Ex Drummer

Based on a story by infamous Belgian novelist Herman Brusselmans, Ex Drummer is a dismal, nihilistic trip into the world of three handicapped gentlemen who want to start a rock band.

The local battle of the bands is coming up and Koen, Jan & Ivan want to participate, the only problem is they don't have a drummer. They soon decide to ask local author Dries to join their band, thinking his celebrity status may give them a better chance at winning. Seeing as all the members have their own particular handicaps, they ask Dries what his is - it seems he can't play the drums.

The band is a motley crew indeed; vocalist / guitarist Koen is a horny, skinhead rapist with a horrible lisp, bassist Jan is gay with a paralysed right arm and an obsessive mother complex, and rhythm guitarist Ivan is a deaf junkie who treats his wife and child like sh!t. Dries accepts the invitation to join their band purely for his own amusement and in the hope that he'll get a story idea from it. They name their band The Feminists.

Ex Drummer overflows with glorious politically incorrect offensiveness: rape, pedophilia, rampant misogyny, racism, homophobia, infant death, incest… there's really something for everyone. Although with the misanthropic attitude and overall bleak atmosphere coexists a sense of the surreal and an undertone of pitch black comedy. For instance the scene where Big Dick, a member of a rival band with a horse-sized appendage, forces his wife to show her wrecked vagina to Dries, the two men literally walk around in her womb as Big Dick points out the tunnel he's carved out with his mammoth member. The film doesn't shy away from graphic violence either, particularly in the last quarter - there's some rather gruesome death scenes and an extremely bloody rape / castration.

Ex Drummer is quite technically accomplished and visually stunning at times too, bizarre sequences such as the one mentioned above don't really seem out of the ordinary when Koen the skinhead rapist lives upside down in his blood-splattered house, and some scenes are shot completely backwards. The camera-work and editing are utterly frenzied - especially during the final concert - with certain sequences being superimposed one on top of the another. The fantastic soundtrack deserves a mention here too, the film opens with the awesome Lighting Bolt track 2 Morro Morro Land and continues on with songs that complement the often harsh imagery on display. The bands in the film are actually quite decent also, they all have a similar lo-fi gutter-punk sound, and The Feminists do a wicked cover of DEVO's Mongoloid.

A highly impressive feature film debut from Koen Mortier and a must see for fans of transgressive cinema.

For the portion of Herman Brusselmans's oeuvre I've read, the movie gave me quite the same feelings as his books. Is that a good thing? It is if you like the man's early work. It shares the very cynical humorous comments the protagonist dispenses in reaction to the other character's actions, as well as his patronizing lecturing towards the young attractive females.

None of the characters are even remotely likable. They're antisocial, immoral sometimes even homicidal ugly bastards and bitches. A normal conversation between them is simply impossible, insults and curses galore. At times it can get a bit cartoonesque.

Is it funny? Yes. Well, funny crude. Everything is quite over the top: the nudity, the violence and especially the music, which saves the film for a great deal. The soundtrack is an amalgam of Belgian and international noise rock, with some softer tracks to ease the pace.

I found it 90 minutes well spent, even if it dragged on a bit too long in the end.

EX DRUMMER is about a group of three very sick, handicapped punks who are in a punk band, practicing to play a single concert at the battle of the bands. They recruit a famous renowned writer to be their drummer. However, once he becomes part of their group he decides to take advantage of his being higher up on the social spectrum than they are and begins to manipulate them and turn them against each other. Soon they begin to lash out at each other, but this drummer's actions soon have unexpected consequences.

EX DRUMMER is an ultimately fascinating and furious piece of work. As a film, EX DRUMMER is one hell of a sick rush. I will state right now that about 95% of people who will see it will find it to be either the most disturbing film ever made or the most offensive or both. Personally, it doesn't quite reach that honor in my mind, but regardless of all that I do think that it's one of the funniest films I've seen in years and certainly one of the all time greatest black comedies. When I mean black, I mean pitch black. Blacker than coal. Black as ultimate evil.

I rarely find the content that is depicted in this film to ever be funny, but this film pushes everything to such an extreme that it becomes ultimately surreal in it's humorous nature. EX DRUMMER is such an extreme, taboo breaking, and brave film that one has to feel at least appreciative of it's success in milking so much humor out of it's grotesque horror.

The three main characters are sick. One beats and rapes people nonstop and has a skewed perspective as his view apparently is upside-down. His handicap is that he has a speech impediment, but who's to say that that's a real handicap? One is a homosexual who's mother is domineering and whose father is chained to his bed. He can't bend his arm due to a masturbation mishap. One is a deaf junkie who is also a wife beater and a father of a baby girl. His wife and child are both also junkies.

These are the most sympathetic characters however. The real monster of the film is the drummer. The drummer is rich and lives in a wonderful condo with his wife who brings other women to bed for them to have multiple sex partners with. Aside from these people, we also have a man named "Big Dick" who's penis is extremely large and dangerous. We also have a huge cast supporting cast of freaks, degenerates, queers, and general all around scum.

Imagine a combination of IRREVERSIBLE, TRAINSPOTTING, MAN BITES DOG, and DiG! and you'll have an idea as to what this film is like. This film is one of the goriest, most brutal, shocking, sexually explicit, bizarre, and gritty films I can say I've ever seen. However, it's such a fantastic and brave piece of film-making that it deserves to be admired for it's sheer reckless nature in it's extreme desires. Everyone, including black people, women, homosexuals, AND homophobic people all better beware. They might be offended by the content in this film.

I have rated 755 films on IMDb; I've watched many more, I suspect. Finally, a film has caused me to write a review out of pure respect to the creators.

If you like:

surreal cinema, extreme violence, dark humour, transitions from guilty laughs to gut-wrenching, sickening imagery, thought-provoking intelligent drama which superficially looks and sounds unintelligent

then you may well feel the same about this film as I do.

Quentin Tarantino is one of my all-time idols. If he had made this film the world would have raved about it.

A very raw movie that explains the life in a certain category of the population. Some people will be shocked watching this movie but this is reality. That kind of people exists. Be prepared when you see this movie. It's about racists, homophobia, disabled persons, violence, poverty, mistreating children. But there is also humor,lot of sarcasms. The movie was filmed in Ostend, my birth town and the place really fits to that movie. The soundtrack is also great. If you have the chance to see that movie don't hesitate. It give you a realistic view how some people live in the 21 th century. It also give you the chance to learn about Herman Brusselmans, the writer of the book.