"Amoklauf" is a German film from 1994, so this one will soon have its 25th anniversary and it was written and directed by Uwe Boll before the age of 30, so still relatively early in his career. It runs for about an hour, so it certainly is not a long film at all and in the cast list, you will find several actors that have worked with Boll on other occasions like Kahrmann, who is probably the most known from the bunch. But he is not in the center of it. The main character is played by Michael Rasmussen, not the cyclist, and I cannot say anything about him really other than that I have not seen other works from him and he did not impress me in here. He plays the guy who runs amok here if he isn't busy watching role play porn or the German version of The Price is Right on his television set. At the end, the outburst happens and with the exception of the very first scene perhaps, it is all build-up. But it is all repetitive and even the better parts, namely the contrast to the over-the-top loud television show with its jingle and the protagonist's really calm and restrained physical state sitting there quietly (was it a statement on television making us dumb and turning us into monsters?), worked for so long. It certainly looked like Boll really was out of ideas which is fairly shocking here given the brief duration. Now Boll is by many considered one of the least talented filmmakers on the planet and this movie here is definitely not helping his case, even if it seems to be a different approach to horror and missing the action entirely that defined his later works. This film looks more like an underground work you'd expect from Schnaas or Buttgereit maybe even and a couple others. I think many people who gave this a 1/10 or a 10/10 maybe even did not watch the film as the high quantity of votes seems pretty absurd and just rated it because it was made by Boll. But the 1/10ers certainly aren't far off as the film is a failure from several perspectives, especially as the devastating character study at its very core. A lot went wrong here and the outcome is very amateurish (and I don't mean the genre/movement with that). Highly not recommended and I am glad it was this short. If you want to see strong German-language films on amok, watch Fassbinder's Herr R. or Kargl's Angst.
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Horst_In_Translation14 October 2017
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Bloodwank6 November 2011Its interesting now that Uwe Boll seems to be pursuing some sort of artistic intentions with his cinema to see this early work and realise that his mainstream offerings were never his first love, that he had some sort of a plan all along. I've actually only seen one of his films, the lamentable Seed so I have no comment on his general qualities, but Amoklauf is a successful little film if not an especially entertaining or interesting one. Its a study in a private and dysfunctional personality, in lonely obsession and ultimate bloody breaking point. Our nameless protagonist is a waiter, but mostly he stays at home watching videotapes, a German game show, slaughterhouse and execution footage apparently from Faces of Death and finally a porno. He also fantasies about murder, masturbates and philosophizes that man is a worthless creature who will suffer anything just to survive. Not a pleasant or stable individual in essence, and the film puts us right there with him. We watch his TV through his eyes, sometimes we watch his TV with him, sometimes we watch his face as he watches his TV. We see his apartment as well, sometimes we see him go about mundane rites and sometimes we see him just sit there. Its a fitting mixture of ennui and unpleasantness, as the film goes a cold, twitchy feeling accumulates, and a bleak tension along with nagging boredom, by the final ten minutes its hard not to fair pray for the guy to snap. And snap he does with memorably grim intensity in a skillfully stylised scene that uses changes in film stock, slow motion and grainy close ups to highlight the alienation, granting an almost lyrical mood. A classy cap off in other words and it pretty much makes the whole experience worthwhile. On the whole this is difficult to recommend though. Its a film that cares little for engagement, nor poetry or depth in its subject. It works as an exercise in nihilism, perhaps almost perfectly as unlike something like Angst it lacks visual fascination or genuine fear, it doesn't transcend its subject matter with much in the way of added aesthetic value until the climax and that's just a fraction of the overall runtime. But this bare nihilism simply isn't that fulfilling, it works somewhat as a curio but as cinema is frankly a bit lacking. Not that I actually disliked the experience, I've just come to prefer work that has more to offer. A bit hard to rate this one as it does what it sets out to do, isn't actually bad and may even be pretty worthy to some tastes. 5/10 oughta cover it I think.
