Auf bösem Boden

There are various ways to interpret "On Evil Grounds", the mental state of seriousness definitely NOT being one of them. This incredibly low-budgeted and amateur produced "new-age Grindhouse" movie is completely shameless, vulgar, tasteless, nonsensical, offensive and demented. At the festival where I attended the Belgian premiere, writer/director Peter Koller – as well as half of the film's cast – was present and he himself described the film as a psychotic survival-version of … "Romeo and Juliet". Yeah, okay! Who knows what to expect from a vague and bizarre one-line summery like that? Only five minutes far into the film, however, and you'll have to admit it's a pretty accurate description! We follow a young couple referred to as Romeo and Juliet. He's a sadistic freak in desperate need of anger management and she's a hopeless romanticist with insatiable sexual desires. They're looking for a loft to settle down together but run into a pair of freaks that are even crazier then themselves. The real estate agent and his boss, some kind of inbred car technician, use the loft to lure young couples, capture them and subsequently submit them to sheer torture. Romeo literally ends up to his neck in trouble, but he's not exactly an obedient hostage and Juliet won't surrender without putting up a fight, neither. The comparisons between "On Evil Grounds" and Tex Avery's lifework are more than justified. The filming style, sense of humor and especially the violence in this movie are very cartoonesque. In terms of exploitation/horror cinema, this translates as OTT extreme vulgarity and splatters that yet never once feels disturbing or even remotely scary. Peter Koller and C° are simply out to disgust people and succeed quite well, I may add. There's random vomiting, wife beating, rough sex, bondage and the wildest masturbation scene ever filmed. Needless to say "On Evil Grounds" isn't a very good film story-wise, but it uses some terrific locations, ingenious set pieces and inventive photography. The limited cast gives away enthusiast performances and Peter Koller obviously knows his horror/spaghetti western/euro-trash classics.

'On Evil Grounds' clearly shows, what is possible if you are a passionate filmmaker. Without large budget, Peter Koller made it to create an absolutely extraordinary movie, which contains new, funny and sometimes absurd ideas. The good cast leaves no doubt about that movie, especially Kari Rakkola in his role as a psychopathic but pitiable killer is just perfect.

I saw the movie and the director at the 'Diagonale' film festival in Graz and I was thrilled by such a great genre mix. Solid trash horror elements mixed with totally funny scenes make 'On Evil Grounds' a movie that you want to see again.

Thumbs up for the young digital film-making community!

'On Evil Grounds' is a great popcorn fun flick to watch! The genre being grindhouse/a bit horror-thriller/comedy delivered in a 70's Italo-Western look, I enjoyed watching this independent movie. What really caught my attention though, was the fact - I happened to learn about it afterward - that the apparent budget was only 50K (ok,...Euros, but still)! It did catch my attention, because the on screen production value compares to that of much higher budgeted films. Me, being an independent filmmaker myself, I have to give 'hands up' to the crew for achieving this. I suppose the reason it only gets a high 7 out of 10 from me has mainly to do with the script!

Not having a big budget was not the main problem in the production of this movie. It's the lack of talent and ideas that make it so extremely bad. The acting is so over the top that it becomes annoying after 30 seconds. The camera moves like a madman, thinking this is the way to make your movie look cool. The colors and lighting only add to the cheapness. The main problem is the story, which isn't one. It just drags along, one stupid fight after another. Not anyone in the theater was laughing even once.

And only for trying to make a rape scene funny, this movie deserves to be called worthless.

I visited Germany a while last year, conventions, shopping and holiday so it was time to catch some movies coming Germany/Swiss/Austria that aren't available in our country. Packed with a few bags this is the first one I watched as a double disc edition. The storyline is simple, girl wants that her boyfriend buys her a loft. But the guy don't want it to buy but after a while he did but things get wrong. He's very aggressive and he ends up killing some one, won't spoil it. But things get worser. It is a funny but also a hard storyline. the blood flows sometimes but it is the acting and the editing that makes this movie one of a kind. It's spoken in German but it do has his English subs. It isn't horror at all, sometimes it made me think of the funny scene's in Natural Born Killers. Anyway, a simple storyline but worth watching if you aren't offended easily.