Black Past

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.

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.

"Black Past" is the type of film that you will never watch in case you're a normal human being with regular and healthy cultural interests. This film, as well as Olaf Ittenbach's entire repertoire for that matter, will only be seen by horror insiders and fans of underground cult cinema. This was Ittenbach's very first film. His main inspiration clearly was "The Evil Dead", but unfortunately our German friend only shares Sam Raimi's enthusiasm and not his talent. And still, Ittenbach definitely deserves a certain sort of respect, because at young and fragile age of 20, he pulled it off almost entire by himself. Olaf writes, stars, directs, edits, produces and designs the special effects. And even though it took him nearly a decade before he delivered his second film "Burning Moon", Ittenbach is now a more or less reliable cult director with a selective yet very loyal fan base. Most of his movies are crap, especially stuff like "Legion of the Dead" or "House of Blood", but he's somewhat of a cult icon.

Anyways! Ittenbach depicts the lead character Tommy, and for some peculiar reason he insists on introducing himself with an overly close- up shot of his naked butt-cheeks. He shows off his skinny booty at several moments throughout the film, by the way, and at a certain point I'm actually even sure that he wore ladies' underwear… Shortly after moving into a new home with his family, Tommy stumbles upon an antique mirror in the attic. Too bad the mirror homes a demon that, for more than a century already, torments the tenants of the house where once a little boy died from starvation. True, I've definitely seen horror movies of which the basic premise was a lot more stupid, but I haven't seen so many that were accomplished so cheap and cheesy as "Black Past"! During the first 30-40 minutes, practically nothing happens. Now I can tolerate a lot of gratuitous gore and clumsy make-up effects, but the two things I absolutely cannot stand are amateurish ugly teenage "actors" that stare straight into the camera and an overload of pointless padding footage, like compilations of classroom activities or a young couple visiting the zoo (complete with atrocious musical guidance, of course). There are even collages in which you can see the characters talk to each other, but we can't hear the conversation. I truly hate that! Remember also that it was still the 1980's, so a large share of the cast – including Olaf Ittenbach – has a mullet and wears the dumbest colorful outfits. And since the first half hour is so boring, I even paid attention and got hugely irritated by the awful sound effects and editing quality. Seriously, you can hear birds singing inside a hermetically sealed off kitchen and the sound of footsteps follow approximately five seconds after the character stands still already.

"Black Past" only becomes (temporarily) worthwhile as soon as Tommy's possessed girlfriend throws herself in front of a car and he becomes plagued with horrifying visions of bloodied faces, rotting corpses and his own disemboweled dead girlfriend coming back from the dead over and over again. The film most certainly features some very depraved scenes, like a blade shoved up a girl's crotch or a nail hit right through a penis, but the slightly squeamish people among us don't have to worry too much. The gore might be sick and twisted, but it's never at one point shocking or disturbing. Ittanbach completely goes over-the-top during the last fifteen minutes of the film with extreme gore and a nicely deranged variety of "how to butcher my entire cast of befriended volunteers" ideas! The finale sure does evoke plenty of laughter!

Fun little to end with: two totally different and not-so-resembling actors play the role of Tommy's father. Suddenly and without apparent reason, the father is 20 years young and lost his mustache!

I jumped into Olaf Ittenbach's content with The Burning Moon and I was surprised with it. But, this one, oh boy this one is way bloodier, heavier, and intense. Scenes of brutal mutilation and insanity wrapped up in a mirror to another realm that shows us what insanity really is.

Olaf stars in this neat little gore feature and his acting is sublime for an independent horror from the late 80s. Not to mention making all of the gore effects himself and directing the movie. It truly shows what you can do if you put your mind and passion into it.