Cult Epics, Barrel, and German Arthouse Horror
Over
the last few months, the independent retrospective genre label Cult
Epics has released some of Germany's best and unflinching horror
films onto Blu-ray – starting with Jorg Buttgereit's NekRomantik,
the limited-numbered Blu-ray
disc also included the impossible-to-find-in-English short film Hot
Love, which if you can believe
it, is actually more twisted than the necrophelic shenanigans of the
director's first feature film. For a while in the early 2000s, one
could purchase a European Hot Love DVD
from the online retailer XploitedCinema.com, which is sadly long out
of business. This online retailer was the first place I was able to
find a reasonably priced DVD copy of Jess Franco's Exorcism
(the one released by Synapse
Films) and they had for sale many great out-of-print or unavailable
(on this side of the water) genre films on DVD and VHS. Around this
time, there was another distribution company called Barrel
Entertainment. In the early 2000s Barrel was shaping up to become the
niche of niche genre DVD
distributors; releasing some brilliant cult oddities into the new and
exciting retail market of DVD. Indeed, they were the first
distributor to bring Jorg Buttgereit's films to North American
audiences via home video – NekRomantic, NekRomantik 2,
and Schramm all
received glorious special edition DVD releases, as well as some
stellar, nearly forgotten, independent films like Roger Watkins'
bloody experimental 1970s horror Last House on Dead End
Street and Leif Jonker's
slightly awkward but exciting 16mm vampire gore-a-thon Darkness.
In 2005, Barrel Entertainment
announced that they were about to release a hugely anticipated first
North American release of Gerald Kargl's German serial killer
masterpiece Angst as a
special edition DVD... And then suddenly (or gradually, depending on
your point of view), the release became bogged down in constant
delays. Nobody really knew what was happening over at Barrel
Entertainment, as a small independent DVD distributor it was not
uncommon for their DVD releases to experience some minor delays when
it came to their projected release dates, as packed as they were with
new special features and fantastic film transfers, but in the case of
the ultimately doomed Angst release,
these delays stretched out to nearly two years before Barrel's antsy
fans were starting to give up hope of ever seeing this German
arthouse horror film released in Canada and the U.S. And sadly, it
had been right to give up on the continual waiting – the release
never happened. What none of us fans knew was that Barrel
Entertainment was going through some strenuous financial hardship,
mostly due to director Roger Watkins' suing them over a spat he had
with their special features on the Last House on Dead End
Street double-DVD release.
Ironic, seeing as the whole reason Roger Watkins' film had been
available for years on VHS and had developed a cult following without
his knowledge was because the original distribution company had quite
literally stolen the film from him. Now here was a legitimate
distribution company finally putting due care and attention into a
new release and special edition DVD of Watkins' film, and he ends up
getting in a snit and suing them. This
lawsuit was sadly the nail in the coffin for Barrel Entertainment, a
company far too small to deal with any costly lawsuit. But as
half-cocked as this lawsuit may have been, it was nevertheless truly
sad and unfortunate to learn of director Roger Watkins' passing in
relative obscurity in 2007 – something that left a bit of enigma in
its wake*. As for Barrel Entertainment, their last release was in
2006, and they were not only working on Angst at
that time, but also the first-ever North American release of Jorg
Buttgereit's masterpiece Der Todesking. Barrel
Entertainment official folded in 2007, the same year as Roger
Watkins' death.
During
the exciting dawn of genre DVD distribution, Cult Epics had also been
releasing cult and then-obscure international films onto special
edition DVDs, most notably the double-disc version of Abel Ferrara's
Driller Killer and the
triple-disc release of Walerian Worowczyk's The Beast (La
Bete). Nowadays, with Barrel
Entertainment nearly a decade gone (gone three years longer than
they'd been in business for), Cult Epics has managed to finally pick
up where Barrel had to leave off. After presenting NekRomantic
and Hot Love in
a newly-restored high definition transfer, Cult Epics has moved ahead
to give us his gender-flipped follow-up NekRomantic 2 and
his aforementioned masterpiece Der Todesking on
a Blu-ray that also included the feature-length Buttgereit
documentary Corpse Fucking Art;
and most recently, a hi-def (and
English-subtitled) version of Gerald Kargl's Angst.
I,
like most people in North America, got to experience Angst
for the first time thanks to
Cult Epics' commercial Blu-ray release. To say this film is stunning
would be an astounding understatement. It brought to mind another
largely unheard-of German arthouse horror film released earlier in
2015 by Mondo Macabro; the fanatic killer thriller The Fan.
Both of these highly stylish
German horror films were produced in the early-to-mid 80s, and both
are amazingly groundbreaking in their depth and explorations as
psychological horror cinema. Both of these Blu-rays (as well as the
Blu-rays of Jorg Buttgereit) are currently widely available to
purchase online in North America, and I would highly recommend a
purchase or two in support of these amazing independent distribution
companies who are passionate enough to bring these cult films to
North American audiences – because who knows how long this might
last in our volatile, and dying, environment of home video
distribution.
SIDEBAR: THE ROGER WATKINS ENIGMA.
Roger
Watkins' 1977 indie arthouse horror film has left behind a seared
imprint on my mind since I first borrowed the Barrel DVD from a good
friend of mine back in 2004. I think the DVD itself had been released
a year or two earlier. In 2009, with Barrel's DVD woefully long
out-of-print, I was able to find a different DVD copy quite easily
(and cheaply) in the UK through a different distribution company.
Watching that film for the second time, I was no less impressed than
on the first viewing. There was something so rebellious, so fucking
art, so bloody horrific in its low-budget drug-addled production
values... It was actually kind of profound in a way. It was then that
I began to wonder about the man behind the film – Roger Watkins. So
I did what any slave to the immediacy of the internet would do... I
Googled him; and discovered forthwith that he'd died in 2007. But
this was just the beginning of my curiosity; it quickly piqued higher
when I stumbled upon a comment thread following an obituary published
online by papermag.com
(the comment section has since been deleted and disabled as of 2011)
– here reprinted verbatim:
- Elizabeth Watkins: "I am Roger's oldest daughter and I want to thank you for posting this article and paying tribute to him. I really miss him. He was the smartest guy I've ever met..."
- Jo C. Schwarz: "Elizabeth, I am an old friend of your dad. I am sadden by the news of his passing. Roger was the smartest man I have ever met myself. His wit and charm will sorely be missed. He often talk about how smart you were as well."
- Bob Arturi: "Elizabeth I had the pleasure of working with your dad at Bill Kolb Ford in Blauvelt, New York. He was one of the wittiest, smartest people I ever met. I lost contact with him for a while after he left the business, but found him a little later at another dealership. He then totally left the business to move upstate and I didn't have the opportunity to speak with him before he passed away. I can't say enough good things about him, his sense of humor, our long conversations about his life in the cinema world, and of course his tales of his family. He will always be in my thoughts."
- Barry Koch: "Elizabeth, Your Dad roomed at my house for a while back in the late 1980s. He was a brilliant, creative, and maddeningly mercurial human being... and remains unforgettable to those who knew him in to any degree. Despite the tempests that seemed to swirl about his restless mind, he always spoke lovingly of "his girls", you and your sister.
- pedobear: "I loved roger too we hung out together looking for young girls. i will miss you. Pedophilia died with you. R.I.H"
- anonymous: "Pedobear, It is very important that I speak with you. You hold the key to a very important puzzle. Please, please, please email me at this address. [Email withheld] I will make it worth your while."
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