October Horror Challenge 2017 #80: "Angst (1983)"

Wow, this movie poster is enough to give me nightmares without even having to watch the actual film. Yikes. The poster I saw to advertise this movie was much more tame, it was just a picture of a woman screaming at the camera. I think if they used this picture, the movie would get more attention. Ah well, such is life.

This movie is a slasher/serial killer flick from 1983. I'm not sure if I've heard of it before now, because there are roughly ten zillion movies named "Angst," but the reviews either say this movie is sick and shocking, or they say it's terrible and has the worst acting they've ever seen, which makes it exactly my kind of movie. Gotta love polarizing movies like this. The movie is about a sadistic killer who kills for the hell of it. He's caught and sent to prison, but then released after ten years (nice, I think you get longer sentences for jaywalking) and the movie is a trip inside his head as he plans to kill again after his release from prison.

This movie wouldn't work without a good performance from the lead actor, since he's in almost every scene and we have to listen to his internal monologue for practically the whole movie. I think Erwin Leder, the actor who plays our killer, does a good job. He sure creeped me out. I can see why others might not like his performance though, since it's weird watching this guy walk around, eat dinner, and catch a cab whilst listening to him calmly talk about how he's going to kill people like he's discussing the weather or something.

This whole movie is very experimental for it's time, it's like a found footage movie without the explanation for finding the footage. We're just watching this guy go about his life and talk about killing, and then actually breaking into houses and killing people, but there's no conceit that this is being filmed by someone who refuses to put the camera down even when any real person would have dropped the damn camera a long time ago, so there's none of the headaches that go along with found footage movies. I can see why it would bore some people or get on their nerves. I was drawn in by the lead actor and interested enough to want to see what happens, but I'll warn you, the movie is definitely not for everyone. If watching a killer kill a bunch of people while calmly talking about it with no remorse sounds intriguing to you, check this movie out.