Rohtenburg

Grimm Love recreates the lives of the notorious cannibal who via the Internet found someone willing to be cannibalized. It is framed within a story of an American student in Germany writing her master's thesis on the topic from a psychological perspective.

Names have been changed for the movie, but we meet both characters in their childhood. Simon, the willing victim, was a tormented homosexual boy who is traumatized by the suicide of his mother, presumably because she caught him with another boy. He is now in an apparently fulfilling relationship with Felix but still consumed by guilt. The cannibal, Oliver, was never allowed to develop as a man because of his overbearing and controlling mother. As a child he meets another kid and they spy on butchers slaughtering pigs and gets into watching real death films. Cannibalism becomes his sexual fantasy and on message boards he solicits someone to become his meal. Some who are interested back off before he takes their lives. Until he meets Simon, who thinks he can find peace only once someone removes his piece.

Presumably everything we are told is true, in particular how events unfold when the two meet as the cannibal actually filmed their encounter. That tape is the only thing that gives importance to the story of the American student. Someone offers her a copy of the film and once she sees it, it's more than she asked for.

Grimm Love, a changed but effective title, making reference to the horrific "children" stories by the brothers Grimm with which all German children have been terrorized, is a very good movie. It is not pleasant to see though. There are a lot of homosexual scenes and some gruesome scenes at the end. But the movie humanizes the characters. It's not a movie that seeks to make cannibalism cool or that delights in gore or that wants to demonize the cannibal, even though the monster in him can't be eliminated. These two characters are tormented, traumatized, suffering souls, who never managed to overcome their childhood pain, in particular Simon. The tone of the movie is mild and slower. Oliver is calculative but gentle, if one can say that. The movie is mostly filmed in tones of yellow and brown and is rather dark looking. Direction and acting are excellent. This movie is smart and succeeds at giving you insight into the darkest of dark places of the human being and of life. A recurring question is, just how was it possible that these two people with such unique but matching preferences were able to meet. An astonishing event indeed.

I have to say that this film caught me by complete surprise. I expected it to be a typical "Hostel" kind of horror movie. But the opposite was the case. Rohtenburg is an incredible shot film that draws you into a personal story and guides you slowly into the darkness of a disturbed mind. Against all odds i was pleasantly surprised about this film. I do understand though that this film will raise a lot of controversy and have people not understand it or love or hate it. This film has no grey area, it is hate or love for sure, since it doesn't slumber through the mediocre horror genre formulas and has very little blood for the die hard horror fans. It works on a psychological level and goes way deeper than i expected, actually giving me sleep trouble for two nights.

This is a very different film. I don't think i have ever seen anything like it. I would recommend it.

Oh Man...as the Joker said..."Why so serious?".

It all Starts when We are Young. Psychologist generally Say that Our Personalities are, for the most part, Formed in the Beginning Years. The Complexity of the Human Condition takes so many varied Forms that Occasionally it Produces Monsters of all sorts.

Freedom of Expression allows Us to explore and expose these Aberrations for Education and Entertainment purposes. So, there is a Place for the Data no matter how Horrifying. But most who watch this Movie, Arguably, are doing so for some kind of Horror Movie Thrill. Good luck.

The Film is presented in such a Serious, Deep Deconstruction and is so well done that the Entertainment Value is Vacant and what We are left with is Guilt for Watching, and Sympathy for the Maladjusted Men who are Convinced in that the only way to show a Connection with Humanity is through an Exchange of Material Matter with Sexual Perversion of the most Extreme.

As these Carnivores Consume and Consummate their Love it proves to Them that this is the Ultimate Love. But, this places Them in the Unnatural Selection of the Specie...Categorically...Inhuman.

If Your Party or Gathering is Over and You have Unwanted Lingering Guests. Put this Movie on and it is Guaranteed to Clear the Room. If it does not, go to the Kitchen and start Frying up some Meat. If the Guests are still there...Dial 911. But I Digest...I mean Digress.

Before writing the review, i have to state that i already know of knew what i was getting my self into. Learned about this case ages ago, and ive seen like 2 years ago the movie Cannibal from 2006, so i already had knew what is coming up.

The movie could of been much better. Main issue is the sub plot of Katie. That whole subplot does not fit here. Instead of focusing on our main characters, Kati gets the most development, and her only purpose in the film is to watch this urban tape.

Second problem is that the movie is extremely confusing. The beginning, where we see our two prime characters growing up, it's really hard to follow. You get mixed up who are we following, are following Oliver or are we following the victim, or The Flesh.

I am shocked how tame this was compared to the Marian Dora's film, which is in every way effect wise superior over this movie. If you want to truly see how horrific this case is, i'd strongly advise the Marian Dora film.

