User reviews

Enfant terrible Schlingensief's view on the relationship between West and East Germans (Wessies and Ossies) is a very black, trash and low-budgeted horror film in which the Ossies are massacred and eaten by the Wessies; that is the way Schlingensief sees relationships between people in general. The story (such as there is) is hard to follow; Schlingensief seems more interested in showing atmosphere. Very gory horror effects, quite some faces are beaten to mash.

There are some nice scenes, like the 5 former GDR customs officers who think the GDR still exists, but on the whole watching this film takes quite some perseverance not for the over the top horror (thàt over the top that it is hardly shocking), but for its heavy handed direction, ditto photography (very tiresome at moments), its grim view on life and lack of humour. On the other hand: to Mr. Schlingensief these four aspects may be going hand in hand, which would mean that he at least succeeded in making a very personal film. Hard core vegetarians better be ware.

This film is not disturbing, scary, thought-provoking, or even remotely funny. It's like a mash-up of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre 2 and Pink Flamingos. People run around screaming--not out of fright but rather for no apparent reason--doing and saying supposedly "outrageous" things meant to provoke shocked laughter. It is just tiresome and extremely boring.

The gore is very poorly done, in the H. G. Lewis manner. Animal innards are simply placed on top of the actors to suggest disembowelments and such. The best thing I could say about it is that it is surprisingly polished and professional looking for a one hour "art" film. What I had expected and hoped to find however was something gritty and grimy-looking, such as the original The Texas Chain Saw Massacre.

The German horror scene has produced many an entertaining low-budget splatterfest, but The German Chainsaw Massacre is not one of them: it is totally unworthy of its 'Chainsaw Massacre' title, being about as far removed from the excellence of Tobe Hooper's classic as possible.

Writer director Christoph Schlingensief attempts to combine political satire (about the reunification of Germany) with extreme violence and outrageous sleaze, but the film is a complete failure: it's a messy, incomprehensible assault on the senses that features ugly characters screaming and shouting at each other for just over an hour, with some inept bargain-basement gore thrown in for good measure. At least Olaf Ittenbach's films had decent special effects.

Udo Kier appears in this garbage; he wears a ridiculous curly wig and screams and shouts with the rest of them. If this isn't his worst film, I'd hate to see what is (maybe one of the director's other films that also feature Kier?).

A homemade gore flick from Germany that might better be called THE GERMAN CHAINSAW MASSACRE. An East German refugee lands in the hands of a family of butchers and cannibals. One of those films with no restraint or sense, instead just overwhelming the viewer with constant gore and screaming. Pitifully cheap and extremely annoying with it.

In "German Chainsaw Massacre" we meet a butcher family.They recognize cheap meat in the East Germans passing over the old border into the West and begin turning them into sausage.Clara fleeing the murder of her sleazy husband and the decaying East lands in the hands of butchers.She is kept alive because the daughter of the family falls in love with her."German Chainsaw Massacre" is a satirical splatter flick that offers lots of cheap gore.It's full of political overtones and owes a lot to Tobe Hooper's horror classic "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre".I enjoyed this low-budget horror comedy and you should too,if you are a fan of German gore and absurdity.

Surrealistic, semi-expressionistic absurd. I like it. Montage is very well rounded. Some cuts are really exceptions. Film in total works on dream logic, but it doesn't really represent anything important.

This film has to be understood in the correct context; Schlingensief did not try to make a splatter movie, he just uses elements of the splatter genre, just as in other movies he used pieces of "new German cinema", neorealism, and so on. His objective I think was to make a truthful film about the so-called German reunification, and if its weird, confusing, brutal, tasteless, and very badly acted, this only adds to its truthfulness, because that is what the "reunification" actually was like. Christoph Schlingensief made the first honest and adequate film on this event from Germany's most recent history, and up to date it remains the only one.

I enjoyed this more than the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre (got sick of the woman screaming for 30 mins) the German re-unification theme is very interesting, with out of work boarder guards still trying to hassle people & people moving from the East to West going missing. low budget, gory (but not very realistic effects, but that's OK, its low budget). its quite demented. I enjoyed it.