Must Love Death

Directed by: Andreas Schaap
Cast: Sami Loris, Manon Kahle, Jeff Burrell, Peter Farkas, Philipp Rafferty, Lucie Pohl, Katjana Gerz, Tobias Schenke
Germany, 90 min
Toronto Theatrical Premiere

Must Love Death attemps to combine a romcom with torture porn. While that might sound like a good idea, the film fails at doing either genre justice. The romcom elements are flat and seem to act as nothing more than give reason for the story to take place. The torture porn elements are ok, with some decents gore, but we've all seen "ok" before. Audiences need to see "good" at the very least if the torture porn is to leave a lasting impression.

Norman is getting over a difficult breakup when Jennifer runs into him... literally... With her car. The two soon fall in love but due to a misunderstanding he takes off to the country heartbroken to participate in a joint suicide with some strangers. Unfortunately, it seems that the other parties involved weren't going to kill themselves at all. They just wanted to film and torture Norman. All tied up with nowhere to go, Norman doesn't know that Jennifer is trying desperately to reach him before two psychotic rednecks are able to have their way with him.

With humourous moments being few and far between (normally at the hands of the rednecks) this film simply fails to entertain. The funniest aspect of this German production is its insistance that the movie takes place in the US. There's bad footage of New Jersey/New York obviously shot without permits guerilla style mixed into professionally shot footage taken in Germany in non-descript places such as a forest. Add in that that everyone is speaking in English and the obvious fact that it isn't many (if not all) of the actors first language and the film seems to be trying too hard to give it a North American feel. I have a feeling that this may have been done in an attempt to give the film more international appeal as it didn't seem like this was done for laughs even if it did bring a smile to my face more than a few times.

Though I can't very well recommend the general public go see this in theaters or purchase it on DVD (though I do know there's a market out there for this type of film), it is the perfect festival film. This is the kind of film that Toronto After Dark is made for. Genre fans eat these kinds of films up and the only place you get to see things like Must Love Death on the big screen is at film festivals like Toronto After Dark. So while I don't think the film is anything to write home about, it is something handcore genre fans can sink their teeth into as an appetizer before chowing down a their main course.