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28 of 29 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Life after death? How about love after death..., January 1, 2004
This review is from: Nekromantik 2 (DVD)
In 1987, German art-house director Jorg Buttgereit unleashed "Nekromantik" on an unsuspecting festival circuit provoking waves of outrage and the film to be banned in several countries, including his own. Meanwhile, the film was gaining a rabid cult following from fans of depraved and trash cinema who clamored for a sequel. In 1991 Buttgereit submitted to the demands of the underground and filmed Nekromantik 2, a film so depraved and dangerous in its insinuations it was actually seized by German authorities folowing its premiere back in 1991. Having seen the original Nekromantik several years ago, I never bothered trying to find the sequel due to the profound unease the first film had left on me. Given Barrel entertainment's recent packaging of Nekromantik 2 in a 2-disc deluxe edition, curiosity got the best of me and I knew I had to give it a try. Nekromantik 2 opens up with a flashback of the climactic scene of the first film, where Rob commits suicide. That scene is replayed in all its glory, and it remains quite the shocker. Meanwhile, a young single lady living in Berlin (the gorgeous Monika M.) has been reading several newspaper clippings about Rob's suicide and decides to dig up his body from the morgue. She drags the corpse back to her place, making love to it on a regular basis and lavishing all of her attentions on it. Unil one day she meets a guy named Mark, a reclusive type who earns his life dubbing adult films. As their romance blossoms, Monika's anguish over her having to choose between her two lovers escalates. Monika's torment and final "decision" leads to one of the most shocking climaxes ever put on film, a scene of bodily violation so intense that I found it even more shocking than the one in "Cuting Moments" and perhaps even Nacho Cerda's "Aftermath". Nekromantik 2 has much of the same art-house feel that the first one does but on a noticeably higher budget. Many scenes of necromancy are played in a slow-motion dream-like haze with a beautiful piano score in the background. This technique works quite well in decreasing viewer disgust, almost convincing the viewer that loving the dead can be...well, beautiful. Sometimes, however, I found the artistic touches to be a little too forceful. In one scene, the camera zooms in on a snail as we watch it inch by inch crawling across a tombstone in the graveyard. The scene is well done but one has to wonder what the point of it really is. Most pretentious of all is the inclusion of a short and utterly strange black and white film about two people discussing the evolution of birds. While watching this drawn-out scene, I could practically imagine Buttgereit frantically yelling in his director's chair "ART! ART!". There was something strangely appealing about watching Rob, the jilted suicidal wanker of the first film, finally finding true love as a corpse. I also liked the character of Mark. Although the guy earns his living dubbing adult films, he might be the only Buttgereitt character ever to not come across as a degenerate sicko but instead is a warm, caring soul who believes in true love. Even through some of the glitches, I couldn't help but feel that I was witnessing the work of a truly gifted artist. The problem with the Nekromantik films though is that they're such sick cinematic puppies that lavishing too high praise could be misinterpreted by others as tantamount to endorsing necromancy, cat-bashing, rabbit-skinning and seal clubbing. Although I believe Buttgereitt went a little too far by including real-life seal autopsy footage in the film, I still admire his unwillingness to tone down his style in the face of the huge protest his films have garnered in his country. The second disc is packed with extra features such as theatrical trailers for all of Butgereitt's films, interviews with cast and crew, the amazing musical scores to both Nekromantik films and 25-minutes of behind-the-scenes footage where Buttgereitt and crew explain in fascinating detail how they created the corpse and managed to make it look so authentic.
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11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Love Story?, June 20, 2003
This review is from: Nekromantik 2 (DVD)
If you are expecting a retread of "Nekromantik" and its intense, disturbing scenes, you will be disappointed. This sequel contains very little of the imagery of disgust that was at the forefront of the first film, choosing instead to focus on the blossoming love story of a female necrophile, her living lover, and the torment experienced over the fact that she is more attracted to a corpse. That said, "Nekromantik 2" is still a prime example of decadent German cinema and the peculiar workings of director Jorg Buttgereit. It contains all the nuances of his other work although scenes seem to go on too long, indicating that some tightened editing was in order. This is even more evident in the excellent audio commentary track where the director and others mention the editing issues. The DVD presentation is superb and contains the usual trailers, biographies and interesting behind the scenes footage. This version also contains a "bonus" CD of the soundtrack for both films. In all, I would recommend "Nekromantik 2" to fans of the first film, those who are really into German cinema, and to those looking for truly depraved video. It is unfortunate that, for whatever reason, Amazon does not carry the first film.
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8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Lots of gore and perversion, but way too much filler makes this tiresome at times., September 3, 2007
This review is from: Nekromantik 2 (DVD)
After hearing about Nekromantic and its sequel under review here, I finally had a chance to check it out. I've heard everything from "the sickest film ever made" to Jorg Buttgereit being described as an "art house director". I'm writing this review has both a student of serious art film and as an avid viewer of exploitation, b-movies, and trash cinema (hey - you can't watch Godard all the time!).
First of all, I found "Nekromantic 2" uneven. It fluctuates between genuine, surreal imagination; depraved, uninhibited sickness; and incredibly vapid filler. There are some scenes that are nearly worthy of Bunuel such as the naked people on the roof top eating eggs and talking about ornithology for nearly ten minutes or the bizarre dream sequences. Some scenes go WAY over the top with blood and gore. I'm not going to defend it artistically, but that's beside the point anyway - exploitation isn't artistic, it's just fun!
Finally, and this is what kills the film for me, there is a huge amount of filler. I know the movie can't ALL be sex with dead people, but do we really need to spend TWENTY MINUTES following two lovers around a carnival? Do we need to watch uninteresting characters go about their daily monotony in extended takes? Do we need to watch the heroine dig for a full five minutes to unearth a body? While it's extremely funny to see a frail woman (in high heels no less!) exhume a corps, the scene is way too long.
This leads me to the conclusion that Buttgereit is most definitely not an art house director. Maybe this seems obvious to some, but there are some great moments in this film. The aforementioned roof-top scene is straight out of "Un Chien Andalou" or one of Duchamp's Dada films not to mention the grand finale (I won't give it away). You might be tempted to think Buttgereit is better than he really is. However, these scenes make up less than half of the film. Nektromantic 2 is a 40 minute film that runs and hour and 40 minutes. If you edit out all the filler and keep only the scenes that are justified by the narrative, you're left with a very disturbing and engaging short film. It would be a classic, no contest. As it stands though, it's just too long and the good doesn't always out-weight the bad.
One final criticism: the dream sequence where the male lead (the living one) sees himself buried up to his neck is straight out of Arrabal's "Viva la Meurte". It's effective, but completely derivative. No points for Buttgereit on that one.
Overall, if you're a fan of exploitation or extreme perversion, you'll want to see this. It's not great and you may want to fast forward through large portions, but it IS fairly unique. I wouldn't say it's overly disturbing. I still think "Last House on the Left" is about as disturbing as possible because it handles its material in an infinitely more sophisticated and thoughtful way.
Essentially, this is like many Herschell Gordon Lewis films - great moments of exploitation between lots of bland, boring, poorly filmed walking around and talking. HGL always said that he needed to get his films to 69 minutes so they could qualify as "feature length". I think Buttgereit should have stopped there as well.
I don't want to be too hard on the film, but I also don't want it being called an art film. I know art film and this is not it. It's just sick fun. If you like that, give this a shot.
Five stars for some of the scenes *****
Two stars for the rest **
Overall - Three stars (for making me waste so much time on filler.
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