Schramm is a 1993 German horror film directed by controversial taboo-breaking auteur Jörg Buttgereit and starring Florian Koerner von Gustorf, Monika M., Micha Brendel and Carolina Harnisch .
Plot Teaser
Lothar Schramm is a polite, neighbourly cab driver who makes an honest living and invites callers in for cognac. Later on, he might slit their throats and assemble their bodies in suggestive poses. He lives next door to a young, beautiful prostitute named Marianne, with whom he is smitten. Schramm is lonely. His sex life is seriously deranged and his social life is nonexistent. He makes love to inflatable plastic dolls, fantasizes about vaginas with teeth, nails his foreskin to tables and dreams of a visit to the dentist who extracts him an eyeball. He has constant flashbacks and paranoid delusions of his knee getting amputated. He whitewashes bloodstains off the walls of his flat. When Marianne is invited by some affluent gentlemen clients to a villa outside of town, she asks Schramm to chauffeur her so she’ll be safe. He accepts and he invites her to a friendly dinner, ignoring his desire for her. He takes her back to his flat, where he drugs her and strips her. He snaps photos and masturbates spitefully over her naked body…
The film is stylish and artfully shot on 16mm film as per usual with Buttgereit. It is loosely based on true crime criminology profiles of Carl Panzram and similar serial killers.
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Reviews
“Schramm is not a film for everybody and won’t be a good choice to convert the uninitiated into the realm of European horror. However, adventurous souls will be more receptive to Buttgereit’s quirky vision, which has become more refined and impressive with each film. As usual, some of his camera angles and his use of music are extremely impressive considering the limited financial means, and some of the special effects are a little too realistic for comfort. Mondo Digital
“Schramm is a nifty looking package that seems like it is empty inside. Give me a reason to care, for anyone, and I might. Yet, there was none given, at least in my eyes. But at least we have a nifty eye-gouging scene and a three nails being hammered into a penis (VERY cringe worthy).” Arrow in the Head
“Jörg Buttgereit’s 1993 film Schramm features one of the more unique killers to ever grace the screen. Even the way the story is told and the events that unfold are not as straight forward or easy to digest as most viewers are used too. The film is filled with stark imagery that at times is beautiful and most of the time it is downright disgusting. There is a raw texture to this film that almost makes it feel like we are watching someone’s home movies and not a film.” 10k Bullets
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