BLACK PAST Review On "Violent Maniac's Cage"

BLACK PAST

(1989, Germany)

DIRECTED BY: Olaf Ittenbach.

STARRING: Olaf Ittenbach and some other Germans.

Low budget shot on video German gore filmmaker Olaf Ittenbach knows his gore and he knows it well. For what his films lack in technical prowess you can be guaranteed buckets of fake blood and some nasty make up effects will make up for its shortcomings. To my knowledge Black Past is Ittenbach's official debut of making gore films and in that department it is every fans dream come true. Simple plot has a mirror transforming people into monsters that kill. Story starts during 1978 where a man plants a meat cleaver in the skull of a young girl, this being caused by the mirror which possessed the man.

The only problem with this copy of Black Past is that its in German without subtitles thus I'm not completely sure of the exact story behind the mirror. The movie itself despite this is pretty easy to follow and not complex by any means. The story picks up in the present with Ittenbach as a young man who finds the mirror up in his attic one day. He puts the mirror up in his room and strange events start to occur. When Ittenbach's girlfriend is ran over by a car and killed he starts having bizarre dreams of her and other grotesque events. Finally, the film has Ittenbach turning into a monster who butchers his family and friends. In the gore department some moments were inspired by The Evil Dead such as Ittenbach fighting his dead girlfriend, hacking her up with an axe and shooting her with a shot-gun. The total gore orgy during the last 10-15 minutes includes a nasty chainsaw dismemberment (only those STHL chainsaws cut through human bone and tissue the best), a torture scene in hell which was obviously redone in Ittenbach's second film The Burning Moon except this one has a nasty penis impalement. Other endless scenes of gory mayhem fill up the movie after the beginning in which it picks up some steam.

Black Past is gorier than The Burning Moon but both have qualities which are better than the another. I noticed the location similarity in both films such as the same house being used, it must be Ittenbach's place. The German's can definitely show the Americans a thing or two about making low budget horror. If you live in North America your going to have a hell of a time tracking down a copy of Ittenbach's next film which is Premutos: The Fallen Angel and its supposed to be a corker. If anyone can get me a copy in NTSC e-mail me!

Rating: 4 Skulls

Review by: Richard J. Taylor

Email: rtaylor@roadrunner.nf.net

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