Popular reviews

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  Review by Lizzy ★★★½ 2

  The between-legged monster of New German Hardness. Full of disdain for God's creatures and general good nature, carrying ill will and bad faith in fluid-stained spades. Part of me wonders if any of the people behind this thought Mayhem was a "cool" band.

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  Review by evilacid ★★

  Anthology of three films that explore themes of death, guilt and shame with a large amount of extreme violence. Being familiar with the work of Buttgereit, I had some ideas of how this film would feel/look but didn't expect it to feel quite as empty and shallow as it did.

  The representation of guilt and shame wasn't as subtle as I had hoped, rather it was a literal part of the narrative. Characters often had very little to say other than a very literal reading of what was going on. This gave the film an almost shallow feeling - as if it was only interested in the cosmetics of these ideas. Happy to show you violence/death and even the ramifications…

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  Review by Sven Roth ★★★

  "Who cares love. Pain is international"

  
  Three very interesting german directors are coming together and creating this really great anthology.
  Especially the first two segments are fucking brilliant. Buttgereit and Kosakowski are showing in a marvellous way what they are capable of.
  It's brutal, merciless and shocking. Brilliant ..

  Unfortunately, the third segment is far too long and feels out of place compared to the other two. It is an interesting story. And it absolutely has its moments, especially towards the end. But it takes away from the overall great fast pacing.

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  Review by The Black Lodge ★★½ 8

  Deutschland ist bekannt dafür, immer wieder die ein oder andere Horror-Überraschung abzuliefern. Eines der besten Beispiele dafür ist der wundervolle „der Nachtmahr“ aus dem Jahr 2015 oder der an „The VVitch“ (Robert Eggers) erinnernde „Hagazussa“. Wenn man in Deutschland besonderes und experimentelles Kino sucht, dann findet man es auch und so ein Fall ist „German Angst“, welcher ebenfalls im Jahr 2015 erschienen ist. Diesen kann man momentan auf dem Streamingservice „Home of Horror“ sehen und wer brutales Horrorkino mag, ohne tiefen Sinn oder Verstand, wird mit diesem Werk seinen Spaß haben. 

  „German Angst“ besteht aus drei Geschichten, welche alle durch Liebe, Sex und Tod in der Hauptstadt Berlin thematisch verbunden sind. An sich sind die drei Geschichten aber komplett unterschiedlich,…

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  Review by Jason M ★★★★ 1

  Three German heavyweights of independent genre cinema come together in this anthology film about, well as the title indicates, Death and angst in Germany.

  Jörg Buttgereit's FINAL GIRL tells the tale of a young innocent woman living all alone in what appears to be an abandoned flat with only her two guinea pigs as company... Or is there something else hidden away in the back bedroom? Something that needs to pay for its sins?

  This is a powerful tale, somewhat partially reminiscent of Schramm and the themes he explored with that film, but most of all Final Girl shows that Buttgereit hasn't lost any of his force as a filmmaker in the twenty-two years since his last film, the above…

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  Review by Cliff ★★½ 4

  A triple-headed anthology from three German horror directors. The most famous, Jörg Buttgereit, provides the least interesting film with his ponderous FINAL GIRL, in which a teenage girl keeps her "human guinea pig" tied to a bed, ahead of castrating and decapitating him in two short bursts of effective gore surrounded by 20-odd minutes of unenlightening monologue. The best entry is MAKE A WISH by relative unknown Michal Kosakowski, with its ultraviolent World War II massacre flashback and a horrific neo-Nazi attack on a deaf-mute couple. It also has a cheeky element of magical realism that gives way to a cruel twist. The last film, ALRAUNE from Masks director Andreas Marschall, is about a photographer who gains membership of a…

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  Review by Patrick Lohmeier ★★★½

