The perversely erotic and profoundly shocking films of punk provocateur Jörg Buttgereit offer some of the most extreme experiences in all of cinema. Best known for 1987’s notorious NEKROMANTIK, about a femme fatale’s craving for cold flesh, his movies have rarely been topped in their taboo-smashing excesses – but while their reputation stands strong decades on, they are still poorly understood. The Miskatonic Institute of Horror Studies is proud to present this candid conversation with the enfant terrible behind some of our beloved genre’s most stomach-churning, yet surprisingly complex films.
Raised in the shadow of the Berlin Wall, Jörg Buttgereit launched diabolical DIY productions best remembered for their grisly FX, Mondo-style verite, and savage antisociality. Even hardened horror fans have shrunk from the brutality of films like DER TODESKING, Buttgereit’s nightmarish meditation on suicide, and SCHRAMM, a riff on TAXI DRIVER that satirizes society’s obsession with serial killers. However, gutsy viewers will find that these graphic spectacles have a cleverness, and even a political conscience, that cuts through the apathy and irony exhibited by Buttgereit’s cast of desensitized degenerates.
Join Miskatonic’s Online Branch Director Claire Donner for this provocative conversation with the iconic Jörg Buttgereit, about his work, his influences, and his reflections on horror’s past, present, and future. Anchored by clips from his groundbreaking films, this discussion will be followed by a Q&A in which viewers can finally ask all of their burning questions about Buttgereit’s uniquely challenging body of work. At a time when horror discourse is fraught with ethical quandaries, and fascism is on the rise globally, this uncompromising filmmaker and his unflinching filmography have much to offer modern genre fans.
Jörg Buttgereit is a German playwright, theatre director, and director of some of the most notorious and controversial films of all time. The so-called “trash poet” and “punk surrealist” behind the shockers NEKROMANTIK parts 1 and 2, DER TODESKING, and SCHRAMM has also brought his uncompromising vision to the stage, and helmed some fifteen radio plays for Westdeutscher Rundfunk. His superhero character Captain Berlin appears regularly in publications from Weissblech Comics.
