Black Past

Black Past (1989)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Thommy (Olaf Ittenbach) and his family move into a new home and it doesn't take long before he gets a crush on a local girl. While all of this is going on he stumbles into the attack where he finds a box chained up. He breaks into it and finds a mirror, which he hangs up and soon enough all sorts of gory and crazy murders are happening.

Ittenbach's BLACK PAST is typical of the splatter slashers that were coming out of Germany during this era. If you're looking for great performances and high art then you're not going to find it here but, then again, why on Earth would you come to a film like this an expect that? If you're looking for non-stop gore and over-the-top and vile nastiness then Ittenbach certainly won't let you down.

The one thing that has always amazed me about these German splatter films is that they were filmed on peanuts yet they always managed to have wonderful special effects. Just compare the effects in this film to countless direct-to-VHS movies that were coming out of America. Rarely did those films feature any gore and what it did show were rather amateur effects. More times than not they simply had someone off camera shooting blood around. These special effects here are all rather creative and there's no question that they go highly over-the-top in the amount of gore.

You've pretty much got various decapitations, non-stop skin slashing, several scenes where eyes are damaged ala Lucio Fulci and there's no telling how many gallons of blood were used. Obviously if you have a weak stomach you will want to stay away from this film. The "story" itself isn't the greatest but it's good enough to keep you entertained whenever there isn't any gore going on.

Among the other German homemade-splatter videos, Ittenbach's BLACK PAST is one of the best: very well done, especially if you consider all the limits of the video technology at that time. The same can be said about the special effects, entirely done by Ittenbach himself: they're quiet impressive and realistic, not like the red paint and cardboard used by Schnaas in his debut video (of the same year) VIOLENT SH*T. The cinematography and the acting are on a amateur level, but this is obvious and we can't blame it. The story is maybe a little bit slow at the beginning, but its short running time (something like 45 minutes) gives it a good rhythm and keeps it away from becoming boring.

Brilliant debut by german gore favorit Ittenbach. It's a VERY well produced no budget splatter movie with all the Ittenbach characteristics, such as dumb german humor and of course over-the-top gore sequenses! It's just as good as Premutos and better than The Burning Moon and even better than the low budget Legion of the Dead, which was a real letdown. Be sure to get the Olaf Ittenbach Collection on DVD, with a new and restored version of this fantastic flick, together with Burning Moon, Premutos, the old version of Black Past as well as a bonus disc with trailers of his new flick Beyond the Limits (Looks really cool), behind the camera and so on.

This is Olaf's debut flick and just like his others, it's chock full of of the grue. Well, not chock full, but when it gets violent, it gets seriously gruesome. Yeeeaaaahhh, baay-buh!!

Story revolves around young Thommy ((with an H)played by Olaf) who's falling in love with his dream girl. All is well until Olaf discovers a chained up chest in his attic that holds a mirror and a diary of sorts telling some very grim stories of the houses' past. Not thinking any of the mirror besides it looking cool, he hangs it up. But this mirror isn't like any other mirror. It's wicked evil. Hell, it's even evilly wicked. Things start going awry fast and the mirror is starting to set up poor Thommy into going down the same the paths the old inhabitants of the mirror went through. Uh-oh spaghettios!

Black Past was a pretty solid debut for Olaf. The only real gripe for myself was the pacing of the film. There were some scenes that were complete wastes of time. Just shots of Thommy walking here and there. Or him just sitting there. That may work with fantastic acting, but since there wasn't any here, it was very tedious. There were a few nice scenes of splatter before the hour mark, but once it hits the 1:00, it's pretty much clear sailing in a sea of red.

With nods to Evil Dead and probably a couple other flicks, Olaf seemed to know what he was doing right from the get go. If you're a fan of his other flicks, there's no reason not to check out this one as well. One of the more memorable splatter debuts, and a must see for fans of the messy-kind.

This is low budget shot on video German splatter, starring the writer/director/special effect guy, Olaf Ittenbach.

No small amount of this movie originated in The Evil Dead, but rather than look at The Black Past like a typical narrative movie, I'd suggest approaching it like a Halloween haunted house with gory set pieces and an intensely nasty depiction of hell.

Unlike most of his later movies, which push toward bigger ideas (and don't work as well), this is a simple piece that builds to intensely gory happenings. It is a bit too slow and the performances aren't there at all, but when things get surreal and vicious, the experience is a vibrant and charged gore cornucopia that will leave a lasting impression. You'll need to forgive a lot in this film, but like the very different movies of Werner Herzog and John Waters and H.G. Lewis and Harmony Korine, Black Past is an experience and a spectacle more than it is a traditional narrative film and those looking for a dungeon of gore, where "Hell = Creative Torture" may forgive Ittenbach's shortcomings as a traditional filmmaker...something that is less forgivable when he attempts to make traditional films (albeit ones crammed with gore).

((I found Premutos a bit dull after a while, and House of Blood and the Haunting of Rebecca Verlaine, sporadically engaging.))

Ittenbach's other recommendable movie, The Burning Moon, is similarly strong-- and expands upon the man's visual conception of "Hell = Creative Torture," though it is also a bit more bloated. And Brian Paulin's Fetus and Bone Sickness explore this dungeon and are better in most regards.