recommended

Am i the only one who thinks........Average?

Tells a fascinating and unsettling true story, and does so well, without pretending to have all the answers.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

I am initially underwhelmed by Der Todesking (The Death King). So we are presented with 7 stories, one for each day of the week. Every story is depicting suicide, with cuts of a slowly decaying corpse(made from pigs guts and strawberry pudding) in between. So what we basically get is an anti-suicide movie made on a shoe- string budget it does work quite well for what its trying to achieve with the budget they had. However, Its a bit of a hit and miss with some of the stories some of the scenes tend to drag on and one day which was Thursday was just shots of the bridge in Germany called the suicide bridge. The director himself said that its very hard to capture what he had in his head due to the budget restraints. We also have a sneaky homage to the Ilsa films which are banned in Germany and a nice shootout at a cinema. The decomposition of the corpse looks great and its nice to watch you'd almost think it was real. The same skeleton was used from necromantic and the scene was shot at 1 frame per hour. As for sound, they repeat a rather depressing song over and over but it doesn't really get annoying. check it out if you're a film student or interested in the themes presented here but i can't recommend it personally.

I've watched Schramm, Nekromantik 1 and 2. Der Todesking is really at the top of them. I spent like 40 EU on the movie. I didn't buyed it because I was a 100% sure it was good, I bought it because it was a rare film to find. When I finally saw it, I knew that the value of the film was above money.The film is an essay on death and more than that is an analysis on audiovisual violence. Der Todesking is an Art film with the soul of a Horror film. If I would have to make a list of the films that I've saw in my life this film would definitely be on the top 10.This is not a splatter film. Blood is shown only in a couple of scenes, nevertheless the film leaves you powerful visual impression.

This film is brought to you by the controversial German director, Jörg Buttgereit. I had a difficult time understanding the premise to its maximum potential – but from what I've gathered, for each day of the week, a short tale is told with the theme of death or suicide present in each one. It makes reference to a religious chain letter in circulation from a group calling themselves "The Brotherhood of the 7th Day." Also, the reoccurring scene of a decomposing corpse against a black back drop is shown with the use of classical music in the background. "Life is an illusion and becomes ridiculous and meaningless once we face it. The one security life has to offer is DEATH."This piece was constructed with an obvious existential nihilistic approach. Life is treated meaninglessly and the idea of suicide is likened to vengeance. Each person has control over their destiny and this enables them to become "The King of Death." This concept is not without interest, but Buttgereit's delivery was lackluster. Unlike his previous film, Nekromantik, the abstract elements present in this film are deep – I'm not sure I've fully grasped what the director was trying to convey. Certain scenes are splashed together and inconsistent. I partially blame the uncut copy I viewed for its poor use of subtitles – if I had a more coherent version, it surely would have been easier for me to piece together the meaning of certain segments. If I was to accurately judge this movie I would say that it's mostly boring and unprovocative. Buttgereit doesn't spell the message of his film out to the audience, and whatever feeling you're left with after watching Der Todesking is the right one. There are no definitive answers.

Buttgereit does a beautiful film about suicide? Who would have thought that the same director of the filthy, Nekromantik, would be capable of bringing us such a moving portrait about suicide. Well, it is also a film about violent death, not just suicide. This is subject matter that most writers and directors would shy away from because it is too dark. It took someone like Buttgereit with enough audacity to give this disturbing topic its humanity. The film itself is actually seven short films each one dealing with violent death/suicide from different aspects. There are indeed some parts that will move you to tears such as a bridge (somewhere in Germany, we don't know where but that's not important) and on film captions of the occupations (no real names given) and ages of the people who have used the bridge to meet their end. At the very end of the film you are shown photos of smiling children obviously during more happier times. This scene got me emotionally more than any other. I have to spoil one thing but as a cautionary statement, there is one scene unfortunately that has become almost a trademark for Buttgereit: the obligatory castration scene. But get past that and this film is a wonderful, emotional experience. This one certainly has earned it's place on my all time top ten movie favorites. I feel very fortunate to have been given the opportunity to see such a marvelous film. Now if only it would be made available on DVD?