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Late To The Party – Nekromantik 1&2

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Nekromantik 1&2

Valentine’s Day, a day that most of us use to fully express how much we care about the one(s) we love. Some give gifts like cards, flowers, or jewelry and go on dates. The card aisles are covered in hearts and my local Dollar Tree has way too many balloons hanging from the ceiling. So to celebrate Valentine’s Day I figured I would finally get around to watching Jörg Buttgereit’s tales of romancing with corpses, Nekromantik 1&2. Spoilers and taboos are a plenty.

*NSFW WARNING! NSFW things will be in this piece*https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0093608/?ref_=tt_rec_tti

Some context on why Buttgereit made the film: it was to piss people off, especially the German censors. He set out to make an experimental romance film covering and showing taboos such as necrophilia, pornographic images, life/death with stock footage of a rabbit being skinned and people peeing. So going into this film expecting a horror film would be greatly misguided. 

I first tried watching the Nekromantik a few years ago when I borrowed a copy from my job. I watched a good twenty minutes, was bored and shut it off. I went into expecting a horror film and instead got people peeing. I didn’t understand what Buttgereit’s intentions with the film were. So now its Valentine’s Day, my turn to do a Late to the Party, and I couldn’t come up with any other titles to watch for the first time. So here I am, once again, struggling to get through this film but with a new mindset.

Nekromantik follows the story of a road clean up crew worker who brings back corpses for him and his girlfriend to fool around with. His girlfriend leaves him and takes the corpse with her, sending him into a depression that ultimately ends in suicide. The film is about an hour and fifteen minutes long and I have officially fallen asleep during it on three separate occasions.

The film is low budget which kind of adds to realism of some of its more graphic bits, but is ultimately pretty damn boring. For me the scenes went on for ages and it wasn’t until the last 15 minutes did the film truly capture my attention with it’s literal climax. All in all, the film has its audience and its not me. Would I watch this again? Probably not. Am I looking forward to watching the second one? Kind of, yeah.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0102522/?ref_=tt_rec_tt

Four years after the original Nekromantik the sequel, Nekromantik 2: The Return of the Loving Dead was released. This time into a few actual theaters which lead to it being banned by the German government. In the sequel, we find the “hero” from first film’s corpse being taken by a nurse. She develops a relationship with the corpse while also dating a man who works in porn. As her and the living man’s relationship blossoms, they both must cope with the skeletons in her closet, or should I say, corpse in her apartment.

he Loving Dead is in many ways a better made film. Better pacing, effects, lighting, acting, all around its evident that there was a bit more of a budget and experience in the making of this film. The blood/gore are better and plentiful. The blossoming love triangle is much more of an interesting story than the previous film’s couple breaking up. The random stock footage of an animal (this time a seal) is contextualized with the characters watching the footage, there is a musical number and the climax is just as messing as the first. Still, the film didn’t do much for me. Both films kind of come off as that kind trying to show you fucked up things he found online in middle school. Sure there is some shock, but you get tired of it pretty quickly.

Overall, both films did what they set out to do. Showcasing taboos in a “romantic” style, but outside of its shock value there is little substance to the films. The finales for both are interesting, but other than that I am honestly OK with being late to this party. It wasn’t really my scene. If watching a German experimental film about necrophilia sounds like a a good time to you, then you probably should check it out. If not then go watch You Got Mail. Meg Ryan is delightful in that.

Tune in next week as Shaun watches 30 Days of Night!

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Another Creepy Spider Movie Hits Shudder This Month

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Good spider films are a theme this year. First, we had Sting and then there was Infested. The former is still in theaters and the latter is coming to Shudder starting April 26.

Infested has been getting some good reviews. People are saying that it’s not only a great creature feature but also a social commentary on racism in France.

According to IMDb: Writer/director Sébastien Vanicek was looking for ideas around the discrimination faced by black and Arab-looking people in France, and that led him to spiders, which are rarely welcome in homes; whenever they’re spotted, they’re swatted. As everyone in the story (people and spiders) is treated like vermin by society, the title came to him naturally.

