Der Todesking
Der Todesking (1990)
Der Todesking (the Death King) is Jorg's more ambitious artsy suicide movie.
Does Jorg pull it off? Is he skilled enough?
Um, no. You gotta admire the effort though. Movie is broken up into 7 days/episodes (which you know he got the idea from another movie from a better director). In between the days, there's imagery of a corpse slowly decomposing. You can just picture Jorg yelling at his videographer (uh, himself), "More death! More art! Perfect!". Let's see what a typical week in Germany's like:
Monday
A man comes home, phones his boss to resign from his job, writes mysterious letters, cleans his apartment and swallows poison in his bathtub. His death is simultaneous with the death of his fish, the only being that was close to him.
Yeah, this is like a typical Monday for me too. Except I don't have any fish. And I usually take my poison while watching TV. Germany is a miserable country.
Tuesday
A man rents a film in a video store, a movie in which Nazi soldiers are torturing a prisoner in a concentration camp, castrating him and painting a swastika on his breast. When the young man's girlfriend comes home, she yells at him until he kills her with a gun. This whole episode is being shown on a TV screen in a room where somebody has been hanged.
Alright, some Nazi death footage! Are all Germans Nazis in 2007? Who knows. But, I watch movies to reinforce my stereotypes (and maybe make some new ones), thank you. Jorg's vision for Tuesday: "Man watching video of man watching video. Everybody dies".
Wednesday
A man and a girl meet in a park in the pouring rain. The man tells the girl about his disastrous sex life with his wife which led to him killing her. The girl pulls out a gun to kill him, but the man takes it from her and blows his brains out.
Yeah, Wednesdays do tend to suck. Top death of the week. Bullet in the brain. Jorg can still bring it strong when he wants to.
Thursday
A motorway bridge somewhere in Germany, superimposed by the names, ages and occupations of the people who have jumped from it.
Jorg got kinda lazy here. No action. Just names of people who jumped off some bridge in Germany. Is there a message here? Jorg? You there? Are you sure you're good enough to make stuff like this? Show some poor bastards jumping off the bridge next time.
Friday
A woman, alone in her apartment, is observing a young, seemingly happy couple in the neighbourhood. She spies on them and finds a chain letter in front of her door, urging her to kill herself. Obviously everybody in the house got the letter. She ignores it, eats chocolates and falls asleep, dreaming of surprising her parents when they make love. The camera shows the young couple, dead on their bed.
This was probably the weakest day (at least Thursday was short). Kinda like one of those Japanese WTF horror movies. You keep waiting for something to happen. I remember thinking "Yo, Jorg, it's been 10 minutes, nobody's dead yet, let's go". Then the couple's dead w/o a death scene. Girl eats chocolate. What the fuck???.
SaturdayA young woman, equipped with a camera and a gun, kills several people in the audience of a rock concert and records it on film, until someone kills her.
Saturday night out in Germany. This was on the trailer for the movie, and what made this a must-rental. Some girl completely shoots up a Euro-trash rock club. Jorg puts the camera in POV of the girl. No reason is given for the killing spree. Random German extras getting shot dead. Some of Jorg's best work. Even funnier than it sounds.
Sunday
A man, alone on his bed, is crying and banging his head over and over violently against the wall until he dies.
Just like my Sundays watching the New York Jets play.
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Tags:
movie review of the day, der todesking , german horror , horror movies, the death king ,
Jorg Buttgereit, gratuitous nudity, splatter, gore suicide
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