Nekromantik 1 and 2

Nekromantik. One of the most infamous German horror films of all time. Being banned in its homeland and censored in Japan upon its release in 1987 resulted in it becoming a big underground hit. Jorg Buttgereit`s underground horror classic and it`s 1991 sequal Nekromantik 2 Return of the Loving Dead are still as shocking as they are brilliant.

The first Nekromantik film follows a man named Rob who works for a street clean up crew who clear away wreckage from murders and accidents. He also secretly collects body parts from said crime scenes to share with his equally sick girlfriend Betty. One day he manages to bring home an entire corpse, badly decomposing but that does not stop them from stripping down and having some three way fun with the help of a pole with a condom over top of it to help their rotting friend get it up. But the next day Rob is fired from his job resulting in Betty taking the corpse and leaving him. The rest of the film consists of Rob`s slow decent into even worse depravity, madness and eventually death.

This movie is a provocative, surreal masterpiece! It reminds me a lot of David Lynch`s Eraserhead (another personal favorite). It is very psychological and bizarre and will absolutely get under your skin. However it will either make you feel dirtier than if you just filmed a pornography, or you will fall immediately in love and get a big smile on your face whenever you hear its name like me.

Nekromantik 2: Return of the Loving Dead. If there was any doubt as to weather Jorg Buttgereit could ever top the original Nekromantik, here is the brilliant sequal to smash those thoughts to fleshy little pieces. A film so shocking in its day that the German authorities showed up at Jorg`s door and tried to destroy the original 16mm Negative of the film. And seeing as that is the same Negative that my DVD copy of the film is sourced from, it is safe to say they were unsuccessful and thank god for that.

Nekromantik 2 follows a beautiful young nurse named Monika who after reading about the death of Rob from the first film immediately heads down to the cemetery and digs him up. Upon bringing him home she realizes that as much as she loves him she is unable to get certain parts of his body working correctly. One day Monika meets a man named Mark who makes his living dubbing porn films. A cute little romance immediately sparks and Monika must decide weather she wants the live man or dead man.

Nekromantik 2: Return of the Loving Dead is an absolutely worthy sequal and in my opinion even better than the first. The acting is great particularly from Monika and while it has a slower pace than the first film, I think it gives us more time to get to know the characters, which in my opinion strengthens the more horrific and surreal moments.

The Nekromantik films have grown to become some of my favorite films of all time. They are brilliantly horrific, surreal and depraved. But also beautiful and thought provoking. One thing i forgot to mention is the wonderful soundtrack. These films have a very pleasant and downright beautiful soundtrack which helps give the films their very unique tone. I love these films so much I can hardly believe it. If you are morbidly curious like I was, track down these movies stat! You will either be left horrified and discussed, like any good extreme horror film should leave you. Or like me you will find a new favorite pair of blood soaked masterpieces to enjoy to the grave.