Film #25 — 1/1 Extra Credit Film
By C. Ramsay
Built around a runtime of only 63 minutes, The German Chainsaw Massacre makes every single one of them count. The choice to open with the reunification of Germany helps to define the rest of the film, deepening characterization without needing excessive verbal or visual exposition, and providing a contextual backdrop for the minimalistic plot as it washes over the viewer. Relying entirely on pairing its absurdist comedic style with its social and legislative circumstances, this is a film that seems like it should be evidently taken as satirical of both its subgenre and its political features, though instead appears to be more often than not painfully misunderstood as plotless and aiming solely for misguided shock value.
A key interest of the film is in the response of the average person to the reunification of a country having experienced prolonged enforced division, and in the increasing polarization that developed from it over the course of decades. The desires of the individual are constantly held against the assumptions and stereotypes developed and trickled from the top down of those occupying the space of the alternate perspective. What becomes tacitly highlighted is the hypocrisy behind generalizing a demographic forced into formation but refusing to accept that those same generalizations are not one-sided and can be equally self-reflective. Where the film is most curious is in its exploration of the societal rifts caused by the separation of East and West Germany, and more specifically in the exploitative and parasitic consumption of certain types of people as a means to foster the growth of others.
Each character is incredibly well-portrayed, noticeably unique, and each actor gives 110% at all times, resulting in a collection of lawless heathens functioning as self-appointed pseudo-governors of the ungovernable. The scenes become progressively nonsensical in their smaller details, tied together through the increasing familiarity of the quirks of each person, some key words that are uttered in commonality, and the occasional musical overlay. The most explicit consistencies, though, come in the melded forms of wretched sounds with the visuals of flesh, meat, sex, and never-ending violence—suffusing in a sepia wasteland of debauchery and frantic desperation for desperation’s sake.
Star rating (/5): ★★★★
Recommend?: Yes