Melancholie der Engel

Always mentioned in forums and lists on the internet as one of the most disturbing horror films ever made, "Melancholie der Engel" (2009) justifies its reputation as a cursed film due to its scenes of scatology and extreme cruelty.

The film takes the viewer on an odyssey of disturbing and reflective moments, addressing themes such as life, death and moral decay from a nihilistic perspective. The oppressive aesthetic is in keeping with the genre's proposal, making it a truly frightening work of horror. Despite bringing interesting philosophical debates, a well-crafted soundtrack and careful framing in the photography, much of the experience is overshadowed by scenes that go beyond the limits of what is acceptable, such as explicit animal cruelty and sequences involving excrement, made without simulation or practical effects. The subtext does not support the project, making it clear that the enigmatic director Marian Dora intended to shock the public through an underground production aimed at art house cinema. For viewers unfamiliar with this type of transgressive content, the film may seem like nothing more than a jumble of bizarre images and disjointed philosophical dialogues.

"Melancholie der Engel" was not conceived for all audiences, but rather for a select group that enjoys the paraphilias portrayed in the film. Without its more problematic scenes, the film would certainly have achieved more consistent results, even if it would inevitably lose its infamous crown as a disturbing production.

Holy hell, I've just watched this since I finally got my hands on the English subtitles.

The movie has little to no plot, backstory or continuity whatsoever. The only thing that saves this movie is the excellent way in which the director manages to depict decay, death and several mental illnesses. Unfortunately, these themes however, exist within a vacuum and feel disjointed as hell. Trying to understand this film objectively is largely a futile exercise. The movie feeds on the reaction of the viewer, that's the only power it has, which makes it extremely fragile.

I would suggest to skip this movie, or if you're just curious about the sheer madness on display, watch a few selected scenes, there are plenty, I assure you.

I picked up a copy of this film back in 2010 but was highly disappointed when I found there were no subtitles, so for a long time I had no idea what was going on. Sufficed to say, I finally found the subtitles so I can properly give this title a review.

Many people may regard this as a horror film, due to the horrific content, but to me this is about as far from horror as you can get. There's no build up of tension, no jarring moments (other than the extreme gore, excrement and decay) and no backstory. This is as art house as art house gets, and if you've seen any of Marian Dora's other films, you know what you're getting. At first glance, this film is rather tedious and underwhelming. But after really watching it, I found the cinematography to be rather awesome. To me this film portrays decay and death rather well. You can almost smell the rotting flesh, human excrement and other foul stenches you would find in an open air mass grave. Marian Dora certainly knows how to portray putrefaction and disgust. This sort of film will have it's supporters and it's definite critics, as it should, but perhaps that's just because it's so hard to define. The acting was mediocre, the script a bit overplayed but well made and the camera work quite well for the obvious small budget. So I'll give it high marks on these merits. There's one thing that I absolutely hate...

The animal cruelty. No movie producer should ever feel the need to kill a cat on camera for shock value. That's just stupid, wrong, and should be punishable by prison time. I give this film a big fat ZERO for the use of several animals for death scenes. I can look past the pig slaughter, because you eat a pig after you kill it. But just wasting an animal for no reason? That's terrible. Torturing a human on camera, or smearing excrement on them, or whatever is fine because people have the cognition to understand what's happening, a cat does not.

For the latter part of this review, I will never be supporting Marian Dora's work from this point forward. This is sad because I really like his work as an artist, but I cannot get behind art that harms animals for no reason. I give this a 5 star only on the merits it deserves, if it had been without the cruelty, I would have rated it far higher and I would be purchasing all of his work.

I've owned a copy of Melancholie der Engel for a few years now, but never watched it as it was in German without subtitles. Recently, I found the movie on YouTube with English subs, so I finally gave it a whirl.

Even with subtitles, it didn't make sense.

Directed by Marian Dora, who gave us the disturbing Cannibal (2006), this film is an extreme arthouse horror that pushes the boundaries in terms of shocking content, the filth and debasement depicted including vomiting, stoma and anus fingering, and the five '-tions' - mutilation, urination, defecation, masturbation, and ejaculation (all shown in graphic detail). While this might be exactly what extreme cinema fans are looking for, the whole thing proves extremely boring thanks to its pretentious approach, unfathomable storytelling and excruciating two and a half hour plus runtime.

Fool that I am, I carried on to the bitter end regardless of the fact that the execution was very tedious and I soon became inured to the abhorrent acts inflicted on the cast. What I did find upsetting was the unnecessary cruelty towards a variety of innocent critters: a tiny newt is slowly crushed, a snail has its eyes cut off with scissors, a worm is sliced into pieces with a scalpel, and a cute cat is killed. People can do what the hell they like to each other in the name of their art (and they do), but leave the animals out of it (unlike the turtle in Cannibal Holocaust, I can't imagine that the cat became food for the cast and crew).

1/10. A repetitive, incomprehensible exercise in repugnant behaviour that couldn't be more wearisome if it tried. If you think you're hardcore enough, watch it back to back with Philosophy Of A Knife.

In 2009's "Melancholie der Engel" we are introduced to a group of people that have gathered in an old house and from there on the movie turns to a pretentious art house movie with disgusting imagery. There are quite a few scenes in this that are stomach-turning because they are so disgusting and disturbing that not everyone will even be able to watch this. The plot is weird and full of artsy stuff that was not entertaining at all. Every now and then something sick and disturbing happens to shock the audience just for the sake of it. In between there are quite a few nice shots and the overall cinematography was pretty good considering the low budget. However the overall result is way too long and unconvoluted. In the end some of the pictures will stay in the viewers head for a while but that's about the only achievement this movie gets. [3,0/10]