Premutos: Lord of the Living Dead

Since I had a little fun writing about the last movie I wrote about A Blade in the Dark, I decided to talk about another movie. Now, to help set parameters for what will go here as far as movies go, if it isn't in my collection at the time of the writing or it is incredibly obscure, it will go here instead of Metal Psalter, unless it gets pushed by other media outlets.

Today's movie falls under the category of the obscure. Believe it or not, I didn't really get into the horror movie genre until the Summer of 2003, when the first movie I watched was Dario Argento's Suspiria. At some point during the fall, while I was still in college, I met a guy that had quite a collection of obscure horror movies. The first movie that I was made to watch is also the subject of today's piece: Premutos: Lord of the Living Dead. Made in 1993, this German movie was all about body count, and it showed from the beginning. With a pretty blatant disregard for storyline, director Olaf Ittenbach goes for the gore, and many of the results shown are as graphic as they are spectacular.

However, I suppose I should tell you the entire purpose of the movie, other than just blowing zombies up and watching people get disemboweled. The central figure of the story is a fallen angel by the name of Premutos, who gets resurrected throughout the ages. Remember that because it will be important later. Fast forward to modern times, and a man named Mathias (Ittenbach), whose stepfather is a war veteran who seems to be stuck in that mode, a dominatrix sister, and what can pass off as a normal mother. It so happens that it is the stepfather's birthday, and there is to be a party featuring an emasculated male and his snobby wife, the stepfather's old war buddy who gets wasted, and a shy woman who recently came back into the country. Mathias gets hurt in the futbol game (read: gets cleated in the groin) and has to miss the party. The stepfather gives him some reading material, which just so happens to be the book of Premutos. By opening the book, Mathias ends up turning into Premutos, and soon, a zombie horde begins to take over, eventually taking out the dominatrix sister, her boyfriend Taco (again, don't ask me why), and shortly thereafter, the horde descends onto the party, where the people have to fend them off.

If any part of the synopsis makes your head explode, then don't blame me, I didn't make the movie. If you can ignore the storylines, Premutos: Lord of the Living Dead is actually a comedy and horror movie at the same time. Among the highlights of the movie are when Hugo, the emasculated male, flicks a booger into his wife's mouth and she stops for a second, only to continue laughing for no reason, and the full frontal fantasy sex scene sequence between Hugo and Tanya, the shy woman. Don't expect intelligent dialogue either, as the English dubbing sounds like a small group of people just got around a TV and put the movie on mute to put in their own commentary. And in case you didn't get that body count was important, it does a final tally at the end of the movie.

Serious horror fans should stay away from this movie. Those who seeks lots and lots of violence will love this film, and even those who just like car wrecks will love this movie, too.