Black Past (1989 Video) User Reviews (18)

Messy in every way possible.

[BA_Harrison · 6/10 · 4 October 2022]

After moving into a new home, Thommy (played by German splatter-meister Olaf Ittenbach) finds an old mirror in the attic which causes him to suffer from violent visions before eventually transforming him into a bloodthirsty demon.

This was Olaf Ittenbach's first horror movie, and he starts as he means to go on, delivering rudimentary direction, lousy writing and awful acting, but making up for the film's many technical shortcomings with loads and loads of enthusiastic and well-executed splatter.

For a long while, the most horrific things about Black Past are Ittenbach's monobrow, mullet and moobs -- but hang on in there, because Olaf eventually gives gorehounds what they want, namely bucket-loads of stomach-churning special effects.

The first splattery set piece sees Thommy dismembering the reanimated body of his dead girlfriend Petra (Andrea Arbter), a scene clearly 'inspired' by Sam Raimi's classic The Evil Dead. It may be very derivative, but it's done extremely well -- although it pales in comparison with what follows, a gory vision that involves some brutal genital mutilation and other assorted nastiness.

Having ripped off Raimi, Ittenbach proceeds to imitate Lamberto Bava's Demons with Thommy's transformation into a hideous toothy monster. And this is where things get really messy... Demon Thommy uses scissors, knife, machete and chainsaw to chop up his family and friends, Ittenbach's camera lovingly capturing every nauseating detail.

Eventually, Demon Thommy is defeated by his friend Frankie (André Stryi), who plants an axe in his possessed pal's abdomen (causing his entrails to slide out) and then sends him crashing into the cursed mirror. With the mirror broken, Thommy disintegrates in another scene inspired by The Evil Dead.

6/10. Black Past is by no means a good film, but the impressive effects kept this particular gorehound happy.

N. B. This film must have the slowest scrolling end credits that I have ever seen.

home made cult classic

[trashgang · 6/10 · 9 October 2008]

The eighties was the time of the slashers and the goreflicks. Germany became know due to Buttgereit and Ittenbach. Buttgereit made some weird ones , Ittenbach the gory ones. This is his first one and appearing himself as the main character. The home made one starts of extreme slow and nothing happens, although the first minute was promising, a child killed by an axe. But when his girlfriend becomes possessed the movie really starts. Olaf had some weird dreams were his girlfriend reappears from the dead, again and again, just like Raimi's Evil Dead. That's where the movie becoming a real gore classic, amounts of blood is flowing, bodies are mutilated, a real mess. So that's why Olaf became a cultdirector, he made a lot of other classics like Burning Moon and House of Blood and of course the real gory one Premutos. A keeper

"Z" movie HardGore

[buchass · 5/10 · 23 September 2007]

For all ultra-gore fans, "Black Past" its a "Z" home-made flick, the screenplay is ridiculous, but who cares, what we care, is the ultra gore and sadistic scenes.

Its Olaf Ittenbach first flick, and i think thats is pretty good, for an ultra amateur movie. The special effects are superb, the acting is terrible, the footage too, but the all point of this flick is too shock with brutal graphic violence.

If you like "Black Past", i recommend: "Burning Moon" and "Premutos" (two flicks from Olaf Ittenbach), "Evil Dead"(Sam Raimi), "VS3:Infantry of Doom"(Andrea Schnnas)

80s homemade at it's best

[eer85 · 9 January 2005]

Among the other German homemade-splatter videos, Ittenbach's BLACK PAST is one of the best: very well done, especially if you consider all the limits of the video technology at that time. The same can be said about the special effects, entirely done by Ittenbach himself: they're quiet impressive and realistic, not like the red paint and cardboard used by Schnaas in his debut video (of the same year) VIOLENT SH*T. The cinematography and the acting are on a amateur level, but this is obvious and we can't blame it. The story is maybe a little bit slow at the beginning, but its short running time (something like 45 minutes) gives it a good rhythm and keeps it away from becoming boring.

Best seen before diner!

