For 35 years, Olaf Ittenbach has been one of Germany’s most resourceful filmmakers and a pioneer in shot-on-video horror and splatter. He used funds from his work as a dental technician for his debut feature, the Spectacle classic BLACK PAST.
Ittenbach has always had an eye/ear for relentless, shrieking pain. He takes clear influence from canon classics like THE EVIL DEAD, HELLRAISER, and DEAD ALIVE while adapting entirely new ways of seeing through the most primitive of camera tech, juxtaposed with detailed phantasmaGORical violence. His morbidly meticulous gore effects are made with clear passion—and as a direct response to the German government’s historically draconian views on violent movies. The man has even lent his SFX talents to fellow German directors like Timo Rose and cinema bad boy Uwe Boll.
This Spectober, Spectacle is proud to showcase three utterly depraved and infernal works from one of underground horror’s most prolific voices: THE BURNING MOON, PREMUTOS: THE FALLEN ANGEL, and NO REASON.
THE BURNING MOON
Dir. Olaf Ittenbach, 1992
Germany, 98 min.
In German with English Subtitles
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 4 – 5PM
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 12 – 7:30PM
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 22 – 10PM
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 31 – 10PM
WHEN THE MOON IS FULL, THE BLOOD TIDE RISES
Widely regarded as Ittenbach’s masterpiece, this is one of the strangest horror anthologies ever made. Produced not long after BLACK PAST, Ittenbach writes, directs, and co-stars, playing an ultra-dirtbag fictionalized version of himself, the delinquent Peter. When he isn’t flunking classes or taking part in ultra-violent teenage gang wars, he’s stuck babysitting his little sister. He decides to torment her with two twisted tales: one about a woman on a blind date from hell, the other about a serial killer priest who hopes to literally raise Hell. The picture is infamous for its deranged maximalist finale, a Dante’s Inferno-like descent into the putrid. THE BURNING MOON is a must-see for folks who yearn for homemade gore in their horror.
Taking a trip into hell on a skateboard that’s rolling over shattered glass and broken bones.
–Bob McCully, creator/host of the Split Your Head podcast
This movie will purify you.
–Annie Choi, Bleeding Skull
Special thanks to AGFA.
PREMUTOS: THE FALLEN ANGEL
Dir. Olaf Ittenbach, 1997
Germany, 115 min.
In German with English Subtitles
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 8 – 10PM
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 18 – 10PM
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 23 – 730PM
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 31 – 730PM
Before Lucifer… there was PREMUTOS
For his third film, Ittenbach and team were given the prestigious opportunity to film on 16mm. The results are the kind of nasty, lush spectacle that would make even g enre legends like Peter Jackson and Clive Barker blush. Ittenbach directs, writes, and stars, playing yet another German boy who accidentally unleashes satanic horrors. This time around, however, the humans attempt to fight back, creating a gleeful bloodbath that rivals the likes of DEAD ALIVE. PREMUTOS is the closest thing Ittenbach’s made to an epic.
139 Dead Bodies; 75 Zombies; 17 Exploding Heads; 6 Decapitations; 2 Breasts; 6 Crucifixions; 3 Burning Houses; 1 Exploding Car
–Brewce Longo, Bloodsick Productions
NO REASON
Dir. Olaf Ittenbach, 2010
Germany, 74 min.
In German with English Subtitles
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 10 – MIDNIGHT
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 16 – 10PM
MONDAY, OCTOBER 20 – 10PM
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 31 – MIDNIGHT
After experimenting in English-language productions for two films, Olaf Ittenbach returned to Germany to make the strangest movie of his career. NO REASON stars Irene Holzfurtner as the tormented Jennifer, an ordinary housewife living an ordinary day until mid-bath, she mysteriously descends into a bloodsoaked, sadistic underworld, guided by a Cthulhu-masked individual. What begins as a series of morbid tests devolves into a dive into Jennifer’s unreliable psyche. A blast of psychological “woman in trouble” pulp and cosmic horror, NO REASON takes Ittenbach’s usual narrative intrigue of damaged characters seeking truth through dismemberment and pushes it to its limit.
Special Thanks to Stephen Biro and Suzie from Unearthed Films