Dungeon Girl (2008 Video) User Reviews

Worst movie ever made?

[oskarniklasson · 26 January 2008]

I've seen many movies in my day, and many bad ones. "Dungeon Girl" must be the worst, easily.

There is simply nothing good to say about this production. The acting is appalling, the plot non-existent, and the music is beyond description.

Supposedly, the movie is about the abduction and captivity of Natascha Kampusch in Austria a few years ago.

The film starts with a strange mix of references to witches, and the repetition of the phrase "are you a witch"? I never realized exactly why this line keeps recurring throughout the film, which it does. In fact there are so many things in this movie which are left unexplained it's remarkable.

The "story" centers around the girl being held in a basement, or so the title suggests, although the basement seems to be in the attic. The kidnapper is very fond of masturbating with a doll, playing the guitar and singing in really bad German. Apart from this, he cooks soup and gives the girl chocolate. Mixed with this are some odd scenes of flashbacks from the girls' early life which only confuse the viewer.

Summary: A real stinker. Beware, though, the DVD has a rather deceptive cover which can trick you into renting it. Stay away from this one.

It couldn't get any worse than this.

[Suzzu · 1/10 · 3 May 2008]

There is honestly not much to say. The movie was simply very bad. Worst movie I have ever seen. Don't be fooled by the DVD or VHS cover because that is the only good thing of this whole package. The movie repeated itself all the time and when it wasn't boring, it was just confusing or making you wanna hit your head on the wall. Obviously the whole point of this movie was to give the viewer some sense of the all the feelings the girl was going through. The movie was trying to be very artistic. It failed miserably and only gave the audience a pure feeling of disappointment, frustration and wanting to throw the TV out from the window. If you love yourself, don't watch it.

Are you looking for horror or a helpful insight on the Kampusch-case?

[christine_angal · 1/10 · 11 September 2008]

..Then DO NOT watch this movie. I was seriously disappointed in this, even though I had no expectations. It seemed to me as an 81 minute long intro to what looked like a really boring documentary. The narration voice was weak as probably intended, but it really got on my nerves after 3 minutes. You are asked so many questions by the narrator, but you NEVER seem to find the answer in this film.

The cover claimed to have based this movie on a true story: the story of Natascha Kampusch. The only similarities are the captivity for 8 years and the hints of Stockholm syndrome.

Basically, you get 81 minutes of recurring clips of the captivator masturbating using a doll, playing guitar, watching Christian TV, reading and cooking. Our main character sits still most of the time, looking like she is seriously ill, even though we learn that she 'loves' her captivator.

All I can say about this movie, besides what's already been said is, that the acting and chemistry was extremely bad, camera, graphics and everything you see is not beautiful, artistic or raw in any way, but the 'just filmed it with that cam I bought in the supermarket'-way.

I warn you, this movie will drive you even more nuts than the main character already is.

Battered Lommel Syndrome

[Bill357 · 1/10 · 11 April 2009]

I loved Ulli Lommel's early eighties horror films The Boogeyman and The Devonsville Terror. They were great and Tenderness Of The Wolves was at least a real movie with a plot.

This new spate of work is the absolute pits. Remembering the good times, I keep coming back for more punishment, lured by the lurid box art and the promise of explicit content. I keep thinking that maybe the next movie will be better but they only get worse.

Dungeon Girl is the worst one yet. Absolute in its despicable worthlessness, it wallows in its own boredom. Nearly the whole film takes place in a small house where the two characters look at each other and do almost nothing.

I know that there are lovers of bad movies out there that read the horrible reviews and want to see something based on what they read. I must warn you that this isn't one of those movies that are so bad they're good, unless you want very badly to see a middle aged man masturbate. This really is so bad it's awful! I don't say the word unwatchable very often.

You'll probably not listen.

How could you all be so negative?

[b3-8 · 1/10 · 29 August 2008]

...was what we thought. Unfortunately, we checked IMDb after my wife and I paid for this movie on pay-per-view and started watching it.

Well, we found out how you could all be so negative.

I, although not so much my wife, enjoy "bad" movies sometimes - for example, "bad" science fiction movies with laughable plots, laughable monsters/villains/viruses/aliens/etc - I believe they are bad on purpose to make them enjoyably laughable.

But this disaster has nothing to laugh about. The only joy you will realize is either when you turn it off or when it is mercifully over.

Do not waste your time.

I cried - WORST movie I have ever seen.

