Black Past (1989) (V)

Director:

Olaf Ittenbach

Release Date:

13 September 2000 (Germany)

Genre:

Horror

Plot Keywords:

Slasher | Blood | Castration | Mirror | Disembodied Hand

Cast

Olaf Ittenbach	...	Thommy
Andrea Arbter	...	Petra
André Stryi	...	Frankie
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Anette Arbter	...	Kleines Mädchen
Sonja Berg	...	Maria
Susanne Nebbe	...	Bettina
Alfons Sigllechner	...	Vater
Ivo Tischler	...	Achim

Directed by
Olaf Ittenbach

Produced by
Olaf Ittenbach	....	producer
Michael Müller	....	producer
André Stryi	....	producer

Original Music by
A.G. Striedl

Cinematography by
Michael Müller

Production Companies

• IMAS Filmproduktion

Distributors

• Filmfreak Distributie (2011) (Netherlands) (DVD) (Sodemented Cinema)
• Imas Dominik (2000) (Germany) (VHS)

Runtime:

85 min

Country:

West Germany

Language:

German

Color:

Color

Certification:

Germany:18 (cut) | Netherlands:16 | West Germany:18

Company:

IMAS Filmproduktion

More like Red Past

This is Olaf's debut flick and just like his others, it's chock full of of the grue. Well, not chock full, but when it gets violent, it gets seriously gruesome. Yeeeaaaahhh, baay-buh!!

Story revolves around young Thommy ((with an H)played by Olaf) who's falling in love with his dream girl. All is well until Olaf discovers a chained up chest in his attic that holds a mirror and a diary of sorts telling some very grim stories of the houses' past. Not thinking any of the mirror besides it looking cool, he hangs it up. But this mirror isn't like any other mirror. It's wicked evil. Hell, it's even evilly wicked. Things start going awry fast and the mirror is starting to set up poor Thommy into going down the same the paths the old inhabitants of the mirror went through. Uh-oh spaghettios!

Black Past was a pretty solid debut for Olaf. The only real gripe for myself was the pacing of the film. There were some scenes that were complete wastes of time. Just shots of Thommy walking here and there. Or him just sitting there. That may work with fantastic acting, but since there wasn't any here, it was very tedious. There were a few nice scenes of splatter before the hour mark, but once it hits the 1:00, it's pretty much clear sailing in a sea of red.

With nods to Evil Dead and probably a couple other flicks, Olaf seemed to know what he was doing right from the get go. If you're a fan of his other flicks, there's no reason not to check out this one as well. One of the more memorable splatter debuts, and a must see for fans of the messy-kind.