Nekromantik

Street cleaner Rob brings home a decomposing corpse to spice things up a little in the bedroom with his wife Betty. When Betty decides that she loves the corpse more than she loves Rob and runs off with it, however, Rob finds his sanity fraying as he hunts down a replacement and descends ever deeper into depression.

Why we’re looking forward to this: Those of you who have never heard of this 1988 film will probably be wondering exactly why this is being recommended, given the stomach churning synopsis even by This Is Horror standards. For those of us who discovered this way back when, however, and have only previously seen it on fifth generation VHS copies due to it being banned in numerous countries or censored to the point of incomprehensibility, this limited edition re-release is an interesting stroll down memory lane and a chance to finally see Nekromantik in all its glory.

Written and directed by a then young and rebellious Jorg Buttgereit, who created it with the express aim of having it banned by the authorities in his native Germany, Nekromantik is a multi-layered film that works on a number of levels.

On the one hand, it’s a revolting gore drenched study in necrophilia and animal cruelty, with shocking scenes of a rabbit being skinned on camera that would have been right at home in the similarly PETA-baiting Cannibal Ferox. Dig a little deeper, though, and it’s a surprisingly deep and affecting tale of love and loss and is one of those movie experiences that you don’t so much enjoy as experience.

This limited edition DVD and Blu-ray release (sadly only for those of us with Region 1/A DVD/Blu-Ray players) is packed with fascinating extras including commentaries, documentaries, featurettes, a 100 page book and the soundtrack on CD, and promises to be an essential purchase for those who can see beyond the explicit sex, violence and cruelty to the genuinely interesting film beneath the surface.

Nekromantik is out now on limited edition DVD and Blu-ray.

RICHARD COSGROVE