Ruptured Review: Angst

Country of origin- Austria
Year of release- 1983 
Director- Gerald Kargl 
Stars- Erwin Leder,Robert Hunger-Bühler,Silvia Rabenreither

The film opens with our antagonist walking through a remote and peaceful suburb in what seems to be the early morning. He eventually finds a house that he thinks is suitable and proceeds to knock on the door. It is opened by an elderly woman, who is almost immediately shot twice in the throat by the antagonist who then walks away as if almost nothing had happened. Now if that isn’t how to kick off a film I don’t know what is.

We find out that the old woman’s killer is an extremely deranged sadist who is never referred to by name at any point during the film, and is credited at the end as “The Psychopath”, which for the purposes of this review I will refer to him as. We are also given a detailed backstory to The Psychopath, in which we learn about his torturous childhood and his bizarre sadomasochistic relationship with a much older woman at the age of 14. The backstory clearly shows him to be ever increasingly disturbed, and eventually culminates in his murder of the elderly woman. He is sentenced to 10 years in prison for the motiveless murder. The film then skips to his release from prison and we begin to hear his disturbed internal monologue, which acts as natation to his actions for the rest of the film. Immediately upon his release he walks to the nearest café and begins to fantasise about two young women who are drinking coffee. His internal monologue becomes increasing disturbed as he stares at them, but realising that this wasn’t the right time leaves the café. Eventually The Psychopath finds a large secluded house whose owners are out shopping. He breaks in, and begins to ready himself for their return all while his sick fantasies are running across his ever increasingly deranged mind.

This film is a superb example of nihilist cinema, it is harsh, aggressive and extremely bleak. The film had the potential to be fairly dull considering much of the story is told in real time, but because this film was blessed with the breath taking cinematography of the academy award winning Zbigniew Rybczynski, and the stunning acting talents of Erwin Leder who plays The Psychopath, at no point was I anything but fixated. Lefer’s physical performance lends The Psychopath character an almost animalistic quality in the way he moves and acts around others. There is almost no dialogue throughout the film, instead just the dark twisted monologue of The Psychopath which gives the film a very immersive feel to it. This film is Gerald Kargl’s only feature film, which is a real shame considering it is now often overlooked and forgotten, and certainly underappreciated. This film is however, not for everyone because of its raw aggressive nature, one scene in particular in which The Psychopath drowns a severely disabled man in a bath is extremely dark and will likely shock most people. This film is a true one of a kind experience that has to be seen to be believed, I cannot recommend this disturbing masterpiece enough and I shall not degrade it by labelling it with an out-of-ten rating, just go and watch it.