By: S.P. (IG: @Valhallavalkyrie)
Edited By: Grave Reviews Staff
Film Information
Director: Jörg Buttgereit
Producer: Manfred Jelinkski
Screenwriter: Jörg Buttgereit, Franz Rodenkirchen
Date Released: 1987
Cast:
Daktari Lorenz as Rob
Beatrice Manowski as Betty
Harald Lundt as Bruno
Rating = 3/5 Graves
Synopsis
Nekromantik, a 1987 film directed by Jörg Buttgereit, is an extremely controversial German horror film. It has been banned in several countries. Nekromantik, as the title implies, includes the taboo subject matter of necrophilia and presents its audience with grotesque and stomach-wrenching scenes of decomposing bodies and limbs.
Death, in its rawest form, is merged with both erotic and romantic love. Together, it creates a unique, albeit highly graphic, viewing experience. The plot itself is quite straightforward revolving around a couple who both experience sexual pleasure from dead bodies. Rob, a young man, conveniently works for a company that specializes in the cleanup of fatal accidents, suicides, and homicides. He, therefore, has access to a plethora of mangled and decaying bodies. The more decrepit the better.
Betty, Rob’s girlfriend, is thrilled when Rob brings home a fully intact rotting corpse. They immediately partake in a truly disturbing yet beautifully romantic threesome. Betty’s feelings towards the corpse increase drastically as she cuddles with it and reads romantic stories to it. Subsequently, the proceeding day, Rob announces to Betty that he has lost his job. Betty, in a rage, decides to take the corpse and leave Rob.
Gore Factor
The film continues with other disturbing scenes. Such scenes include the killing of their cat to bathe in its blood and the killing of a prostitute to have sex with its corpse. The film builds up to the final climactic scene in which Rob commits suicide by stabbing himself in the gut with a knife while masturbating. At his final moment, Rob ejaculates a stream of bright red blood. This final scene fuses together the futility of both life and death in one truly breathtaking scene.
The Grave Review
Having been a fan of cult and underground horror films from an early age, it is rare for me to come across a movie that will leave a lasting impression. Nekromantik (1987) has done just that. From its raw and gritty filming style to its excessive amounts of gore, Nekromantik is everything I want a horror film to be. No matter how disgusting this film is to watch, there is a continuous underlying facet of melancholic beauty that I, as a viewer, truly appreciate.
“Death in its rawest form”
The six-minute-long necrophilic threesome scene will certainly go down in history as one of the most disturbingly romantic sex scenes to ever grace the film industry.
For the foregoing reasons, Grave Reviews gives Nekromantik (1987) three graves out of five graves.
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