[Coventry · 4/10 · 21 February 2012]

"Black Past" is the type of film that you will never watch in case you're a normal human being with regular and healthy cultural interests. This film, as well as Olaf Ittenbach's entire repertoire for that matter, will only be seen by horror insiders and fans of underground cult cinema. This was Ittenbach's very first film. His main inspiration clearly was "The Evil Dead", but unfortunately our German friend only shares Sam Raimi's enthusiasm and not his talent. And still, Ittenbach definitely deserves a certain sort of respect, because at young and fragile age of 20, he pulled it off almost entire by himself. Olaf writes, stars, directs, edits, produces and designs the special effects. And even though it took him nearly a decade before he delivered his second film "Burning Moon", Ittenbach is now a more or less reliable cult director with a selective yet very loyal fan base. Most of his movies are crap, especially stuff like "Legion of the Dead" or "House of Blood", but he's somewhat of a cult icon.

Anyways! Ittenbach depicts the lead character Tommy, and for some peculiar reason he insists on introducing himself with an overly close- up shot of his naked butt-cheeks. He shows off his skinny booty at several moments throughout the film, by the way, and at a certain point I'm actually even sure that he wore ladies' underwear… Shortly after moving into a new home with his family, Tommy stumbles upon an antique mirror in the attic. Too bad the mirror homes a demon that, for more than a century already, torments the tenants of the house where once a little boy died from starvation. True, I've definitely seen horror movies of which the basic premise was a lot more stupid, but I haven't seen so many that were accomplished so cheap and cheesy as "Black Past"! During the first 30-40 minutes, practically nothing happens. Now I can tolerate a lot of gratuitous gore and clumsy make-up effects, but the two things I absolutely cannot stand are amateurish ugly teenage "actors" that stare straight into the camera and an overload of pointless padding footage, like compilations of classroom activities or a young couple visiting the zoo (complete with atrocious musical guidance, of course). There are even collages in which you can see the characters talk to each other, but we can't hear the conversation. I truly hate that! Remember also that it was still the 1980's, so a large share of the cast – including Olaf Ittenbach – has a mullet and wears the dumbest colorful outfits. And since the first half hour is so boring, I even paid attention and got hugely irritated by the awful sound effects and editing quality. Seriously, you can hear birds singing inside a hermetically sealed off kitchen and the sound of footsteps follow approximately five seconds after the character stands still already.

"Black Past" only becomes (temporarily) worthwhile as soon as Tommy's possessed girlfriend throws herself in front of a car and he becomes plagued with horrifying visions of bloodied faces, rotting corpses and his own disemboweled dead girlfriend coming back from the dead over and over again. The film most certainly features some very depraved scenes, like a blade shoved up a girl's crotch or a nail hit right through a penis, but the slightly squeamish people among us don't have to worry too much. The gore might be sick and twisted, but it's never at one point shocking or disturbing. Ittanbach completely goes over-the-top during the last fifteen minutes of the film with extreme gore and a nicely deranged variety of "how to butcher my entire cast of befriended volunteers" ideas! The finale sure does evoke plenty of laughter!

Fun little to end with: two totally different and not-so-resembling actors play the role of Tommy's father. Suddenly and without apparent reason, the father is 20 years young and lost his mustache!

Sometimes funny, always cruel, a yet unrefined Ittenbach

[Horst_In_Translation · 4/10 · 14 August 2016]

"Black Past" is a West German German-language film from 1989 and it is actually how (in)famous writer and director (and also lead actor here) Olaf Ittenbach lost his innocence as a filmmaker, in the truest sense of the word. This was his first work as a movie maker and the film will soon have its 30th anniversary. I cannot say I know any of the other actors in here sadly, but this is something frequent during his career. There are no famous actors in his films. These films are not about the range or about the performances, but all about the gore and also about the comedy that comes with it. This is Ittenberg's usual recipe and most of the time it is working in a way that the film is watchable. This opinion comes from somebody who has almost no interest in gore and splatter horror films, so i was a bit surprised that Ittenberg films were still kinda likable to me. You can easily see his approach in this old film here too. Especially the idea between mixing brutal slaughter with over-the-top harmless scenes, for example a man gets brutally while we see his wife take care of the laundry in the next room, is something that Ittenbach did many times in his career. All in all, it is a solid achievement for a 20-year-old filmmaker and you can easily recognize the director's style, but overall I still give it a thumbs-down. Not recommended.