Shudder has become the gold standard for streaming horror content. Since 2016, the service has been offering fans an expansive library of genre movies. in 2017, they began to stream exclusive content.

Since then Shudder has become a powerhouse in the film festival circuit, buying distribution rights to movies, or just producing some of their own. Just like Netflix, they give a film a short theatrical run before adding it to their library exclusively for subscribers.

Late Night With the Devil is a great example. It was released theatrically on March 22 and will begin streaming on the platform starting April 19.

While not getting the same buzz as Late Night, Infested is a festival favorite and many have said if you suffer from arachnophobia, you might want to take heed before watching it.

Infested

According to the synopsis, our main character, Kalib is turning 30 and dealing with some family issues. “He’s fighting with his sister over an inheritance and has cut ties with his best friend. Fascinated by exotic animals, he finds a venomous spider in a shop and brings it back to his apartment. It only takes a moment for the spider to escape and reproduce, turning the whole building into a dreadful web trap. The only option for Kaleb and his friends is to find a way out and survive.”

The film will be available to watch on Shudder starting April 26.

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Part Concert, Part Horror Movie M. Night Shyamalan’s ‘Trap’ Trailer Released

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In true Shyamalan form, he sets his film Trap inside a social situation where we aren’t sure what is going on. Hopefully, there is a twist at the end. Furthermore, we hope it’s better than the one in his divisive 2021 movie Old.

The trailer seemingly gives away a lot, but, as in the past, you can’t rely on his trailers because they are often red herrings and you are being gaslit to think a certain way. For instance, his movie Knock at the Cabin was completely different than what the trailer implied and if you hadn’t read the book on which the film is based it was still like going in blind.

The plot for Trap is being dubbed an “experience” and we aren’t quite sure what that means. If we were to guess based on the trailer, it’s a concert movie wrapped around a horror mystery. There are original songs performed by Saleka, who plays Lady Raven, a kind of Taylor Swift/Lady Gaga hybrid. They have even set up a Lady Raven website to further the illusion.

Here is the fresh trailer:

According to the synopsis, a father takes his daughter to one of Lady Raven’s jam-packed concerts, “where they realize they’re at the center of a dark and sinister event.”

Written and directed by M. Night Shyamalan, Trap stars Josh Hartnett, Ariel Donoghue, Saleka Shyamalan, Hayley Mills and Allison Pill. The film is produced by Ashwin Rajan, Marc Bienstock and M. Night Shyamalan. The executive producer is Steven Schneider.

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Woman Brings Corpse Into Bank To Sign Loan Papers

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Warning: This is a disturbing story.

You have to be pretty desperate for money to do what this Brazilian woman did at the bank to get a loan. She wheeled in a fresh corpse to endorse the contract and she seemingly thought the bank employees wouldn’t notice. They did.

This weird and disturbing story comes via ScreenGeek an entertainment digital publication. They write that a woman identified as Erika de Souza Vieira Nunes pushed a man she identified as her uncle into the bank pleading with him to sign loan papers for $3,400. 

If you’re squeamish or easily triggered, be aware that the video captured of the situation is disturbing. 

Latin America’s largest commercial network, TV Globo, reported on the crime, and according to ScreenGeek this is what Nunes says in Portuguese during the attempted transaction. 

“Uncle, are you paying attention? You must sign [the loan contract]. If you don’t sign, there’s no way, as I cannot sign on your behalf!”

She then adds: “Sign so you can spare me further headaches; I can’t bear it any longer.” 

At first we thought this might be a hoax, but according to Brazilian police, the uncle, 68-year-old Paulo Roberto Braga had passed away earlier that day.

 “She attempted to feign his signature for the loan. He entered the bank already deceased,” Police Chief Fábio Luiz said in an interview with TV Globo. “Our priority is to continue investigating to identify other family members and gather more information regarding this loan.”

If convicted Nunes could be facing jail time on charges of fraud, embezzlement, and desecration of a corpse.

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