Customer Reviews

Schramm

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

What a brutal, gory movie - for intense gore fans ONLY. Do not get this DVD if you're the LEAST bit squeamish. Brought to you by Joerg Buttgereit, creator of "Nekromantik", this is a raw, bloody look at a pretty twisted guy named Lothar Schramm. Though the movie itself is relatively short (only a little over an hour), this DVD is packed with goodness - extras aplenty here, folks. I'm rather pleasantly surprised it's even here, as Nekromantik wasn't available here last I checked. In conclusion, if you think you can handle the rather disturbing subject matter of the film, by all means, grab this baby while you can... it'll be worth your money.

"Schramm" is a movie that got my attention in a video store, both with the cover and the back cover that exclaimed that it was similar to Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer, one of my favorite horror films. If you've seen Henry, you realize that there's actually a pretty big restraint on blood and gore. It's existent, but it's not that bad. The movie used atmosphere and Michael Rooker's performance to creep you out. Schramm goes up another level on that. In Schramm you get a no holds barred look at the life of a serial killer... And it's all done in 64 minutes, which makes it kind of impressive. This movie also is probably the truest account of what goes on behind a serial killers' door. Movies about serial killers show that they kill and, sometimes, why. But few films show the really dirty things about serial killers. This film gives us the self-mutilation, necrophilia, and sexual deviancy. The movie is in German and I got to praise the Germans for making a movie like this. I don't think an American director would touch this kind of material with a ten-foot pole. And if he did, he'd tone it down a lot. I, regrettably, don't remember the main characters name...But I know this. The movie begins with a newspaper headline that explains that the Lipstick Killer has died. He is, of course, our aforementioned killer. The movie works its way back from that. The prostitute that lives across the hall from him, whom he's actually good friends with, sets something off in his head that makes him begin to kill. In the movie, the body count is pretty low...But this is still very gory. One scene which is bound to make men who watch this cringe, involve the guy taking his d**k and pounding nails through it. There's also one of the most interesting and unique ideas I've seen. A disembodied vag**a with teeth. The movie suffers from a disjointed timeline. The movie's about an insane serial killer...But the look of the movie implies it's about a schizophrenic serial killer. The grainy, old movieish look the film has, however, also helps with the creepiness. This is not a "good" movie, but it's effective and does something that other movies about serial killers should do (instead of crap like Dahmer, Ted Bundy, Gacy, etc.). If you want to see a movie that frequently has you asking yourself "What the f**k?" This is a good movie for you.

GRADE: B-

Buttgereit, infamous for 'Nekromantik', delivers us a poetic masterpiece and a hideous journey into the mind of Lothar Schramm, the Lipstick killer. It is a brutal and intriguing display and details many fascinating characters in abstract flashback. This is what real extreme cinema is all about.

As usual, Buttgereit delivers images full of visceral insanity, so gory and vicious that unless you're familiar with either his works or those of his peers, this little piece might be a bit much. Barrel Entertainment have done an incredible job, the print is almost perfect and the extras tantilising (commentaries, trailers and a special 'making of'). Sad to see that this one is becoming increasingly difficult to get hold of - buy this one now, while you still can.

Well, I really thought that I had seen everything until viewing this film. It has much going for it in the area of lensing and camera work. The acting is well done. One might wonder how a short one hour film could be so disturbing, but there are images here that ring more real than "Faces of Death." Other reviewers have mentioned some spoilers, but I will only say that sometimes it seems that the cinematographer just happened upon some weird event that appeared in the film unplanned. We just happened by to catch this fellow blowing his brains out. Let's show the world. Looky! Looky!

I must admit that there were scenes in this film that were really difficult to watch. That has never happened to me except when I saw a film called "Death Scenes." There were images that made me want to wash my mind out with soap. Does anyone know what I mean? Just try eating a sandwich and watching this film at the same time, I do not believe it can be done. The real question is does anyone really want this kind of thing floating around in their brain? "Schramm" Rates as the goriest film that I have ever seen, and I do not believe I will watch it again.

Now, it is your turn. Do you want it in your brain floating around?

*Please note this low budget German art house film is just over an hour long.*
SCHRAAM is a quiet young man who lives alone in his apartment - his neighbour is a prostitute who accidentally helps fixates his fantasies (a pension for obscene sexual allure to inanimate objects) who decides to go on a violent killing spree. The film plays backwards in that in the opening sequence we learn that the `Lipstick Killer', Schraam, has been found dead in his home and everything plays backwards out from there.

SCHRAAM has to be probably one of the most upsetting experiences you will have watching an art house film. To be honest "Irreversible" made me cringe, "Last House on the Left" uncut was pretty heavy going, "Man Bites Dog" was a contemporary media play on snuff and even the awful "I Spit on Your Grave" had its shocking moments, but SCHRAAM manages to surpass them all by just delivering on your most hair raising nightmares at the worse possible time by cutting in minutes of slow tracking bliss suddenly followed up on by an unprecedented in your face sledgehammer of a horrific sequence, but never seems sleazy or gratuitous or goes outside of its art house appeal.

SCHRAAM is like "Begotten", the director's own "Nekromantik 1 + 2", Michael Haneke's "Funny Games" or Gaspar Noé "I Stand Alone" in that the concept of Hollywood horror is as far away as you can likely get and the budget so restricted that you could ultimately make a film like this if you had some fake blood and a nice 16mm camera. What makes SCHRAAM interesting is that there are a number of highly imaginative sequences done in this 1993 production that have been used in more modern productions, like Schraam's workout rotating camera sequence or the jump cuts that are now all too common in art house cinema.

