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Zeckenkommando vs. Cthulhu
Germany 2016
produced by Radikal & Arrogant
directed by Lars Kokemüller
starring Lars Kokemüller, Lea Ostrovskiy, Philip Spreen, Niklas Bähnk, Elena Meissner, Anna Berg, Alexander F. Obe, Thomy Kessler, Dietrich Kuhlbrodt, Moritz Mutzmann, Ulrich Bähnk, Jan-Niklas Leukel
written and music by Lars Kokemüller, special effects by Stefan Seelgen
Cthulhu
review by Mike Haberfelner
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Punk band Zeckenkommando - singer Kalle (Lars Kokemüller), bassist
Xena (Lea Ostrovskiy), guitarist Flash (Niklas Bähnk) and drummer Titus
a.k.a. Brutalo (Philip Spreen) - is basically one of the many bands that
will probably never make it past city limits (and they only live in a
small village), but the bandmates just enjoy jamming together and have
lots of fun, beer and unrealistic illusions. And Kalle, owning a camera,
thinks it's actually a good idea to make a documentary about themselves,
for their "fans" ... and then their landlady (Elena Meissner)
tells them she has sold the building their rehearsal room is in, and the
new owner Thorben Schüssler (Alexander F. Obe) won't extend their lease.
And while most of the band don't really care that much and are ready to
move on, Kalle suspects foul play and persuades the others to investigate
- but they seem to run into closed doors everywhere, be it press or city
hall - until they secretly follow the mayor deep into the woods - and see
him, Schüssler and a few others summoning ... none other than the
"Old God" Cthulhu. From a World War II veteran they learn about
a Nazi conspiracy to summon Cthulhu to destroy the world that was only
stopped by them being utterly defeated too soon, but now Schüssler and
company try to bring to a closure what the Nazis have begun - and there's
only one way to stop him, and that's playing a certain song once Cthulhu
has arrived but isn't at his strongest yet. Now Zeckenkommando is a band,
so playing the song should come easy ... only the guitar player isn't up
to it and has an affair with the bass player, who Kalle considered his
girlfriend - so it's really up to Kalle whether he wants to save the world
or break up the band to make a point ... A mockumentary about
an unsuccessful punk band that's thrown into a horror situation much too
big for them to handle ... this sounds like such a good idea on paper that
it's almost bound to fail as a movie - but surprisingly, this movie
doesn't fail by a longshot, it's actually really funny, really delivers in
terms of narrative, and the mockumentary approach actually really works
here, too. The reasons for this are probably that the humour might be
silly at times, but in a good-natured way, and the whole thing never
becomes just moronic, the suburban punk band seems to be accurately
portrayed without falling into cheap caricatures, the actors actually play
their instruments, which adds authencity, the mockumentary approach here
means something else than just shaky camera, the direction is never
in-your-face, so gives the story and characters room to breathe, and other
than many mockumentaries, this movie's well-structured, too. All that
said, the movie doesn't reinvent the genre by any means - but it's a really
good laugh!
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