath
