Directed by:
Jörg ButtgereitCinematography:
Manfred O. JelinskiCast:
Jörg Buttgereit, Harald Lundt, Bela B. Felsenheimer, Ades Zabel, Eva-Maria Kurz, Michael Krause, Hermann Kopp, Franz Rodenkirchen, Manfred O. Jelinski (more)Plots(1)
As a chain letter from the self-proclaimed “Brotherhood of the 7th Day” circulates encouraging its recipients to end their lives, a series of grim murder-suicides unfold. In one vignette, a young woman massacres a room of concert-goers before turning the gun on herself; in another, a man, driven to madness by some unspecified mental disturbance, repeatedly slams his head into a wall before collapsing in a pool of his own blood… These are just some of depictions of death and despair that make up the tortured fabric of Der Todesking. (Arrow Films)
(more)Reviews (2)
A little girl draws a strange figure on a piece of paper and says, “This is the Death King. He makes people not want to live anymore.” This is the last image from the low-budget Der Todesking, after which you may not want to live yourself. Not because it’s emotionally devastating, but rather because of the pessimism, darkness and despair that radiate from it. Jörg Buttgereit again deals with death, which is evidently beyond his capabilities. This time he does it through several seemingly unrelated episodes, in which he perfectly handles the formalistic aspect of filmmaking, but he is absolutely unable to lead the actors. Some passages are disgusting (the decomposing body – worms, intestines and such), some are shocking (a very impressive snuff scene involving the shooting of random victims) and others are surprising with their point. A strange exploitation mishmash, again with very well-utilized music. But the music in combination with the camerawork is all there is to this.
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There is a kind of meta-consciousness between living and not living that it is human nature to resist. The Death King is concerned with this alone, and without any sign of resolution. In six days God created the world. On the seventh day he killed himself.
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Gallery (10)
Photo © Albatros Film
![The Death King - Photos](http://image.pmgstatic.com/cache/resized/w663/files/images/film/photos/163/885/163885634_61a691.jpg)
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