Friday, October 19, 2012

The Death King(1990)


Jörg Buttgereit's second feature film has a simple plot, well not even a plot, its seven days and seven deaths. Seven seemingly unconnected people die over the course of the film.

Thats it.

Made between his two Nekromantic films this is a dark mediation on death and despair. With the exception of the fake decaying corpse that bridges the stories, this is probably his least graphic film. in its way its a jarring experience because it offers no answers only acts. The acts seem to be connected by letters and such but listening to the commentary track on the European DVD many of the connections were not intentional, though the filmmakers don't deny that they could be connected.

As a film its just okay. Its more an experiment then a complete film. Its episodic nature doesn't really ever allow it to come together as a whole. Give Jörg Buttgereit points for trying to go and do something different, and give him points for almost pulling it off (and breaking conventions) but in the end it's an interesting misfire nothing more. (even if some of the images and ideas are haunting me still.)

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