Black Past

After moving into a new home, Thommy (played by German splatter-meister Olaf Ittenbach) finds an old mirror in the attic which causes him to suffer from violent visions before eventually transforming him into a bloodthirsty demon.

This was Olaf Ittenbach's first horror movie, and he starts as he means to go on, delivering rudimentary direction, lousy writing and awful acting, but making up for the film's many technical shortcomings with loads and loads of enthusiastic and well-executed splatter.

For a long while, the most horrific things about Black Past are Ittenbach's monobrow, mullet and moobs -- but hang on in there, because Olaf eventually gives gorehounds what they want, namely bucket-loads of stomach-churning special effects.

The first splattery set piece sees Thommy dismembering the reanimated body of his dead girlfriend Petra (Andrea Arbter), a scene clearly 'inspired' by Sam Raimi's classic The Evil Dead. It may be very derivative, but it's done extremely well -- although it pales in comparison with what follows, a gory vision that involves some brutal genital mutilation and other assorted nastiness.

Having ripped off Raimi, Ittenbach proceeds to imitate Lamberto Bava's Demons with Thommy's transformation into a hideous toothy monster. And this is where things get really messy... Demon Thommy uses scissors, knife, machete and chainsaw to chop up his family and friends, Ittenbach's camera lovingly capturing every nauseating detail.

Eventually, Demon Thommy is defeated by his friend Frankie (André Stryi), who plants an axe in his possessed pal's abdomen (causing his entrails to slide out) and then sends him crashing into the cursed mirror. With the mirror broken, Thommy disintegrates in another scene inspired by The Evil Dead.

6/10. Black Past is by no means a good film, but the impressive effects kept this particular gorehound happy.

N. B. This film must have the slowest scrolling end credits that I have ever seen.

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.

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.

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.

For all ultra-gore fans, "Black Past" its a "Z" home-made flick, the screenplay is ridiculous, but who cares, what we care, is the ultra gore and sadistic scenes.

Its Olaf Ittenbach first flick, and i think thats is pretty good, for an ultra amateur movie. The special effects are superb, the acting is terrible, the footage too, but the all point of this flick is too shock with brutal graphic violence.

If you like "Black Past", i recommend: "Burning Moon" and "Premutos" (two flicks from Olaf Ittenbach), "Evil Dead"(Sam Raimi), "VS3:Infantry of Doom"(Andrea Schnnas)