More like Red Past

[ElijahCSkuggs · 7/10 · 9 February 2009]

This is Olaf's debut flick and just like his others, it's chock full of of the grue. Well, not chock full, but when it gets violent, it gets seriously gruesome. Yeeeaaaahhh, baay-buh!!

Story revolves around young Thommy ((with an H)played by Olaf) who's falling in love with his dream girl. All is well until Olaf discovers a chained up chest in his attic that holds a mirror and a diary of sorts telling some very grim stories of the houses' past. Not thinking any of the mirror besides it looking cool, he hangs it up. But this mirror isn't like any other mirror. It's wicked evil. Hell, it's even evilly wicked. Things start going awry fast and the mirror is starting to set up poor Thommy into going down the same the paths the old inhabitants of the mirror went through. Uh-oh spaghettios!

Black Past was a pretty solid debut for Olaf. The only real gripe for myself was the pacing of the film. There were some scenes that were complete wastes of time. Just shots of Thommy walking here and there. Or him just sitting there. That may work with fantastic acting, but since there wasn't any here, it was very tedious. There were a few nice scenes of splatter before the hour mark, but once it hits the 1:00, it's pretty much clear sailing in a sea of red.

With nods to Evil Dead and probably a couple other flicks, Olaf seemed to know what he was doing right from the get go. If you're a fan of his other flicks, there's no reason not to check out this one as well. One of the more memorable splatter debuts, and a must see for fans of the messy-kind.

I wanted a good movie.

[WeYreAoung · 1/10 · 9 November 2013]

But I didn't get one. Instead, I get a debut film from gore master, Ittenbach, back when he was a teen. Yes, you heard folks, Ittenbach was at his teen years when this was made, and boy did he have a sick, twisted mind; and he does prove that by making the most god- awful of debuts, BLACK PAST, which wants to be the new EVIL DEAD (the movie that stars Bruce Campbell, that stunk too), because he drags scenes too long, like when Thommy (why is there even an H I will never know) kills his girlfriend, who was suddenly possessed by the devil of the mirror he stupidly took from a wooden box, that keeps coming back and we just wonder where we've seen this already.

Now let's get to reviewing to this "video". The acting is terrible. Ittenbach might not have heard of a take, because these people cannot act. The story isn't even good, like really? A mirror with a dark past which is possessed by the devil by what? We never know because this movie lacks logic. There is tons of gore (like if you want to call it that) thrown over this movie you might want to be screwed over by it, but sadly I'm not one. The main character, Thommy is a whiny idiot. How's it going over there being a drama queen, you bad actor? What? You're not as good as Tom Savini?

Olaf Ittenbach's First shot of gore, with shades of Evil Dead

[crimsonmaskvideo · 10/10 · 5 April 2001]

I am a huge Ittenbach fan, I love Premutos and Burning Moon was pretty cool as well. Ittenbach himself stars in this movie. The version i have is not subtitled and is in german, so i have no idea what is going on. Its starts in the past with some guy killing a little girl, later on Olaf finds this mirror and it somehow starts crazy stuff. First his girlfriend is hit by a car and she later comes back to life. This is the part of the movie where you know Olaf is inspired by Sam Raimi's Evil Dead. He tries and tries to kill her again, but she keeps coming back. Olaf finally turns into a sort of demon and kills everybody off. There is even a cool scene in hell, while not as graphic as Burning Moons Hell Sequence, it still has some cool gore scenes. If you like Gore, then check this movie out, as well as other Olaf Ittenbach movies . Don't expect to come away from this movie knowing the whole story unless you know german. Great movie!

the creepiest Ittenbach movie I've seen...and my favorite

[S_Craig_Zahler · 7/10 · 6 November 2011]

This is low budget shot on video German splatter, starring the writer/director/special effect guy, Olaf Ittenbach.

No small amount of this movie originated in The Evil Dead, but rather than look at The Black Past like a typical narrative movie, I'd suggest approaching it like a Halloween haunted house with gory set pieces and an intensely nasty depiction of hell.

