Andreas Schnaas
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Andreas Schnaas (Born April 1, 1968) is a German director and actor, working exclusively in the horror genre. Since he first appeared on the film scene in 1989, Schnaas has become a leader in Germany's ultra-violent low-budget horror film industry.
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[edit] Early years
Andreas Schnaas was born in Hamburg and embraced cinema at a very young age. Since many of the local theaters in his city didn’t care about how young their patrons were, he was exposed to violent martial arts, zombie films, and splatter very early on in his life. Schnaas' parents were not always pleased with his choice of entertainment, but recognized his artistic talents and vivid imagination. He used this imagination, compounded with his love of horror, to make his first film at age twelve. The film, entitled Hunted, featured Andreas and his friend ruthlessly killing an elderly man, who was played by his grandfather. His father filmed this feature, as well as many other movies that the boys made over the next several years. It wasn’t until 1989, however, that he mustered together five thousand marks - enough to make his first full-length feature.
[edit] Filmmaking
Shot with his friends over four extremely long weekends, Schnaas' gory tale of "Karl the Butcher", entitled Violent Shit, went on to become Germany’s first direct-to-video horror film. An immediate success, the film quickly appeared on video stores in America and throughout the rest of Europe. When asked where he came up with such a vulgar title for his film, the director once explained that a pen pal frankly told him, “All you’re making is violent shit,” and it stuck.
Still spiraling off of Violent Shit’s unexpected success, Andreas created his homage to the undead with Zombie 90 - Extreme Pestilence (1990), the English version of which is regarded by some genre fans to have the most hilarious dubbing ever put to celluloid. The following year, he decided to continue the story of Karl with Violent Shit 2 - Mother, Hold My Hand, eventually releasing it in 1992. Due to an intense fan interest through his official website, Andreas decided to continue the Violent Shit series - filming the third chapter of the trilogy the next year. Budget constraints kept the film from being released for years, but it eventually saw the light of day in 1999 under the title, Violent Shit III - Infantry of Doom (or Zombie Doom in the US). Andreas also played the killer, Karl, in all three films.
His following film was Der Kelch - Goblet of Gore of 1996, although various issues kept it shelved until 2005. As a homage to Italian director Joe D'Amato, he then remade the classic slasher film, Anthropophagous, changing the title to Anthropophagous 2000 (1999). It was also in 1999 that Andreas began preparing for his next film, which he would release as his “millennium shocker”. The movie, Demonium (2001), was his first 35MM project, made with completely professional actors and shot in English.
In 2003 Schnaas directed his first film in America, Nikos, featuring Joe Zaso and Felissa Rose. After that, he directed the zombie action film Don't Wake the Dead (2006).
[edit] Filmography
- Violent Shit (1989) - Director/Actor
- Zombie '90: Extreme Pestilence (1991) - Director
- Violent Shit 2: Mother Hold My Hand (1992) - Director/Actor
- Goblet of Gore (1996) - Director
- Diabolica (1999) - Actor
- Mutation (1999) - Actor
- Violent Shit III: Infantry of Doom (1999) - Director/Actor
- Anthropophagous 2000 (1999) - Director/Actor
- Dämonenbrut (2000) - Actor
- Midnight's Calling (2000) - Actor
- Demonium (2001) - Director
- Fog²- Revenge of the Executed (2002) - Actor
- Parts of the Family (2003) - Actor
- Nikos (2003) - Director/Actor
- Don't Wake the Dead (2006) - Director
