Last year, Arrow UK shocked everyone by announcing a pimped edition of Nekromantik, Jörg Buttgereit's grungy art-horror film about a necrophiliac, his hobbies and his dreams. In fact, that edition was so well done, and included so many great extras about WHY the film was made, that it overwon my distaste and I made a gallery about it last year.
And of course this year I actually met Jörg Buttgereit, interviewed him as part of the directors of German Angst, and he is an interesting and intelligent guy with interesting and intelligent ideas about cinema, of the horror kind and otherwise.
When I congratulated him with the stellar treatment Arrow had given Nekromantik, he said: "I still have a hard time believing it, and I've heard they might try to do the same thing with Nekromantik 2?"
Well, here we are, eleven months later, and indeed Arrow UK managed to coax Nekromantik 2 past the BBFC ratings board and into shops. And ladies and gentlemen, the good news is that we have a repeat performance!
Here is a gallery of shots. Click on the edge of the pictures to scroll through them, or at the center of each to see a bigger version.
And here it is: like its predecessor, this release has a stylish soft-cardboard slipcase with what may be artist Gilles Vranckx' bloodiest cover yet.
This one wears its BBFC rating as a badge of honour.
Although... wait, what? No "sexual violence" this time? Aw... damn sequelitis.
Inside the slipcase are a digipack and a booklet, both adorned with Gilles Vranckx artwork, and nicely mirroring the work he did on the previous film's release.
Again, the digipack contains the Certificate of Authenticity (with one of the more infamous posters for the film on it) and a set of faked polaroid pictures.
All contents opened up and revealed. The discs contain the film on Blu-ray and DVD, and the soundtrack CD. Commentaries, features, music clips, footage from the 20th anniversary live soundtrack concert, and interviews and documentaries are also present. It's loaded.
A closer look at the 100-page booklet.
In it, there are a wealth of articles, including a translation of the text submitted to the German government as part of the Nekromantik 2 prosecution case, where the film successfully managed to be qualified as art rather than perverse (and illegal) trash.
Once again, this is a fantastic booklet, on par with the first. And no matter how revolting you may find both films, these releases form an interesting document indeed.
Finally, a closer look at the certificate: once again, only 3,000 of these have been made.