Unlike most of his later movies, which push toward bigger ideas (and don't work as well), this is a simple piece that builds to intensely gory happenings. It is a bit too slow and the performances aren't there at all, but when things get surreal and vicious, the experience is a vibrant and charged gore cornucopia that will leave a lasting impression. You'll need to forgive a lot in this film, but like the very different movies of Werner Herzog and John Waters and H.G. Lewis and Harmony Korine, Black Past is an experience and a spectacle more than it is a traditional narrative film and those looking for a dungeon of gore, where "Hell = Creative Torture" may forgive Ittenbach's shortcomings as a traditional filmmaker...something that is less forgivable when he attempts to make traditional films (albeit ones crammed with gore).

((I found Premutos a bit dull after a while, and House of Blood and the Haunting of Rebecca Verlaine, sporadically engaging.))

Ittenbach's other recommendable movie, The Burning Moon, is similarly strong-- and expands upon the man's visual conception of "Hell = Creative Torture," though it is also a bit more bloated. And Brian Paulin's Fetus and Bone Sickness explore this dungeon and are better in most regards.

Bring a barf bag

[BandSAboutMovies · 3/10 · 7 January 2022]

Olaf Ittenbach did everything on this and stars as Thommy, whose family moves into a new house, upon which he discovers a cursed mirror and diary. Man, this is why I was glad my family never moved, because I was barely able to deal with the revelation that the family that lived in our house before kept one of their kids locked in one of the rooms upstairs so that no one would discover that they had had a mentally challenged child.

So anyways, this mirror and diary turn young master Thommy into a crazed killer and then, unrelated but we can assume that the wheels of fate and karma and movies have connected column A with column B, we soon watch his girlfriend Petra die in a car accident and then rise from the dead.

If you dug Olaf's The Burning Moon then you're going to love this. Spoiler warning: a cock gets nailed to a board and sprays a lot of blood. The more tender of the menfolk out there may want to skip that.

Gory as f**k!!!

[RectalGORE · 10/10 · 6 March 2005]

Ittenbach's Black Past is can easily be categorized as one of the goriest films that has ever filmed. It contains so much gore that you cannot help being delighted! There are zombies, serial killers and some other kind of creepy monsters.

The story is quite shitty, but who really cares while there is much GORE! Basically, it's indeed an Evil Dead rip-off, but it's ten time gorier than the Evil Dead. Not only isn't the acting bad, the dialogues are bad too, but then again, who cares? GORE is the name of the game and if you are in favour of it, don't think twice!!! Black Past has been made just for you! 10/10 (it could be 0/10 if it weren't so gory heh)

A great example of independent horror!

[alleywayhorror · 7/10 · 5 November 2021]

I jumped into Olaf Ittenbach's content with The Burning Moon and I was surprised with it. But, this one, oh boy this one is way bloodier, heavier, and intense. Scenes of brutal mutilation and insanity wrapped up in a mirror to another realm that shows us what insanity really is.

Olaf stars in this neat little gore feature and his acting is sublime for an independent horror from the late 80s. Not to mention making all of the gore effects himself and directing the movie. It truly shows what you can do if you put your mind and passion into it.

Low budget gore effects showcase

[Leofwine_draca · 4/10 · 24 November 2015]

German underground director Olaf Ittenbach's first full-length feature is an almost plot less shot-on-video movie with bad production values and great special effects. Splatter fans will get their money's worth here with a never-ending stream of gore effects which first show up around the half-hour mark and never let up from there. Despite the low budget and amateurish nature of the movie the special effects are actually very good and to a professional standard. The film features tons of mayhem with lots of arms and legs being chopped off, impalings, guts falling out, chainsaw dismemberments and the like. Blood and gristle flows everywhere and the last half an hour of the film goes way over the top with non-stop carnage and murder as Ittenbach turns into a demon and goes around slaughtering all of his family members and friends in various splattery ways.

Unfortunately as a viewer I need something to go with my special effects, like a story perhaps or some action a la BLADE II, another showcase for gore which worked due to a tense plot and great fights. BLACK PAST doesn't have a story, at least after the first half an hour. The excuse for all the mayhem is a cursed mirror which causes a man to murder his own child in the prologue and which Ittenbach discovers in his attic. Immediately his girlfriend dies and returns as a zombie to haunt Ittenbach in scenes which are directly lifted from THE EVIL DEAD, right down to the disturbing laughing noises the girl makes as she attacks him. Whole sequences are copied from the Raimi classic as well as other effects and shots being lifted from EVIL DEAD 2 and DEMONS. After cutting his girlfriend's head off for the third time, Ittenbach is temporarily relieved of the horror, but begins to suffer nasty nightmares including a horrible bit where he slashes his body all over with a straight razor.

