Nekromantik
Director: Jörg Buttgereit
Writer: Jörg Buttgereit, Franz Rodenkirchen
Cast: Bernd Daktari Lorenz, Beatrice Manowski, Harald Lundt, Colloseo Schulzendorf
Part of: /slash Filmfestival
Seen on: 29./30.4.2015
[Review by Maynard.]

Plot:
Robert (Bernd Daktari Lorenz) works for a clean-up crew. Their main field of activity: cleaning up bodies from the street. Robert revels in his job and brings home every little piece he can take unseen – much to the joy of his girlfriend Betty (Beatrice Manowski). It’s only when Robert manages to bring hom an entire body that the trouble starts between the both of them: Betty obviously prefers the corpse over Robert, especially in bed.
[Btw, if you don’t care about spoilers and don’t mind a bit of grossness, I really recommend reading the imdb plot synopsis which is all kinds of wondrous.]

Nekromantik takes pretty much every taboo surrounding death and sexuality and revels in them. That is sometimes really gross, but mostly it manages to be really funny.

Usually when films talk about necrophilia – which is rare enough – you have one creepy dude with a beautiful woman only recently deceased. Buttgereit obviously thought “fuck that shit”. In his film the body is not fresh. It isn’t one lonely perpetrator, it happens in a relationship (at least at first). And it’s not just about fucking bodies, either: there is also cannibalism/eating fresh raw meat, bathing in blood and guts etc.

I can understand people who will be too grossed out by all of that stuff to be entertained by the film. At times I came close myself. But Buttgereit always manages to walk that fine line where all of that disgusting stuff is actually quite humorous and funny, even if really, really, really weird.

That said, if the film had been half as long as it was, I wouldn’t have minded either. It does drag sometimes and consists of too much filler here and there. Though, surprisingly maybe, not the sex scenes whicht are more lovingly shot and edited than many a porn film.

The special effects are cool as well and very well made, especially considering that this is an almost 30 years old, no budget movie. If you do like this kind of stuff, Nekromantik is not to be missed.

Summarizing: Will only appeal to a special audience – but that audience will probably love it.