Nekromantic 2(1991)(Review) - Gruesome Gazette

About a year ago, I had covered Jörg Buttgereit’s necrophiliac love story, ‘Nekromantik’. I’ve finally decided to dive back into his world for his controversial sequel to this hit film – a film that had pissed off the German government upon release and almost led to the director serving prison time for exploitation and filming sensitive material dubbed as ‘an obscenity to the public.’ But during trial, the judge had ultimately ruled in the director’s favor by calling this specific film art, and saying that by extension Jörg Buttgereit was an artist – protecting him of all convictions.

‘Nekromantik 2’ takes place shortly after the first film (beginning with a flashback of the final moments of the first, where Rob the protagonist had taken his own life). However, this time we are following a female nurse named Monika, who opens the film by exhuming Rob’s grave and robbing his corpse. She brings him back to her apartment and attempts to sleep with him. As she is trying to cope with her decisions and adapt to her savory tastes, a man named Mark enters her life in a rather meet-cute way and they pursue a relationship together. So now, Monika is juggling the romances between her and Mark, and the rotting corpse of Rob.

This film is a strange one – and not necessarily because of the grim, gothic romance at the heart of it – but because it is genuinely an art film. There is perhaps a total of 20 minutes-worth of dialogue throughout the entire film. Instead, the story is told through beautiful visuals, physical performances, and a balancing act between the beauty of life and death itself.

Minus the necrophilia, Monika is a rather normal person on the surface. And so things become complicated in Mark’s eyes long before he even begins to understand what Monika is mentally and emotionally dealing with. It’s honestly a beautiful film that plays out more like a drama than a horror film, but naturally, the contents within the film are what push it into horror territory. The corpses are disgusting and putrid to a degree you can smell through the screen, the colors in every scene are vibrant and complimentary, and the story being told mostly through set dressing and facial expressions is a delicate way to tell a story with such heavy subject matter.

See the film Germany didn’t want you to see – it’s rather harmless, it’s just a beautifully dark love story, after all. And I honestly think I liked it more than the first. Especially the explosive finale.

4/5
“Nekromantik 2” is available to stream on Shudder, or available on limited edition Blu-Ray via Arrow Video.

‘Til Next Time,
Mike Cleopatra