[meandmrjones-1 · 1/10 · 15 July 2008]

As it already has been said - I have watched hundreds of movies in my life, and a lot of them have been really bad. This one, however, is by far the worst. I was sickened - and not by the plot - but simply by the lack of quality in both the story and execution. I could have made this when I was 10.

I was so frustrated with the way the story was told - in thoughts by the young girl, who tried to sound as deep as possible. It was just too simple. This story had the potential to be a descent movie - and what is the outcome? A movie which leaves me thinking I've wasted one hour and twenty minutes of my life. And don't get me started on the execution of it - bad quality, bad angles, bad effects, bad actors. Everything was just awful. If you like watching a movie - and then getting frustrated by how terrible it was, then watch it. If not, stay as far away from this movie as possible.

It all seemed to be rushed - And if that was the case: You will not make much money by getting a film inspired by the Kampusch-case out first, if it's THIS bad.

From the Director Who Can Master Neither Porn Nor Narrative

[zandernat-1 · 1/10 · 24 August 2008]

From Ulli Lommel, the director who has mastered neither porn nor narrative, comes this fusion of the worst of both genres. The mindlessness of porn and the jarring, non-resolution of clumsy narrative are combined in this "to be missed at all costs" disaster of a film. Ever wonder what Hollywood means when they say "Based upon actual events"? That's just their way of saying "Once upon a time". In other words, the tale spun so maladroitly in this film has little in common with the real story. The director seems to have a prurient fascination with the fact that the actual young woman became a "media darling" after her ordeal. My impression of Lommel....hmmm...DaFoe's portrayal of a director in the comedic 2007 Rowan Atkinson film comes pretty close.

Lurid Melodrama At Its Worst

[vandv_gm · 1/10 · 30 October 2008]

This movie is an absolute disaster. It's a lurid melodrama with no sense of plot or purpose. Dungeon Girl is a truly awful movie, not worth the price of a rental. Avoid this at all costs, it's not even worth seeing even just for the sake of seeing how truly bad it is, unless you just happen to be in an extremely masochistic mood. That said, there's a directors commentary on there and since I've already made the mistake of renting the movie, I'm almost tempted to run through the movie again with the commentary playing just to try to figure out what the folks who made this mess of a movie were thinking. Or, at the very least, what they were smoking. I can't really add anything that hasn't already been said about this movie, but I did just want to add my voice to the warnings in the hopes that maybe somebody, somewhere, can save the price of the movie rental and put the 90 or so minutes of their lives they would have spent watching this movie to better use. I should have checked the reviews here before I rented the movie myself. Unfortunately, this seems fairly representative of the quality of movie Lionsgate is releasing these days. Move along, nothing to see here.

Not worth seeing.

[estellasharina · 1/10 · 3 May 2008]

My friends and I wanted to spend a Saturday evening watching a movie, so we decided to rent Dungeon Girl. The cover made it look interesting enough, so our expectations were pretty high. Unfortunately, it did not live up to our anticipations. At first, I thought we'd somehow gotten the wrong movie, because of how the beginning kept showing girls dressed in old-fashioned clothes, and a man's voice kept saying "are you a witch?" etc. Then we realised that it was in fact the correct movie, and it just went downhill from there, to be honest. The girl's voice was boring and annoying; the movie in itself made little sense and was at times rather confusing. After ten or fifteen minutes of watching, we decided that we couldn't sit through another 110- ish minutes of it, and turned it off. I've watched a lot of bad movies in my time, but this as got to be one of the worst I've ever seen.

What a waste of $18!

[sandeeb_73 · 1/10 · 5 August 2008]

I've seen my share of crummy movies, but this is by far the worst ever! From the horrible acting, to the crummy plot, to the strange soundtrack... The entire film makes YOU want to go hide in a dungeon, it would be more entertaining than watching this movie. If you watch a movie about someone being kidnapped for six years, you expect something more than the guy feeding her chocolate and looking at her through a hole in the wall. Although it sounds morbid, where was the molestation or the mind games? I could not tell if this was a story about Stockholm syndrome or what. All in all, I'm still upset I wasted money buying such a horrible movie.

Phew!

[michael_wasson · 12 August 2011]

What a relief! I watched this on fear.net, so it was free.

I echo the sentiments of virtually every reviewer. This movie promised to be interesting by pretending to be based on the real case in Germany where the man held his daughter captive, molesting and even impregnating her multiple times.

This movie has NOTHING like the news story.

Long story, short....nothing happens in this movie. Yes, the guy kidnaps a girl and keeps her in his "house"? Apart from the rather mundane activities like cooking, playing guitar and reading a bible...there is no activities that contribute to the "plot"!!?? Annoying narration that explains nothing of the motivations by the protagonists. This makes Eraserhead look transparent! An absolute mess! It is incomprehensible how this ever got made or distributed.

