The incurable romantic and necrophile Jörg “Captain Berlin” Buttgereit makes a triumphant return to the silver screen of cinema Aero to defile it with his most accomplished feature. Unlike the Nekromantik movies, that we have both already screened, The Death King isn’t overtly graphic, but the subject matter and underground aesthetics take centre stage in creating a suffocating atmosphere of morbidity and utter despair. Split into seven episodes on the theme of suicide and violent death – interspaced with loving close-ups of a real decomposing corpse – the film is an experience in mortality. After all, this is the Death King. He causes people not to want to live anymore. Can you look him in the eyes?