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trashgang21 September 2011Most of us will known Uwe Boll, the director, from Bloodrayne and Alone In The Dark or the more gory Seed. sadly for the main he's know for really bad films. But I liked some of his flicks. By attending conventions I ran across Uwe at a convention where he signed and gave me this flick. It's one of his earlier attempts and a whole different kind than his major releases. The way it was filmed did remind me of Schramm. Especially the scene's at the killer's home. The edition I have is full uncut. And it's not this short feature which clocks in at an hour, that made it to be cut. It's the television that makes it really not for the squeamish. First of all there is footage visible of animal cruelty an some footage of a slaughterhouse. Further on the killer looks at someone being electrocuted but that looked like the scene from Faces Of Death. When he's watching the TV it all takes a bit too long. Just see the scene were he's looking at the German version of The Price Is Right. Others will be offended by the porn flick he's watching while he's masturbating and a victim is laying on the ground. The camera zooms in on the television, what you see is not for pussies. Sucking, f***ing, two dicks in one pussy, facial cum shots, in g-fact a summary of a porn flick. But if you left the television out of this feature then there isn't that much too see. When he becomes a mass murderer it's shown in slo-mo and again, it's really a slow scene. But it does fit in the era being made, the first German splatters and of course Schramm from 1994. Too slow for nowadays but still confronting what he's watching on the TV.
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Uwe Boll is among the most hated horror directors.It's true that both of his adaptations of video games "House of the Dead" and "Alone in the Dark" pretty much sucked,but "Amoklauf" is a real deal.I enjoyed this low-budget German splatter flick.In many ways it reminded me Jorg Buttgereit's disturbing serial killer movie "Schramm".This film tells the story of a lonely man,who lives in a total isolation.He works as a waiter and in his free time he watches "Faces of Death" plus a lot of porn and masturbates,whilst lying semi-naked on his bed.Suddenly he violently kills his beautiful female neighbour with a knife and this is the beginning of his bloody amok.Soon the orgy of violent mass murder is set in motion..."Amoklauf" is a surprisingly grim and unsettling German serial killer flick which offers plenty of grue.Give it a look,even if you dislike Uwe Boll's recent works.Fans of Jorg Buttgereit and Gerald Kargl should check it out.8 out of 10.
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Silent_Abstraction1 September 2006This little production reveals what Boll was trying to be when he was still trying anything: another Michael Haneke. The movie feels a lot like this directors' works from the Eighties, e.g., "Benny's Video". The most distinguishing feature of Bolls recent movies, the overemployment of annoying visual style elements, is already present here, as the entire finale of the movie is shot from two intercut camera angles, and presented entirely in slow-motion. While I was quite happy with the dual-perspective idea, I could have done without all the slomo.
There must have been a very tight budget, and it shows: I'm pretty sure that the amok victims are all Uwe's buddies from movie school, and the long sequences where you don't see anything except videocopied episodes from a German TV show suggests that they had to try anything just to bring the movie over the rounds. Again, this reminded me a lot of Haneke's style.
In sum, it's surprisingly good for what it is, even though being a derivate of better directors' stuff. -
Director Uwe Boll is most well-known for his mainstream horror crap-fests ALONE IN THE DARK, HOUSE OF THE DEAD, and BLOOD RAYNE. AMOKLAUF is an earlier film from the German director - and this film is NOTHING like his other watered-down Hollywood video-game inspired pieces of sh!t. AMOKLAUF is a dark and gritty look into a few days in the life of cold-hearted killer...
A nameless waiter likes to spend his time sitting around his house watching FACES OF DEATH, slaughterhouse vids, porn...and the Euro version of The Price Is Right. The guy has a pretty bleak outlook on life, basically feeling that man will endure the most horrible experiences and will resort to any actions in order to sustain their own life. Eventually waiter-guy snaps and goes on a shooting-spree...
AMOKLAUF reminded me a bit of a cross between Jorg Buttgereit's SCHRAMM and Gerald Kargl's ANGST - minus both the innovative photography and general "artistry" of either film. AMOKLAUF feels like a student-film, in that it is obviously a very cheaply made production. There's no real storyline and there's very little exposition as to why the killer-waiter is the way he is, which was a bit disappointing. There were several drawn-out scenes of him sitting around watching TV that would have been better spent explaining his "motivations" for his actions. Even so, I liked the cold and bleak atmosphere of the film, and coming from such a notoriously despised director as Boll - it was interesting to see a more "hard-core" film from him. If only he would have continued making this sort of film, I may have had some shred of respect for the man. Worth a look to "dark" film fans - not a perfect film by any stretch, but should appeal to those who dig subversive and nihilistic cinema...7/10