I think if this movie did not have Katie's sub-plot, we'd have a more interesting watch. I think the whole purpose of Katie's role is that she gets so traumatized that she breaks the tape. That was the point that she breaks the tape. But if you are sensitive to human depravity, why study criminology? Why pick this case as your lead subject matter? Why is she obsessed with this case in the first place? Nothing is really explained there, she just seems completely forced into this movie.

Camera work is great, the acting seems okay, music is morbid hunting, the effects are tame as hell and when i heard about this movie, i thought it was going to be as graphic and hard core as Marian Dora's film was. But no, no where near Marian Dora's level.

This movie however was informative in some aspects, how both of the men lost their mothers, how both are lonely in a way, how both fantasized about this for years now.

I think i have to rewatch this movie mostly because of the first half.

This was inspired by the real life case of Armin Meiwes who put an ad over an Internet site looking for a willing victim to be slaughtered and their flesh consumed. What made the case so unusual was he was not only serious but another man named Bernd Jurgen Brandes obliged apparently without being physically forced as a share of the event was captured on videotape. "Grimm Love" is a tale that paces as a dark narrative drama with a fictional college student named Katie Armstrong, played by Keri Russell, returning to where these two lived in Germany in an attempt to get inside their heads for a research paper.

Instead of concentrating on horror and shock, the filmmakers switch back and forth between the present with Ms. Armstrong and also in the past with the two men who eventually meet up in a kind of twisted, interconnected fate. Oliver (based on Meiwes) is shown as far back as adolescence with his father leaving, trouble fitting in at school, as well as having no life apart from taking care of his ailing mother. He's alone and looking for companionship, though his way of connecting with people isn't hugs, kisses or long conversations, but instead a longing fixation of consuming the flesh of someone special to feel stimulation and closeness.

Simon (based on Brandes) is a homosexual who fears showing his feelings in public out of misunderstandings and ridicule. He has severe depression and searches for a sense of belonging through some normal and not so normal ways. He looks at extreme fetishes on an Internet chatroom as a way of feeling alive from a life that never accepted him. In 2003, Gay Chinese actor/composer Leslie Cheung was successful but still committed suicide by jumping off a building, likewise Simon also has things going for him, though it's too much and he wants to meet his end with symbolism that directly "severs" ties with his burdensome sexuality that gives him a guilt complex from his mother's suicide at an early age.

Dodging the pulse-pounding route of "Silence of the Lambs," this comes across more like "Kalifornia" by hearing the thoughts and experiences as they come through with narration. It also flows as slow as Cronenberg's "Spider" in an attempt at an on-the-surface character study of these atypical individuals' thought processes and motivations. Though the college student's montages about how these two men affect her take up extra screen time away from finding out more. There are metaphors and poetic wordings interspliced to sway the audience towards deep sympathy for these two fractured individuals. Sometimes making you think with introspection, but at other times being desperate to make a point and forcing their way in, like some of Keri Russells' obvious voice overs instead of letting the camera do the talking.

"Grimm Love" isn't going to be like watching a biopic on the History Channel by just stating the events as is, as the filmmakers are doing select reporting to be more convincing towards a certain compassionate, sentimental way of thinking than letting your own thoughts flow free. To some it's going to be touching, to others it's going to be sympathy for the devil. The heavy leaning towards the first here can take away from the experience as it feels written with a prior agenda in mind, not to mention before all things were considered in the case as the real events took place in only 2001 and an overturned verdict came in 2006 when this came out. I like the angle of diving into their background even if it breaks psychology down for the layman, though this would have worked better as a biography with anecdotes from relatives, friends and experts. Or if a story is to be had, something like the route taken with "Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer," where the director of that film said he feels that he shouldn't have to decide a stance for the viewer, that that's up to them.

This isn't an exploitation film that takes advantage of real events such as "Men Behind the Sun" did, as it's more suggestive than showing candid nudity and bodily infliction like "Cannibal" about the same events. Though by the time it closes--right after the infamous scenario between the men that's akin to the real life events in "In the Realm of the Senses"--it can't seem to decide what it wanted to be. In the beginning and middle it was going out of its way to reason with the audience that these guys aren't just a couple of kooks with mental issues like the media sensationalized. Though by its close they left the story up in the air and ambiguous with the young woman being either deeply moved or having a change of heart. It makes me believe she was only included as a ploy for the writers to speak through her and then at the end decided it was time enough to let the audience choose. Not to mention at an inopportune time as it ends abruptly and doesn't show what happened next. (See my profile and click chronological for the second review of "Cannibal" or the third review "Downloading Nancy.") (Also submitted on http://fromblacktoredfilmreviews.blogspot.com/)