Director: Thorsten Fleisch
Year: 2019
Country: Germany
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Experimental/Avant-Garde
Plot:
Meeting together in the Berlin underground, a man and a woman try to find the cause of a mysterious transmission affecting the city and eventually discover the cause to be a mad doctor trying to corrupt and infect the residents forcing them into the bowels of the underground to stop him.
Review:
For the most part, this one wasn't all that bad. One of the more enjoyable and engaging aspects of this one is the fact that there's quite an impressive amount of technical flourishes throughout here. The abstract photography capturing the city in the early parts of the film gives off a wholly discordant and abstract viewpoint throughout these scenes with the stellar and imposing black-and-white camera combine together into a fine abstract tone. Coming alongside the rather experimental leanings of the storyline with it cutting between all nightclub-style cutscenes, the rapid-fire music video editing and the all-around industrial music atmosphere of the dark and grungy locations, there's certainly an imposing and dark setting that drips off the film as a whole.
That darkness carries over into the horror-based scenes and creates a very avant-garde impression as a result. However conventional it may seem to have the attack in the shower or the early scenes hinting at the kind of insect invasion to come, there's a wholly discordant and jarring manner to the way their filmed that creates a rather different style of sequence than what might be generally accomplished. As well, later scenes featuring the various victims being absorbed into technological systems evokes plenty of techno-thriller and body-horror formats which become much more prominent in the bleak and unforgiving final half of the film. With this section bringing the storyline together and offering the kind of general bleakness of tone and imagery that had been prevalent before, there's plenty to enjoy with this part of the film.
There are several problems with this one. The most obvious issue to be dealt with is the fact that there's no discernible storyline present throughout much of the film's running time, making this a wholly disjointed and jarring experience. Those looking to go into a film like this based on the intriguing premise unaware of its' avant-garde nature will be completely bored by the experimental imagery, numerous music video interludes of the various bands being played on the radio station and its general lack of purpose until the last possible moment who will look at this as incoherent nonsense, although it's still entirely possible that that industrial music montages will get old at some point when they're constantly interrupting the storytelling. Play up your expectations accordingly and it'll be a fine trip.
Overview: ***/5
For those willing to go into this one fully aware of what's on-offer in here, this experimental and wholly unique avant-garde entry will have plenty to like about it. For those who are unwilling to sit through the seemingly endless music video interruptions, non-existent storyline and just plain bizarre camera-work throughout here, avoid this one totally.
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