Give it a try

[jimmie-saari · 10/10 · 6 January 2010]

I know everyone else have pretty much smashed this movie into small pieces and sent it through space and time hoping it would never return. But, they are wrong.

I first saw this movie a couple of years ago. I had never laughed so much in my whole life than during this movie. Me and my friends just loved the bad acting, even worse camera angles & the horrific musics! We watched the movie again yesterday AND the day before that. Yes, I've seen this movie three times already. And i've watched it from start to beginning two nights in a row. Ulli Lommel has gained a certain cult-status among me & my friends. If your humor can take it, watch this with your friends. You'll find yourself rolling on the floor laughing. Literally.

Interesting in a strange way... 7 out of 10

[IvanAtlas · 7/10 · 30 June 2011]

I watched this film from beginning to end and found it to be strangely intriguing. This film certainly does not have a predictable plot and the ending is surprising. I didn't see it coming and found the ending to be clever and original. The young girl, Schotzy, is a very tender, gentle, believable and sympathetic character...and, has mysterious and lovely eyes. Schotzy is a sweet and innocent girl with emotional and psychological baggage and scars before this ordeal began with her kidnapper. Schotzy is truly adorable. Her kidnapper, is certainly a deranged individual, a madman, a stark raving lunatic at times... but he does display enough kindness and compassion to win some sympathy despite his bizarre and socially unacceptable behavior. He is an abnormal character, and the lunacy in his diseased mind is constantly in a bitter and vile war with any remaining normalcy and sanity.

I was captivated by the strange dynamic of their relationship. If you want to watch something different...I recommend watching this film.

How did this movie make it to the shelves?!

[j_zimmy · 1/10 · 24 September 2008]

I'm appalled as to how this movie even made it past the production phase. Every single aspect of this movie was a train wreck. The acting was non-existent. The only parts of the movie that were even slightly disturbing were scenes cut from other movies and played over and over again. The locations were horrible. The continuity was also non-existent. The female actress wears an outfit in one frame and then in the very next frame is wearing something completely different. They used a mix of American and foreign actors for a movie that was filmed in the US, yet uses foreign city names for their locations to depict a true story of an incident that occurred in a foreign country. Very confusing. The narrator's voice was different than that of the actual female actress. They actually HIRED a separate actress to narrate this movie- and her voice alone made me want to jam a rusty and slightly-bent screwdriver into my ears repeatedly. The director also appeared to be obsessed with the male actor's ass as he repeatedly zooms in and focuses on it. I'm pretty certain that the male actor's ass is the star of the entire movie, at least you'd think so.

There is absolutely nothing redeeming about this movie whatsoever. Absolutely the worst one I've ever seen hands-down. I feel very sorry for the female actress in this movie- if she actually has the intention of being a legitimate actress, she's off to a horrendous start. I.. I just don't know what else to say. Don't touch this movie- unless of course you'd like to watch a grown man have explicit close-up sex with an inanimate doll repeatedly (and yes, I mean an actual doll).

I would rather go through what the subject of this "true story" went through in real life over and over again for te rest of my life than to have to watch this movie again.

I can't believe I watched this to the end

[jeregrette-1 · 1/10 · 18 May 2008]

What's the best way to end a nice girls's evening with nice dinner and wine? A great movie, right? Yes. But this doesn't qualify - at all.

We were tricked by the cover - what has been said earlier is so very true. It looks to be interesting, if not all that great or innovating, but doesn't even live up to that. I'm quite sure that this movie wouldn't even had passed any sort of exam in a director's academy, at all. Basically, they've hired a retarded American porn star model to do bad voice over bits over the same frames of an equally retarded German porn star with a fetish for dolls and horrible German singing over and over and OVER again.

The entire 'are you a witch' part had so much potential, and actually had my friend and I going for the first 10 seconds or so, but then just becomes tiresome and repetitive, except for the part where anything interesting happens: you get to see a blond girl's tits. Seriously, that's the only interesting part of it - right up until the part where the frame is repeated for the fifth time...

I am so fricking proud of my friend and I that we even sat through the entire thing. We've really tested our patience.

I'm going back to the video place tomorrow and telling them to watch the movie themselves - then they won't be able to even consider continuing to charge people to see it.

If I would have to describe this movie with one word...