SCHRAAM is actually banned in most places around the globe, although to be honest you have seen much more objectionable than this and it is arguable that films such as "Last House on the Left" and the awful "I Spit on Your Grave" are much more sinister in their presentation of the subject matter. SCHRAAM never deviates from trying to show this killer for what he is, sad, never glorifying what he does, murder, but filming it in such a way that it cuts you like a knife. The hammer and nails scene with a genital is certainly going to fling a lot of hands up to the eyes.

A very interesting art house serial killer movie than beats the pants off most offerings.

This film was an unexpected surprise! I expected another badly made exploitation flick, but was presented with a thought provoking study of a disintegrating mind. Horrific, human, convoluted and unforgettable.

Schramm is the most accessible of Jorg Buttegereit's movies, yet is still incredibly disturbing. Schramm is a serial killer, at least he dreams of being one. Like many German horror movies, Schramm uses dreams and psychological character studies to create a world unto itself. The title character is dying, and his life, dream or real, is told to us through flashbacks--his desire to kill, his pain at being unable to feel something, anything, his plots of killings that will relieve the tension and pain that he experiences. The movie is extremely graphic, with one particular scene involving Schramm's genitals that could disturb the most hard-core horror fan, and be rather embarrassing to others. But Schramm is worth seeing, as a excellent character study and fascinating use of dream horror to take us deep inside the psyche of a very troubled man. In German with English subtitles.

This movie could have been amazing. It starts off very well then loses steam way too quickly. Even though it's relatively short, it still feels like it takes forever to get through. Don't be fooled by people telling you it's some kind of gory splatterfest either, it's not. There are maybe 2 gory scenes in the film, 3 tops if I recall correctly.

This movie is about a serial killer named Lothar who is friends with a hooker who lives across the hall from him. He comes off as a nice guy who is easy to talk to, but obviously that is only a disguise. He asks her a lot of questions and listens to her having sex with men in her apartment. Part of him wants to protect her, the other loathes what she does.

The beginning shows Lothar lying dead in a pool of his own blood, basically showing us the ending of the film. What follows is everything that led up to that moment. We see him killing some people who come into his home asking him about accepting Jesus into his life. He invites them in for a drink and them violently murders them.

The problem is that we keep seeing scenes being repeated over and over again. In a movie that's barely over an hour, why do we need to be shown the same scenes 3 or 4 times? There are also long scenes of Lothar having sex with a doll and cleaning it out, as well as boring conversations between him and his neighbor.

The main gruesome scene is where Lothar takes a bunch of nails and hammers them into his penis and scrotum. Supposedly, the actor did this for real, which truly is a disturbing thing to think about.

Overall, this movie isn't very good. It's not the worst movie ever, but it's disappointing to see how the movie goes from being interesting to outright boring and tedious. If you're that curious, rent it or borrow it from a friend, but I still think you'll extremely disappointed.

What would you do if someone came to your door and asked if you if you found Jesus? If you were Lothar Schramm you would invite them in and kill them after offering them a beverage. Yes folks this is the world of Schramm a 65 minute look into the bizzare world that only a shock meister like Jorg Buttergreit could come up with.

The film is basically the last 24 hours of the so called "Lipstick Killer" Lothar Schramm who while trying to clean the blood from the walls of his latest kill falls of a ladder and dies in the beginning. The film explores his relationship with a prostitute who has a new, rich, old, and perverse client that lives next door to him and has loud sex that can be heard through Lothar's air duct.

The film has realy not much of a plot structure, the main plot about Lothar and his relationship with the prostitute is interspersed with scence of a man and woman dancing to a haunting score in a smokey dimly lit area,and Lothar's own delusions including a Vagina like creature with teeth and the loss of his own leg and a scene of Lothar driving several nails into his foreskin on a table in full view of the camera.

In reality Mr Buttergreit is trying to show the mind of a killer not the actions unlike films like Henry Portait of a Serial Killer where the actions are shown. We are only shown one murder, the rest is the psychosocial interactions and delusions. This is a case study of the mind not a film record of the murders of a killer. In saying this the film is relatively short going over an hour by only five minutes but within that short time frame you see the realty of a damaged human mind.

Like other shock films like the Guinea Pig series out of Japan and Russia's Philosophy of a Knife this film tries to test the limits of the viewer, how much can you stand before you shut off the dvd player and put in Snow White to calm you down. Hollywood is now trying to catch up to its european and asian counterparts with films like Hostel and Saw but real shock cinema is from overseas as these films show. Hostel's violence is tame compared to this, I doubt the MPAA would allow a director here to show a man nailing his foreskin to a table in full view of the camera nor would I expect them to show a man having sex with then cleaning a blow up doll or ejaculating on magazines. This is shock in its pure form. Few directors in the states have done it but some have tried.

If you are daring try this film on for size as well as Nekromantik, all the Guinea Pig films, and Philosophy of a Knife. If you can sit through it without feeling some sort of disturbance then you have something wrong

Schramm is Jörg Buttgereit's insight into the mind of a serial killer. After the Nekromantik movies, one might expect another splatter movie, filled with gore(be it quality gore or cheesy effects). However, in Schramm you get more of an art film than the splatter that he has done before. Don't get me wrong, there are still a few gore scenes in the movie, but it is inserted into an art film. There are also a few scenes put in to shock, but once again...those are in the context of an art film.

The movie can be enjoyed by anyone willing to pay attention to a movie, and try to figure out what some of the images mean. You also need to be willing to tolerate the shocking and gory parts, although you could look away during those scenes if you had to, and it probably wouldn't take away from the overall movie.

It can be confusing at times, and downright nonsense at others...but, if you look at some of the early short films that the director has done before...he has come a long way.