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.
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