[greendragon_0 · 1/10 · 22 November 2008]

...it would be. Can't just find one word. This movie was the biggest load of crap I have ever seen. If IMDb would let me rate this movie 0/10 i would give it a 0. When i first rented it with my mates, i thought, well maybe we'll see the true horrifying story behind this. We were wrong. The movie was clearly shot in a few days. The guy that kept her "in a basement/dungeon" had the same shirt the whole movie. In Finland this movie is rated "not suitable for under 18". The only part that i thought was "sick", were when they showed the guy naked showering and when he made love to a doll. That's it. The girl, stated that she loved him. The "bad guy" who kidnapped her, became the hero. He thought her many things, they had fun together, both laughing. For a low-budget movie this was very bad. I always thought that the worst movie ever were Dark Floors, Epic movie or something like that. After this movie, I can't possibly find a worse movie. The only thing you have to know is, DO NOT WATCH THIS.

Not Horror But Drama

[Michael_Elliott · 3 May 2009]

Dungeon Girl (2008)

** (out of 4)

My never ending parade of German director Ulli Lommel's "real life" movies continues with this one, which steps away from the horror genre and enters the drama category. This one tells a story that happened in Austria as a young girl was kidnapped and held hostage by a man for nearly six years. The entire running time centers on voiceovers as the girl tells her feelings for her parents, her life before the abduction and for her kidnapper known only as The Stranger. Again, I've seen all of Lommel's "real life" movies that have been released so far and this one here took me by a pleasant surprise. Not that I'd ever sit through the thing again but at least Lommel tried something different and didn't just deliver the same old garbage. I think what really helps this film is Wendi Jean Linn as the girl and Gunther Ziegler as The Stranger. We really don't get to see them "act" since most of the film is structured around voiceovers but this is beneficial since the majority of Lommel's recent films have been even worse due to the bad acting. Here, they at least look the parts well and the narration by Gwen Trevathan is really good. The film is way too slow and too much stuff is repeated for it to be considered a marginally good film. I'm really not sure what Lommel's obsession is with having a character look into the camera, ask questions and then constantly reuse this footage. Also, the running time of 81 minutes is the norm for his recent films but he might want to consider cutting them down to a hour or less. This is how "B" and "Z" movies were back in the day so he might want to revisit that. With that said, this is still a weak film but it's a lot better than anything the director's have given us over the past decade but then again, that's not saying too much.

Worst movie ever

[badhorsie-1 · 1/10 · 12 August 2008]

I concur with the previous posters review of this movie. It's stupid.

The acting is wooden and plain horrible. The girl in the movie isn't the one narrating, and the narrating is plain awful. The girl is a cutie, but for those hoping she is the nudity part, forget it. Plenty of the guy's naked butt though. The sexual part? The guy having sex with a doll. The movie has no worthwhile or retainable content what so ever. It's basically someone's home movie. A good idea, but needs work. A LOT of work. Like start over completely. It's that bad. The plot is a good idea, where you have a kidnapping and then the girl becomes attached somewhat to her abductor, and then how she attains her freedom as well as the relationship between the two. But this movie is mostly two people walking around and weird close ups and then some girl narrating (poorly) over the top of it all. The laughable part is when the guy is watching the television news. You can see how he is just watching probably a computer monitor or some LCD screen type display (Not even available when the kidnapping allegedly takes place) and then they photoshopped a fake news broadcast onto the screen.

Stupid, Retarded, Inane Waste of Time. I want my $5 back!

[headtrauma420-1 · 1/10 · 29 August 2008]

You know those movies that you can find at Big Lots for ninety-nine cents and they're still a waste of time. Just wait this one's going to turn up there. I watched this crap on movies on demand and I have to say, I want my five bucks back!

This is like a really really bad student film. There is far beyond way too much narration, no action, no acting and some of the worst writing I've ever witnessed. There is absolutely nothing positive I can say about this film except at least it's over and I never have to watch it again.

I remember hearing about this incident and it was quite shocking. There is so much you could do with that story. Instead all we get is a quasi-perverted man who masturbates with a child's doll(his acting was so disjointed I'm not sure if he was really a pervert or if he just liked dolls better than the girl). If you're going to take on a subject like incest or even just general perversion you have to be willing to go there when it comes to telling the story. If you're not comfortable making a film about perversion then stay away from the subject.

I'm all for non-narrative films, but you have to offer the audience something. This is one of those films that's made by someone who thinks they're an artist when really they're just a pathetic wannabe.

This is cinematic sacrilege! Burn every copy of this that exists!

