History of German underground horror

History of German underground horror

In an attempt to shed its violent image, horror films were very rarely made in Germany after the fall of the Third Reich. Movies such as Ein Toter hing im Netz/Horrors of Spider Island, Schlangengrube und das Pendel, and The Head were filmed and released in the decades following World War II, but to very little success.

In 1987, amateur filmmaker Andreas Schnaas made the movie Violent Shit for a reported $2000. Released as Germany's first direct-to-video film, it was a modest hit amongst fans of independent horror. The same year, filmmaker Jörg Buttgereit wrote and directed Nekromantik. Both films were banned by the German government, but their popularity influenced other filmmakers such as Olaf Ittenbach to bring Germany's underground horror film scene further into the media spotlight.

Since then, many other filmmakers have emerged from the German underground horror scene, including Uwe Boll and Timo Rose. Uwe Boll is notable as the only underground German director who has gone on to a career in big budget cinema.