It’s a 40-year-old horror flick from Austria, based on the 1980 murders of Werner Kniesek. It’s a bit of a notorious “video nasty,” banned in a number of European countries… because it must truly suck being a horror fan in Europe. Europeans, does it? So many solidly ghastly movies I see are touted as “Banned in England/Australian/Germany/etc!” because of violence or blood or blasphemy or because there’s a swastika somewhere. Yet, so many completely fucked-up movies come out of Europe! Salo, Cannibal Holocaust, Goodnight Mommy, A Serbian Film, Martyrs, plenty of messed-up meals being cooked in European studios, and then promptly banned I’m sure.
I’ve known of this movie, but I never got around to watching it. We’re talking decades passing, what the hell was MY problem? To be fair, I’ve never seen Citizen Kane either, or Gone With the Wind or Lawrence of Arabia, either. So many movies just get pushed to the back of the closet and never pass our eyes. So I decided to oust a few of these movies this year and finally watch them. Angst (German for “Fear,” in case you didn’t know, and not just a way to describe teenage poetry nerds who wear black and fetishize Nine Inch Nails and Tim Burton) is one near the top of my list.
A killer gets out of prison, and the very first thing he wants to do is find someone to murder. Known only as “The Psychopath,” imagine a slightly more frightening “Theon Greyjoy” from Game of Thrones (NERD!!) and you’ve pretty much nailed the guy’s look and demeanor. He wants to kill people, but only if they completely freak out about it. If they go bravely into that cold and black he’s just gonna be pissed at the wasted opportunity. Why go to the trouble of torturing and killing someone if they’re not going to reward you with abject terror? Selfish! Just plain selfish, these people. He spent half his life in prison, just wasting away for this one opportunity to get out and immediately go to your house and make you the star of his murder fetish. Have some humility and gratitude! Fuckssake!
So Theon Murdermurder gets out, and goes to a diner. He wants to kill the two women there, but there’s just too many witnesses. Then he gets into a cab and gets scared off and runs away when the lady cabdriver says “Hey what are you doing?” Of course, the intended victims are going to be women – look at this guy, think he can overpower a grown man? He can barely make it through a sausage without breaking a sweat!
Great breakfast, though. A sausage and some mustard on a plate. No bread no egg no pancakes no muffin no juice no coffee no pie just a big honkin’ sausage and some mustard to dip it in while you eat it with your hands. That breakfast looked amazing, and now it’s just all I can think about. Watching a violent movie about random torture and murder of strangers and all I can think about is eating a knackwurst with mustard.
He runs away through the woods, ties his shoe, sees a house and thinks “Fuck it, that’ll do” and busts on in. “I sure hope there’s some people living here” he thinks out loud “’cause I wanna kill stuff!” He’s greeted at the door by a drooling dumdum who calls him “Daddy.” No sport in that one, let’s see what’s upstairs. The residents pull up in a Mercedes, and joy! It’s an old lady, a young lady, and a Dachshund. Even Theon Murdermurder can take on THESE four combatants!
Seriously, though. If you’re spending half your life in prison, and your immediate plans upon release is to kill people, maybe think about going to the gym once in awhile?
Anyway they pull the Mercedes (Austria!) into the garage, and Nonna brings her Dachshund (Austria!) inside and immediately plunges into a bottle of Scotch freshly chilled from the fridge (do Austrians actually chill their Scotch?? WTF, Austria??). Daughter person comes in, and Stevie von Stabberson (I changed his name) jumps up on everybody while the camera crew films him in wigglevision! Ties everyone up and goes off to have a good sweat while think-explaining his shitty shitty childhood memories at you. He kills one of ’em, but it does nothing for him. Not dramatic enough. So he goes to get another, but that one dies of cardiac arrest. Can’t catch a break, here. Lucky that last one is a winner. Kills the victim up real good then has sex with the corpse (still no idea why they would ban this movie back in 1983).
Awesome! Now what? I’m all outa victms. Oh wait I know! Let’s load ’em all into the car and take them on a road trip! a road trip to find new victims, and then use the old victims to fuck with the new ones. “BOO!! Hahaha! Scared you!” Yeah that sounds fun! Let’s do that.
At the end of this bloody romp I have three questions: So this guy went to prison for killing people, he gets let out at 30-something and goes right out to kill more people and WHO made the decision to let this guy out of prison?? Clearly this is the country to get arrested in for murders! Secondly, can you really fit three dead bodies into the trunk of a Mercedes? asking for a friend. Finally I have questions about the case file that this movie was based on, a 1980 home invasion triple thrill-kill that I had never heard of.
It’s a fairly artfully-done crime horror, Gaspar Noe (maker of “Irreversible,” “Enter the Void” and “Vortex”) cited this movie as an influence on his filmmaking style. It certainly has a style of its own, “Angst” does, violent and grimy, it won’t please everyone but it’s going to impress someone. Probably your artsy friend who claims not to like horror movies.