When I think of German horror, Jörg Buttgereit, Olaf Ittenbach, Andreas Bethmann, and Andreas Schnaas come to mind. While I’d say that Jörg mastered the craft with Nekromantik 1&2 and Schramm, I hear good things about Olaf, but have yet to see any of his films (even though Premutos and Dard Divorce sit in my collection). I ran across Andreas Bethmann several years ago through Xploited Cinema, and really liked his work, but Andreas Schnaas's Goblet of Gore looked like a 3rd generation VHS dub and seemed a bit too low budget for me (maybe it was just the copy I had).
This brings us to a new name in German splatter cinema, the Rohnstock Brothers (Lars and Marc). I ran across a mention of their newest film, Necronos Tower of Doom, while browsing the internet filling my head with “all things new in horror.” Since there’s so much out there, and everyone’s making a movie these days, I put on the Side Show waders and looked for the cream of the crop. I liked what I saw in the trailer for Graveyard of the Living Dead, and sent Infernal Films an e-mail requesting a screener, not knowing if Necronos had even been completed. Lars replied, and sent me a copy of Necronos, saying that Graveyard was out-of-stock, but he'd be getting more soon.
The basic story is this, Necronos is a wizard who makes a pact with the Devil to gain immortality. In return, he has to enslave the souls of his victims to build the army of darkness, who will do the Devil’s dirty work until he can come to earth and rule. But, the army ends up being a bunch of pussies, so to push progress along, the Devil requests that Necronos find a virgin witch, and send her blood to hell (this will strengthen the army). Well, the witch he finds turns out to be a slut, and so the undead horde remains flaccid, which gets him caught by the king’s men, stabbed repetitiously, decapitated, dismembered, and burnt.
Quite a chunk of plot to swallow, I know, but years later, he comes back to finish what he started, now armed with a demon henchman, Goran, to help reassemble his army, and an old witch to help find a virgin with “the gift.” What follows is a bunch of people getting kidnapped, bound, sliced and diced, beheaded, thrown to the zombie horde, juiced (a big machine actually does this), and impaled. And this time, Necronos is finally the victor, so hell on earth shall commence (maybe that'll be in Part 2).
I must say, I wasn’t disappointed with this film. It delivered tons of blood-splatter, boobs and full frontal (male too, for the ladies), and severed body parts a plenty. The one big gripe I have is about the runtime (a bit over 2 hours). Once it hit the hour 30 mark, my interest had peaked, and the bogged down story took a backseat to me just wanting to see the next visual assault…...or more boobies!
There were some great gore moments, though, which included the double decapitation, animation of the berserker (who was really only used for one scene :( ), and the pregnant lady sacrifice. While I don’t condone Preggosploitation, I give them props for having the balls to take it to that level, I mean, these days you gotta compete with what the French are bringing (the movie Inside). And, one of the most stand-out scenes is the vaginal impalement, an obvious ode to Cannibal Holocaust.
When low budget films try to tell a semi-complex story, there's almost always downers. The decapitation card was played one too many times, and the zombie horde’s feeding frenzy did nothing for me, but became a bit comical. The beginning of the film is supposed to be in medieval times, yet the female captives all have nicely shaven nether regions (and it looks like one has bikini bottoms on). And while I liked the look of Necronos, he was way too wordy and pointed a lot (even in the picture above), and even though he's supposed to be a demon, Goran looks like a mixture of Jason, Freddy, and Santo.
In all, it’s a pretty decent flick, one I’d definitely watch again, and will play at drunken parties. I look forward to seeing their other feature, and thanks again to Lars for sending this. I have high hopes for the Infernal Films camp, and expect much more bloodshed in years to come. If you’re a fan of German horror, check out the Brothers Rohnstock. It’s worth noting that Andreas Schnaas and Timo Rose helped with this film too, and if you look further into German underground horror, you'll see it's like a brotherhood, they're always helping with each other's films. So, maybe Goblet of Gore deserves another try, but until then, I'm gonna blow the dust off Premutos and give Ittenbach a whirl. Bis später!
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