Memorable, crazy movie

Don't Believe the Hype

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

"Deathmaker" is an outstanding movie. It's psychologically intense and very well played, BUT...The major problem of this feature is that the director chose the wrong medium for his project. The story told in "Deathmaker" would fit better into a (classical) theater. The whole setting is placed in one room only, there are less than a dozen actors needed and no (!) optical and only few sound effects are used. Nothing indicates that this story needs all the technical possibilities of cinematography. So this movie is - in my eyes - nothing more than a theater play filmed for distribution of the piece beyond theaters The story itself is quiet slow - many will find it boring or too long. There is nearly no action at all in it. Majorly three people sitting on chairs in a room together and talking. If you can sympathize with this kind of storytelling, then you should watch this movie. Else I can not recommend it.

This is a quite spartan film. The only location is a sparse-funitured room, no special-effects, no score, just a few actors. - But what for actors! Götz George is supposed to be one of the best German actors, and after this movie the viewer knows why. Here he really shows what he is able to. I rarely (never?) saw such an intense, brilliant and convincing performance before. The sparse environment has the effect that the viewer can concentrate himself on the acting - and and this is what makes this film worth seeing. But it's not only Götz George. The other actors (esp. Jürgen Hentsch as the psychiatrist and Pierre Franckh as the stenographer) are performing impressive and convincing. They are a well contrast and counterpart for George alias Haarmann. This prevents this movie from becoming a Götz-George-One-Man-Show. I rated this with 8 because I think. a film for a 9 or even 10 should make more use of the diverse capabilities of the medium. After all a good film, but an absolute excellent play.

George realy did a perfect job in this! Based on the historical examination script they deliver a film that comes very close to your stomach. Some people I know couldn´t stand it and turned it off and some turned the video off, because they were bored. Try it yourself! This is absolutely an about average view on the so popular subject "serial killer". I watched it late at night with 100 percent thrill and interest.

this film can be enjoyed, but it's nothing too special. much-praised acting is no better nor worse than one would expect from professional performers. as for direction, maybe i missed it... there didn't seem to be any at all. this is by no means a film to be watched in the cinema. on tv, on a snowy winter evening, okay. better still, watch it performed onstage in a small, intimate theatre, where it belongs... the dearth of good german movies is highlighted by the fact that this very unexceptional effort garnered so much attention and praise in that country, which produces so much, but so little of note. keen to see "manila," though what i've heard thus far is anything but encouraging...