At this point he turns into a gooey monster and the blood flows until the credits roll. Outside of the gore effects, BLACK PAST shows little imagination. Here, Ittenbach is obviously acting more as an effects technician than a director, concentrating on the elaborate mayhem at the expense of pace, story or dialogue. The acting is appalling but this is to be expected; what I didn't expect was to be bored by the latter half of the film. Disturbed, disgusted perhaps, yes, but not bored. Sadly the gore is all samey and once you've seen ten minutes of it it doesn't hold much interest. Occasionally some imagination pops up (the bleeding doll/burning pram scene) only to disappear again in another exhausting welter of blood and guts carnage. BLACK PAST deserves ten out of ten for the brilliant SFX but one out of ten for everything else.

Amazing gorehound delight...

[Indyrod · 8/10 · 26 June 2010]

This is the first movie directed by Olaf Ittenbach, and it is definitely a gorehound treasure. The story revolves around a mirror in a chained up chest in an attic, that when placed on the wall, opens up a can of ghoulish gore about as graphic as any gore movie I have ever seen. I just loved it. Yes, it's a low-budget straight to video film, but this is done extremely well, with gore effects that are mind-blowing. Olaf may have gotten a little inspiration from EVIL DEAD on this one, but he maintains an interesting story, good characters, and effects that are amazing, and even a decent soundtrack. This is splatter film making at its low-budget best, and I can't wait to watch the other Olaf movies I have now, and a couple still to come. I'm very impressed with his gore effects, it reminds me of the good old days back in the eighties when these gore movies were all over the place, but this one kicks major ass compared to most of those. This is definitely a gorehound delight.

One of the sickest movies I've seen....

[Zuluu · 8/10 · 18 January 2004]

As far as the story goes: Who cares! Some dark force captures someone who turns into some bad ass with a chain saw or something like that - exactly the kind of plot you need to show unnecessary violence and gore! Or better: GORE!!!!! Some sick stuff you can't put in a commercial movie because you wont be able to sell it anymore.

If you like splatter flics, watch this one uncut!

It Delivers What You'd Expect it To

[Michael_Elliott · 12 February 2017]

Black Past (1989)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Thommy (Olaf Ittenbach) and his family move into a new home and it doesn't take long before he gets a crush on a local girl. While all of this is going on he stumbles into the attack where he finds a box chained up. He breaks into it and finds a mirror, which he hangs up and soon enough all sorts of gory and crazy murders are happening.

Ittenbach's BLACK PAST is typical of the splatter slashers that were coming out of Germany during this era. If you're looking for great performances and high art then you're not going to find it here but, then again, why on Earth would you come to a film like this an expect that? If you're looking for non-stop gore and over-the-top and vile nastiness then Ittenbach certainly won't let you down.

The one thing that has always amazed me about these German splatter films is that they were filmed on peanuts yet they always managed to have wonderful special effects. Just compare the effects in this film to countless direct-to-VHS movies that were coming out of America. Rarely did those films feature any gore and what it did show were rather amateur effects. More times than not they simply had someone off camera shooting blood around. These special effects here are all rather creative and there's no question that they go highly over-the-top in the amount of gore.

You've pretty much got various decapitations, non-stop skin slashing, several scenes where eyes are damaged ala Lucio Fulci and there's no telling how many gallons of blood were used. Obviously if you have a weak stomach you will want to stay away from this film. The "story" itself isn't the greatest but it's good enough to keep you entertained whenever there isn't any gore going on.

Brilliant Debut...

[mayflower · 23 January 2003]

Brilliant debut by german gore favorit Ittenbach. It's a VERY well produced no budget splatter movie with all the Ittenbach characteristics, such as dumb german humor and of course over-the-top gore sequenses! It's just as good as Premutos and better than The Burning Moon and even better than the low budget Legion of the Dead, which was a real letdown. Be sure to get the Olaf Ittenbach Collection on DVD, with a new and restored version of this fantastic flick, together with Burning Moon, Premutos, the old version of Black Past as well as a bonus disc with trailers of his new flick Beyond the Limits (Looks really cool), behind the camera and so on.