Worst movie ever made

[rettemich-1 · 1/10 · 17 February 2009]

This movie is bad all the way through! I saw the cover of the film when I went to rent a movie and the cover promised a terrifying journey too see the life of Natascha Kampush. She was locked in a basement for 8 years. Though in the movie she was locked up in an attic (?) There were also some parts in the movie that didn't make any sense and some details were unnecessary. Why did the line "are you a witch?" come up at least 20 times in the movie? Why did the dude masturbate with a doll in 20 scenes? Why did they talk perfect English, they were German? :S Nothing made sense in this movie. And not to mention the acting and everything about it. God, I wanted to laugh while I watched this movie but then I remembered that it's a true story and that kinda stopped me. I think that this movie only was made to give Natascha more money in her bank account now that she is free from the dungeon (or attic). And for that I feel no compassion!

WORST MOVIE EVER MADE!! contains spoilers!

[sassygurl1234 · 1/10 · 4 August 2008]

THis movie does not even deserve one star. A 3 year old kid could film a better movie. If you want to see a movie with no plot, terrible acting and terrible filming; watch this movie. Not only did the plot not exist, but there was so much that did not make any sense whatsoever. the one thing that was consistent was the phrase, "all women are witches, Are you a witch?" Nothing was explained, and it isn't even technically a kidnapping. Not to mention.. at no point was it filmed in a basement. she lives in closets. The flashbacks, were not important and had absolutely nothing to do with the movie. If you want to waste your time and money, and put yourself through cruel and unusual punishment, rent or buy this! It wasn't even a funny bad, it was just brutal. I've seen bad movies, but this movie makes snakes on a train seem Oscar-worthy.

Worst movie I've ever seen...

[Takatalvi · 1/10 · 3 May 2017]

This is literally, without doubt, the worst movie I've ever seen, and I've actually kind of seen a lot. Normally I can also sort of enjoy watching movies that are generally considered as being bad because they often tend to be so bad that they become funny. This is not the case with Dungeon Girl. Dungeon Girl is so bad that it becomes funny how bad it is, and even further, so that it becomes bad again, in a non-funny way.

First of all it's really slow and insipid, and secondly you get a feeling that the director wants it to be some kind of an art movie by filming in many different weird angles and have many scenes that come back repeatedly. This is done over and over and over again, and it fails utterly every single time, because it doesn't feel artistic at all, only weird and forced.

Another thing that got me a bit mad about this movie is the cover, which actually looks like a rather representable movie cover and which made me at least get my hopes up a bit about the movie before watching it.

The description of the movie says that it is a "shocking psychological thriller" but the only thing I find shocking about this movie is that someone thought that it was a great idea to release it at all and during the time watching it I didn't really know if I were to laugh or cry.

So if you want to save yourself 81 minutes of your precious lives, this might be just the movie for you to skip!

Hollywood House of Horror: Ulli Lommel's Dungeon Girl

[Captain_Couth · 8/10 · 11 February 2009]

Dungeon Girl is another DTV film from genre filmmaker Ulli Lommel. This story was loosely inspired by a kidnapping case in Austria. The film was shot with a mixture of 35mm and Digital Video. A young teen is kidnapped by a mysterious and twisted individual who keeps her as a "guest" within his home. A strange movie that's told through a series of narration and a few voice overs from the director Ulli Lommel who also appears in the film as Uncle Henry (there's of shot of him pimped out of the staircase, he claims to have been accidentally caught on camera). The story is a sad one that has to be seen to be believed.

Recommended for fans of Ulli Lommel

Save yourselves!!!

[carpur · 1/10 · 11 October 2021]

Don't filmakers know how crucial the first few minutes of a movie can be?

When all you get for at least 10 minutes, no less, is the sound of some clueless girl mumbling away about who knows what since it's almost completely unintelligible ..you can pretty much predict what garbage this movie is about to be.. And so CLICK..and off the movie goes without a second thought.

We breathe a sigh of relief knowing that we just saved a few hours of our life.

Good film if taken in right context.

[Me-2511 · 30 July 2008]

I have to be honest, the film is slow and sometimes repeats it self.

But if you understand what it trying to say and achieve by being film in this way. it shows something on completely different level. being in that situation like "Dungeon girl" was. it creates that feeling of actually being held in captivity. and time is very muddled and things do repeat them self.

i think was not meant to be Hollywood thriller and another oh some poor girl was kidnapped.

I was showing you from the point of what girl remembers probley in order that she remembers it. in real life terms, about girl who finds that being kept captive is where she is most happy.

but i think unless you can accept that concept this film is going feel dull and very slow.