Angst (4½ Stars)

I would never have discovered the Austrian film "Angst" if my favourite musician Klaus Schulze hadn't recorded the soundtrack. This is an incredibly intense film that has won great critical acclaim, including a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Maybe one of the reasons that it has remained so obscure is that it was banned in 1983, shortly after its release. It was considered to be too violent. For me that's difficult to accept as a reason. Other films, such as the slasher movies of the 1990's are more violent and more explicit. What makes "Angst" so shocking is its realism and lack of glamour. It's also told from the point of view of the killer, not the victims. The whole film has a voiceover from the unnamed killer, giving the emotional detachment of a documentary. And yet we can't stay unmoved. The film shocks us.

Supposedly the film is based on true events, but the killer isn't named, and I haven't been able to find out who it refers to. A man is released from prison in a small town in Austria. Criminals who behave themselves are released early, but this man, who I'll call K, has only been quiet because he's spent years planning his first actions after his release. He wants to kill again. He wants his killings to be works of art that will shock and inspire others.

Whatever he may have planned in prison, it's not to easy when he's on the streets. He visits a cafe and sees two young women that he wants to kill, but he's worried he might be caught. He catches a taxi and wants to kill the driver, but she stops the car and throws him out when she sees him acting strangely on the back seat. This leaves him at his final destination. It's chance. It's fate. He breaks into a large house tucked into a forest, without any neighbours. It's perfect.

The inhabitants are a middle-aged woman and her two children. Her son is physically and mentally handicapped. K makes a plan of how he wants to kill them and in what order, so that he can present the dead bodies to the next victims, but it doesn't work out as he planned. Partially he panics, partially he gets too excited to concentrate. His supposedly artistic crime spree turns into a chaotic bloodbath.

After being forgotten for 20 years, "Angst" was finally released on DVD in Germany, and more recently it's gained popularity after being released with English subtitles. Unfortunately, the film has suffered self-censorship by the director, Gerald Kargl. The original version was 83 minutes, but he shortened it to 75 minutes for the DVD release. He said that certain scenes were too shocking. He also made one of the scenes darker. I wish I could see the original version. I like the film a lot, but I can't give it a perfect five star rating because of the cuts.

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