Over the years, Balladeer’s Blog has reviewed several of Jorg Buttgereit’s envelope-pushing, taboo-breaking horror films. Because I review everything from the extreme fringes like Buttgereit (at left) to mild, even family-friendly items let me offer a warning for readers who don’t like extreme violence or extreme concepts. If you fall into that category, please DO NOT look up my long-ago reviews of Jorg’s most notorious films and then blast me because the subject matter appalls you. I am giving fair warning about what they’re like.
On the other hand, all readers might enjoy THIS look at some of Buttgereit’s much lighter – but still bizarre – productions, many from his days of guerilla film-making in West Berlin, covertly pulling off some footage on both sides of the Berlin Wall.
CAPTAIN BERLIN: RETTER DER WELT (1982) – Buttgereit was only 18 when he made this 10-minute short film. He wrote, directed and played the title superhero with Bela B. from the German punk band Die Ärzte co-starring as Mister Synth. This work about West Berlin’s only superhero fighting a monster from outer space is of interest only because of Buttgereit’s and Bela’s involvement.
Jorg’s youth and inexperience show in this fun, anarchic but amateurish effort. Back when this flick was first made, its satirical combination of Adam West’s Batman series with the low-budget charm of Ray Dennis Steckler’s Rat Pfink a Boo Boo and a “piss off” punk sensibility earned it a cult following. Here in 2023, such intentional camp has been done to death.
Decades later, Buttgereit would revive the Captain Berlin character in one of his stage show-radio show hybrids, titled Captain Berlin versus Hitler. That production – which I will review at some point in the future – was eventually filmed and released to theaters and on dvd.
HORROR HEAVEN (1984) – Jorg starred as an old-fashioned Horror Movie Host introducing several horror shorts of his own making in this 24-minute project. Buttgereit structured it as a salute to Boris Karloff but with some gore thrown in.
This production at last showed the flashes of genius in the future auteur with shorts about mummies, Frankenstein, a cannibal girl and Gazorra, a stop-motion item sending up Godzilla movies and starring Daktari Lorenz. Continue reading
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