I was rather looking forward to watching Nekromantik 2. I grew rather fond with the original after viewing it for its ability to be ridiculously goofy while simultaneously displaying vile acts onscreen. So, with great hope, I threw the sequel into the DVD player and watched the film unfold while eating a steak for good measure.

While it’s nice to see that director Jörg Buttgereit was able to spend more time and money on the sequel, my general reaction to the film was “Ouch,” followed by a long, overstated yawn, followed by some exaggerated eye-rolling.

Clocking in at a punishing hour and forty-two minutes, Nekromantik 2 tells the dull, drawn-out and plodding story of Monika, an amateur necrophile who is obsessed with the death of the first movie’s “hero,” Robert Schmadtke. Monika is introduced via the world’s longest cinematic exoneration, as she digs up the corpse of Robert and drags it home for her own personal use. However, Monika can’t commit to the idea of having sex with the body, and ends up retching her stomach contents in the bathroom after a little oral-play.

We are then introduced to Mark, a man who spends his time dubbing German pornography (anyone familiar with German porn from the ‘80s should get a kick out of this.) Note that we’re roughly three or four scenes into the movie. All of this has taken 20 minutes of slow, silent film time. After being chastised for his underperformance, Mark calls up an unidentified woman and invites her to see a movie at the local theater. The woman is a no-show, and with great coincidence and “luck,” Mark finds himself in the company of Monika. The two hit it off while seeing a film wherein two naked people sit around, eat eggs and talk about birds.

Afterwards, we’re treated to an extended love montage at the amusement park where Mark and Monika laugh, kiss, snuggle and eat for an extended period of time. It’s at this point where Monika realizes her honest attachment to Mark, and decides to dispose of the dead body. However, her sexual impulses get the best of her, and she takes the corpse’s head and genitalia to keep as souvenirs.

Mark comes by Monika’s and they proceed to consummate the relationship, but Monika can’t keep her mind off the corpse. After a bit of sleep, Mark gets hungry and trots down to the kitchen, where he finds the severed penis in the fridge under saran wrap. This scene is particularly interesting because Mark is clearly shown as knowing exactly what the object is (he grabs his own equipment in sympathetic pain,) but outside of this reaction, does absolutely nothing. No freak-out. No police calling. No dumping of crazy bitches, nothing.

Afterwards, we’re treated to an extended musical dream sequence. The lyrics are not translated, leaving the scene rather pointless (in fact, signs aren’t translated in this film either, even though they were translated in the first Nekromantik). All you can do is sit back and wonder what the point of the entire scene is, and if the man sitting at the piano is heterosexual porn star Alex Sanders.

We flash forward deeper into the relationship, or so I’m guessing. Monika, seemingly missing the activity with the corpse, makes demands on Mark which leave him feeling confused. She wants to take nude pictures of him hanging upside-down from the ceiling and wants him to stay perfectly still while they have sex. Mark spends his time getting drunk down at the local bar, while Monika and her necrophiliac groupie friends pass the corpse’s head around while eating pizza and watching autopsies being performed on seals. Is real animal violence a Jörg Buttgereit trademark or something? Thankfully, the seal was already dead, but the extended takes of two people trying to pry the skull out of a dead seal will probably throw some people off and understandably so.

Monika, knowing that she will never be able to break her fetish for dead bodies, decides to give in to her pleasure and do what she needs to do in order for her to sustain her relationship with both Mark and the corpse. Surprisingly enough, the gore-spattered climax is the one scene in the movie that seems to go by too quickly.

I think it’s pretty easy at this point to see that I was disappointed with Nekromantik 2. Every scene in the movie seems to drag five minutes longer than it needs to be. It is almost as if for every scene that includes dialogue, there was a requirement of five additional scenes that go by completely silent. Monika M. is less than sufficient as an actress, and without much dialogue, we’re left to piece together her emotions. Is this her first experience with necrophilia? I assume so since after her first sex scene, she’s in the bathroom puking her guts out. Mark Reeder is even more wooden, even confusing when you consider that whole kitchen scene with the shrink-wrapped penis, which elicits no response out of him.

The only point where the movie fares decently is its technical achievements. The film is filmed on 16mm instead of Super-8 and while it might not be the most stylish film in the world, it’s obvious the people behind the cameras know what they’re doing. The worst offense goes to the editor of the film, who should have cut it down to about 70 minutes. At an hour and forty-three, it’s nearly unbearable.

Image 
Filmed on 16mm, the image is relatively sharp, but contains a fair amount of grain in some scenes. Chalk it up again to the company doing the best they can with the original elements they have. It’s a definite upgrade from the first Nekromantik, but really. With a movie like Nekromantik 2, you probably can wager a good guess as to what the quality of the image is going to be.

Sound
Presented in both remixed 2.0 stereo and an original mono track, there really isn’t much of a difference between the two. Separation is almost non-existent, but if you pay hard attention to it, it’s only the most slight of effects. The mono track seems slightly more loud, but also tinny. Either way, you’re neither gaining nor losing much.

Extras
A packed two disc set (Though the second disc is the soundtrack to both Nekromantik films. If you wanted a musical soundtrack more low-rent than Bad Taste, here you go) features:

Cast and crew commentary: It’s surprising how in the commentary for the first film director Jörg Buttgereit was quick to mock his own work, while in the commentary for Nekromantik 2, he seems fairly pleased with the end-result. Fully admitting to taking sadistic enjoyment in filming a sequel to a necrophilia-filled gore film and then filming extended shots of absolutely nothing, I don’t know whether the man is some sort of post-modern, ironic super-genius toying with the expectations of his fans, or a complete and utter goddamn moron.

Making of Nekromantik 2: Just like the feature on the original film’s disc, this is a collection of behind-the-scenes footage accompanied by an interview in English, and interviews in German. Thankfully, the German interview features subtitles this time around. Though the interviews tend to repeat what has already been said on the commentary, the footage is rather entertaining.

“Rise Up” music video by Die Krupps: You know those silly music videos that appeared on Anchor Bay’s Dario Argento discs a while back? This is even more ridiculous. However, it was directed by Jörg Buttgereit and features Monika M.

Manne The Movie: A fairly ridiculous short film from 1981 about a man who drinks, smokes, and pukes himself to death. For a quick four minutes, it sure packs a lot of puke.

Photo Gallery: A fairly expansive gallery that covers not only Nekromantik 2, but also the Die Krupps video, the recording of the commentary and a selection of posters and box art for the film.

Trailers: The same as the first Nekromantik disc, there are trailers for Nekromantik 2, two for the original Nekromantik, one for Der Todesking (Still unreleased. Where did you go, Barrel?) and one for Schramm.

Overall
Jörg Buttgereit reveals in the extras that his intention in creating Nekromantik 2 was to make a film that was aimed more towards women, and that it could be viewed as a feminist statement… Who knew feminism could be so boring? Stick to the original Nekromantik, this is strictly rental fare.