Angst (1983 film)

Angst

Directed by	Gerald Kargl
Produced by	Gerald Kargl Josef Reitinger-Laska
Written by	Gerald Kargl Zbigniew Rybczyński
Starring	Erwin Leder
Music by	Klaus Schulze
Cinematography	Zbigniew Rybczyński
Edited by	Zbigniew Rybczyński
Running time	83 min 75 min (director's cut)
Country	Austria
Language	German

Angst (English: Fear) is a 1983 Austrian experimental psychological thriller film. Co-written and directed by Gerald Kargl with cinematography, writing, and editing by Academy Award-winner Zbigniew Rybczyński, it tells the story of a psychopath recently released from prison and is loosely based on real-life mass murderer Werner Kniesek. Though relatively obscure, the film has been highly acclaimed for its unconventional and innovative camera work and intense acting performances, particularly from lead actor Erwin Leder. The film was banned all over Europe for extreme violence in 1983.^[1]

Plot

An unnamed serial killer is eager to kill again following his release from prison, driven by a desire to see the fear in the eyes of his victims. He stops by a diner, where he is tempted to attack two girls sitting at the counter but is unable to act on this inclination in public. In a taxi afterwards, he prepares to kill the female driver but is forced to flee when the driver becomes suspicious and stops the car. The killer comes across an empty house during his escape and breaks in. Inside, he finds a mentally impaired, wheelchair-bound man, who mistakes the killer for his own father. Soon, the wheelchair-bound man's mother and sister arrive at the house, and the killer hides before eventually attacking them, taping the daughter to a doorknob and strangling the mother. He ties up the mother before dragging the son to the upstairs bathroom and drowning him in the bathtub.

The killer returns downstairs to find that the mother is dead or near death. The daughter pleads with the killer to give her mother her medication; the killer complies, wishing to prevent the mother from dying before he had planned. His attempts to revive her are futile and he pushes the wheelchair she is in into a wall in a rage.

The killer finds the daughter attempting to escape and chases her down. He stabs her to death, drinks her blood, and vomits on her (the blood having acted as an emetic). He wakes up on her body the following morning, partially undressed and covered in blood. He decides to leave in the family's car and take the bodies with him in the trunk, intending to show the bodies to his new victims to frighten them (he also brings the family's dog, alive, in the passenger seat). The killer rear-ends another car during his frantic escape, and there are several witnesses to the incident.

He returns to the diner, the same patrons from earlier there once again, and is apprehended by the police as he feeds the dog, who ask for his registration. He then willingly opens the trunk of the car, reveling in the fear the sight of the bodies causes in the onlookers. The film ends as a voice-over of a medical record declares that the killer was driven by a sadistic tendency caused by his unstable childhood.^[2]

Soundtrack

Klaus Schulze's soundtrack for the film is perhaps better known than the picture itself. It contains percussive and synth-based music, similar in style to the work of Tangerine Dream, a group of which Schulze was once a member.

Though she performed no music in the film, cast member Silvia Rabenreither would later found the band Sugarplum Fairies with her husband Benedikt Bohm.

Legacy & influence

Film director Gaspar Noé has cited Angst as an influence on his filmmaking style.^[3] He has been quoted several times talking about the film:

"There's another film called "Angst" or "Fear," which in France was called "Schizophrenia," but it was banned theatrically. It's got an X-rating, so it never came out. It could maybe come out today. It's Austrian. One of the masterpieces of the decade. The director never did another movie, though. He had too many debts, so he stopped directing."
"There is another movie that really inspired me. An Austrian movie that was never released in the states, called "Angst." It means 'fear' in German. It's the best psycho-killer movie I've ever seen. The two movies I saw most in my life are 2001: A Space Odyssey and Angst. Because it was banned all over Europe, but it came out on VHS in France."
"Then there's an Austrian movie, Angst. It's about a man killing a family just in order to go back to prison, where he felt better. It's like a very dark, European version of Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer, but much more baroque in its filming. It was banned all over the world - even in France it was one of the last movies to be X-rated for extreme violence. I think it's going to be rediscovered everywhere in the next few years."

Blu-ray release

In 2012, Angst was released on Blu-ray in France under the title of Schizophrenia.^[4] The Region B disc includes two DTS-HD Master Audio tracks: German and French. However, only French subtitles are available. Cult Epics released an English subtitled version of "Angst" Uncut & Uncensored in theaters April 2015 in USA & Canada, and on Blu-ray & DVD thereafter.

References

↑ McKendry, Rebekah (January 5, 2017). "Banned!: 10 Horror Movies You Weren’t Supposed to See". blumhouse.com. Retrieved 28 June 2017.
↑ Schneider, Steven (June 18, 2001). "The Anti-Hannibal Hannibal". Central Europe Review. Retrieved 28 June 2017.
↑ "Gasper Noe - Part 3". Vice. October 13, 2010. Archived from the original on October 10, 2014. Retrieved 28 June 2017.
↑ "Angst Blu-ray (France)". blu-ray.com. Retrieved 28 June 2017.

External links

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