Since "Lucker" has now been released by Synapse Video here in the U.S., I felt like a new review for the DVD release would be appropriate.
"Lucker" has been an (in)famous flick for over 20 years. Never released in the U.S., it could only be found as a multi-generational bootleg copy, the original negative long since destroyed. It made a huge splash in the late 80's because of the graphic content (remember, this is before "Nekromantik"), and I think it helped that the only copies available were blurry bootlegs. Viewed now with a little extra clarity, the effects are very poor.
The plot is so simple, I don't think I'm spoiling anything with this synopsis: a maniac escapes the hospital in search of the one surviving victim from his previous killing spree. Along the way, he encounters new victims as he searches for "the one that got away." There are a couple of decent gore scenes, and admittedly the corpse rape is pretty disgusting as long as you don't look too closely at the poor effects. Compared to "Nekromantik", this film just doesn't hold up. "Nekromantik" is much better filmed, of higher quality, and generally has better special effects.
One can even argue that Buttgereit backed off a little with his corpse sex as it is filmed with a blurred camera effect, as if to say, "You don't need every detail, just the idea of what is happening is sick enough." In contrast, John Lucker just hops on the corpse and grinds away--a much more depressing vision than "Nekromantik." This is probably the most disgusting as well as the most effective scene in the entire film.
But take away a couple of murders and the rape scene, and "Lucker" has absolutely nothing of interest to note. Mostly Lucker just wanders the streets in search of victims, but his ramblings are way too long and ultimately boring. The music is atrocious, the acting is non-existent, and as already mentioned, the plot is threadbare. In short, this film reminds me of a film I might make: I would want it to be gory and shocking, even over-the-top; however, it would be doomed to be bad because I have no knowledge of film-making and neither would the friends I might assemble to help me out. That's "Lucker" in a nutshell--very amateurish and poorly done.
The new DVD release comes with two versions of the film. One version is the original uncut version, taken from a Dutch VHS dupe. It's dubbed in English with Dutch subtitles, but for horror completists, it is a great gem to have as it represents the only original English-language version of what is essentially a "lost" film since the negative has been confirmed to have been destroyed. The second version is a "director's cut" but is essentially the same film, same plot, but with some new snippets filmed and added in while a couple of meaningless scenes have been removed.
The director's cut is certainly an oddity as it jumps from brand-new digital video footage to grainy, blurry, VHS footage. The new footage is meaningless as well--for example, extra shots of Lucker walking along the highway and shots of the elevator door with an "Out of Order" note on it. If I'm given money to re-shoot, you can bet I'm going out to re-shoot the important parts of the film, not the extraneous shots! The only good thing I can say is that the director's cut tightens the already-short film (74 mins.) to an even shorter 68 minutes.
The best DVD feature is an interview with the director who explains the background of the film and tells some stories about filming. I thought it was entertaining as well as enlightening.
All in all, this DVD is for hardcore horror completists only. Don't buy it just because you've never seen it--borrow a copy or rent from Netflix or something, because chances are you won't want to own it after you have viewed it.