Heisses Blut oder Vivienne del Vargos' letzter Vorhang

I saw this Horror-Drama at a festival in Hamburg, Germany at a midnight screening nearly a year ago and I have to say it worked rather well.

It has a great and unique style and more important it has a lot of respect for it's characters which is very unlikely for a movie with drag artists. Once you're in the movie it doesn't matter anymore that the lead actress Gerome Castell might be a man (...), she fills the screen convincingly and you believe every word she's saying. Extra Kudos to the composer of the great score and Songs.

Whenever you have the opportunity to see this little gem of a movie don't let it pass you by!

This trashy gem has definitely nothing to do with Georg Jacoby's romantic motion picture from the 30's. Instead we see a rather bizarre story surrounding a young couple who inherits an old castle, in which all possible and ,more importantly, impossible creatures reside... ...altogether with so-called ominous Vivienne del Vargos, who is drunk all the time and pretends to be a silent-movie film-star! But underneath it all this is much more than the average mindless trash, actually you do care about these loving characters who try to escape their situation to live a much deserved better life. A wonderful old-fashioned movie from the Berlin-Underground Scene which was slightly overlooked during it's short theatrical-release.

A filthy comedy about a struggling ex-filmstar from the silent era and her monstrous colleagues could've been a rather grotesque pleasure. And even a whole bunch of Berlin Underground-Artists including Ades Zabel do their surprisingly best to act against a rather non-existent script. But after the astounding opening-sequence and besides some truly nice moments, even a combination of rather funny songs cannot hide the fact that the only thing this would-be shocker in the end really delivers is boredom!

To me, director Ingo Heise is the German equivalent of John Waters. "Heisses Blut...", his first feature film after his TV show "Rich and Scary", is a highly entertaining mixture of horror, comedy, musical, and sexploitation adventure.

Berlin's Underground stage star Ades Zabel stars in a rather unusual part as Norman, who inherits an old castle haunted by singing werewolves, a nostalgic mummy, and an aging movie star from the silent film era, hilariously played by Gerome Castel. Lilo Wanders has a beautifully staged cameo, and David Winter-Extra gives a knock-out sexy-as-hell performance as a dancing, naked elf.

You will not regret watching this close-to-no-budget entertainment. Not for one second, this film pretends to be more than it is - cheeky fun. Which is more than most German films nowadays have to offer. Get the DVD. You will laugh your butts off.