Revisiting Jörg Buttgereit's Der Todesking (1990) AKA The Death King years later and it's still a depressing viewing experience. The art house horror anthology is connected via a sequence of short films themed around death and suicide; each one representing a day of the week. Craig David's Seven Days it ain't!
The most upbeat scene in this doomfest is where a film degenerate like myself scans the aisles of classic films in a crummy video store; a much lamented ritual that was common for your host. This was a important tradition spanning from the early eighties until the local Blockbuster became a Greggs sometime in the mid noughties. Gutted! What isn't relatable is what follows afterwards as men will be crossing their legs when they witness what's on that fake Ilsa She Wolf of the SS film our protagonist rented.
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| Down with the Todesking! |
Perhaps the most surprising legacy about Der Todesking is the crude logo from the film being tatooed on the alabaster skins of numerous emo goths, doomer edge lords and other misguided crusties. These permanent ink stains, shared on social media, are a worse fashion faux pas than the video store clerk’s Timmy Mallet threads, in my opinion.
4 comments:
What's on the videotape then?
Our local video store was cool as was the local Spar. But I used to rent most movies from this bloke with a carboot full of movies who'd come around once a week and hire out 3 tapes for a fiver.
You can find out what's on the tape as it's unbelievably on YouTube.
There were loads of video rental shops in my old neighbourhood. I remember the first VHS to buy though was Raiders of the Lost Ark and it was over £100 to cop it.
😬🤮 I've gone blind after watching that. Frigging Gerries, man.
Used to think Buttgereit was one of the next big names in horror after Sam Raimi, how wrong was I?
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