Hostage

Umbrella Entertainment is bringing back Frank Shields' (The Breaker) '80s cult classic 'Hostage'. Not only is this version restored so it can be viewed in glorious 4K, this is also a slightly longer director's cut of the film, based on the incredible, yet terrifying true story of Christine Maresch (Kerry Mack - The Lancaster Miller Affair).

Christine, a naive 16-year-old working at a carnival, meets the handsome German immigrant Walter Maresch (Ralph Schicha - Sturm der Liebe) and under weird circumstances feels forced to marry him, before she discovers he's a psychotic neo-Nazi, who'll stop at nothing to manipulate and control every move she makes, for the rest of her life. Now living in West-Germany, Walter gets to be closer to his circle of Nazi sympathizers, and Christine finds herself in a whirlwind filled with domestic violence, drugs and armed robbery. It's now up to Christine to save herself and her child, and safely get back to Australia.

Hostage couldn't be more of a B-film. Fans of the genre will appreciate this melodramatic "Ozploitation", which is based on true events - only slightly exaggerated. Lots of action, crazy fast editing and a score by Davood A. Tabrizi that probably went down in '80s Australian film history as one of its finest. The twists and turns get a bit repetitive at some point, especially when it becomes annoyingly clear Christine misses every opportunity she gets to escape her abusive husband.

Luckily Kerry Mack knows how to sell the part, even if it may be a bit silly and over-the-top at times. The styling, make up and hair are always on point, even after she wakes up from a drug induced fever dream in which we see her tossing and turning up against the walls of some sort of dollhouse inside her head - Dario Argento would've been proud. Schicha on the other hand, overdoes it as soon as he gets confident in the role of neo-Nazi. He's mostly here to shout, punch or grab Mack, while keeping it all very on the surface.

Sensational, suspenseful and overly violent, 'Hostage: The Story of Christine Maresch' ticks all the boxes of exploitation cinema which some cinephiles will definitely enjoy in their collection. Never dull, fast-paced and taking place on multiple continents, the sky is the limit with an explosive finale that'll either make you cringe or clap your hands.

Sadly, or tragically this was a real life tale, that paints a horrifying picture of what a young girl, endured when meeting a seemingly polite and handsome carnival worker, Walter Maresch (Ralph Schicha). He turns out to be an all Hitler brainwashed psychopath, and at the end while being a disturbed witness, and feeling so much sympathy for the poor suffering real life victim, played very well by hottie Kerry Mack, the actress much better looking than the real Christine (they always are) in it's 92 minute duration. Like her, we really feel like we've been put through the ringer. Hostage is a very tightly written real life tale. From it's opening, where Christine is being belted supposedly by her stepfather, she takes to the road, and that's where, the opening of her soon to endure begins. I found Schicha, a little stiff in his performance, but he is quite threatening and has his moments. We see where the forced marriage led to, then her pregnancy, then the entrapment over in Germany. The movie doesn't hold back on shock, including some pretty bloody moments, and you can call it's exploitation, but this is marvelously entertaining and important film, where the story really honed in on what this poor lass endured, a lot of physical beating, while also, near the end, getting speared in the back. It's a tightly told tale, and that's what I loved about this. The movie uses all the important parts of this real life horror, and we get through a lot in those 92 minutes. It's a very cut to the chase movie, but of course the real horror, is it's a factual told hell. Obviously an underrated movie too. Judy Nunn aka: Home and Away's Isla, is fantastic, a real hoot Christine's Mum, where you savor her scenes. Unmissable, the real hostage, will be you, the viewer when you watch this.

While working at an amusement park in Australia, Christine starts a relationship with a German man, Walter. She marries him and has a child with him. When an job opportunity presents itself, Walter and Christine move to Germany. There his deepest, darkest secret is revealed: he's a fervent neo-Nazi. Appalled by this revelation, Christine's life, and that of her child, are now in danger.

Based on a true story but you wouldn't think so. Yes, the story is quite extreme but not implausible. No, it's more the way the story is told that makes it less than believable. There's a B-grade quality to proceedings that make it seem cheap and cheesy.

Direction is pretty unimaginative and performances are quite hammy. Ralph Schicha as Walter is the worst of it: absurd overacting. Kerry Mack's performance as Christine is actually semi-decent. Supporting cast are so-so.

With a bit more edginess, tension and engagement this could have been a fairly decent film. Instead it's quite flat, even dull despite the storyline.

While yes this is a B-grade movie it still does a great job in telling the true story of Christine Maresch, a young girl who at 16 was coerced into marrying a charming yet psychotic and delusional pro Nazi supporter, after which she was relentlessly abused, raped, shot and blackmailed into robbing banks. Although it may seem cheesy to show so much of Kerry Mack's breasts, it was to point out that Walter treated his wife as his sex slave and constantly demanded sex from her as it was "her duty" to obey him.

This really is a horrifying story, especially since it's a true story based closely on Christine's autobiography. While it's a low budget film it's unfair to rate it on that alone. You really have to feel for Christine. If this movie was made Hollywood style the viewers would be far more sympathetic. Think of Julia Roberts character in Sleeping With The Enemy; what happened to Christine was far worse and horrific. You also have to ignore the trashy cover which gives the false impression that this has something to do with prostitution. I really don't know who came up with that as it has nothing to do with the movie.

Ignore the cheesy faults due to low budget, this is still a great movie worth watching.

Never mind the ridiculous cover (at least of my old VHS tape) showing the heroine simpering like baby-doll jailbait on a bed in lingerie--this is an at least somewhat serious attempt to dramatize a purportedly true story, however loosely based it may be. Yet it does occasionally lurch into cheesy sexploitation, just one among many ways it can't seem to maintain any tone or focus at all.

Kerry Mack's heroine starts out kinda white-trashy, and one feels for her callous dismissal of carny co-worker Ralph Schicha's earnest marriage proposal. Then suddenly she's the poor victim, pregnant and into marriage against her will--his life in danger, he refuses surgery unless she gets consents--and he's acting like an obsessed stalker in a horror movie. They move to his native Germany, where he reveals himself as a Nazi fanatic and forces her to perform a bank robbery with wig and machine gun like Patty Hearst. That's hardly the end of the extreme globe-trotting melodramatics, either.

Mack is made to jump through too many emotional hoops, and the very handsome Schicha can't make sense of a character who's sweet and loyal one minute, then psycho and abusive the next. (On the plus side, the kid who plays their toddler daughter is adorable, and seems very relaxed around her "parents.") The movie just doesn't have the finesse to pull off such a complicated relationship in psychological terms, and stylistically it reels from sober drama to broad, lurid, sometimes choppily edited sequences.

Despite its alleged factual basis in the experiences of a woman who endured some years tied to a delusional Nazi husband, the film's progress is too erratic to be credible. It awkwardly lands between drive-in fare and something more respectable. Still, it's too hectic to be dull.