  Der Neue Deutsche Horrorfilm(TM) findet quasi nicht statt. Und wenn, dann in zweifelhafter Qualität. Umso erfreulicher GERMAN ANGST, der sich an professionellen Produktionen jedweder Herkunft messen lassen kann und Jörg Buttgereits Rückkehr auf die Kinoleinwände nach über 20 Jahren als Comic-, Hörspiel- und Theaterautor bedeutet. Die als Zugeständnis an die internationale Vermarktbarkeit überwiegend in Englisch gedrehte Anthologie erzählt drei Geschichten, dessen verbindende Elemente ihr Genre und die Stadt Berlin sind - wobei letztere eine kaum sichtbare Rolle spielt. Buttgereit erzählt vom Horror hinter verschlossenen Türen; Michal Kosakowski von der Unmöglichkeit, der Geschichte und dem eigenen Schicksal zu entrinnen; und Andreas Marschall in der mit Abstand längsten und infernalischsten Episode von sexuellen Sehnsüchten und deren Abgründen. Allein Kosakowskis MAKE A WISH…

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  Review by Smapti ★ 4

  The Hot Topic of horror anthology films

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  Review by AuteurTheory ★★★★½

  First story. 

  Those toenails are disgusting, but that opening was pretty intense. Why is that faucet so putrid? Why is the kitchen so rancid?
  This segment, by Jorg Buttgereit, is a doozy. I think it’s about that phase every girl goes through where she wants to be a veterinarian. 
  I liked it, especially the sound design. 

  Second story. 

  A deaf couple, a ruthless gang, nazis, spirit transfers, revenge. Even more shocking than the first. Some characters speak in English and I don’t know why. I liked this one, too. It has more story than Jorg’s, not that that’s important to me, but I think plot is vital to most people. 

  Third story. 

  This segment is (dubbed) in English as well,…

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  Review by Cat Caligari ★★★½

  Die Berlin-Horror-Anthologie German Angst ist eine Zumutung – im bestmöglichen Sinn. In drei Segmenten zeigen die Filmemacher Jörg Buttgereit, Andreas Marschall und Michael Kosakowski, dass gerade in den Randbereichen einer Gesellschaft – und hier ist der deutsche Horrorfilm zwangsläufig angesiedelt – eine unbequeme Reflexion über vermeintliche kulturelle (Selbst-)Gewissheiten möglich wird. Dem Stereotyp der deutschen Zurückhaltung, der „German Angst“, erteilt der Episodenfilm eine radikale Absage und wagt sich sowohl in ästhetischer als auch in inhaltlicher und psychologischer Hinsicht weit aus der Komfortzone heraus.

  Eine ebenso kluge wie erschütternde Auseinandersetzung mit sexuellem Missbrauch in der Familie findet in Buttgereits „Final Girl“-Episode statt, die mit ihrer bedrückenden Atmosphäre, der sensiblen Figurenzeichnung und einer fesselnden Hauptdarstellerin tief berührt. Trotz des Rape-and-Revenge-Plots und einem dementsprechenden…

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  Review by Casey ★★★★½

  I'm actually really impressed with this. It might not be everyone's cup of tea, but it's very much mine. I find it relatively rare to find an anthology that's not only consistently good throughout, but that actually improves as it goes. This starts strong and increases in strength until the end, and the three segments are unique enough to not get stale but also somehow flow together well (and color me surprised to realize how they actually fit). Wish I'd sought this out sooner as it's been on my watch list for quite awhile. Definitely met and exceeded my expectations.

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  Review by F3lixL3g1ons ★★½

  A much-heralded anthology by the old brigade of German Horror …and a massive, massive let down for me! "Final Girl" is pure shit all the way, nothing else. "Make a Wish" isn’t that embarrassing ...yet anything but German Angst – German awkwardness at the most. Solely, Andreas Marschall’s "Alraune" is more than worth hunting down: Definitely on par with Tears of Kali or Masks – 44 minutes of magical stuff from Germany’s best, and maybe last, true indie director.
  Verdict: things look rather bleak for German Horror. Starting to worry!