The October Zombie-Thon! - Day 27: Premutos

Posted by Trevor Snyder on 10.27.2007

Finally, the splatter-fest we've been waiting all month for. But is that a good thing?

PREMUTOS: LORD OF THE LIVING DEAD (1997)

Written & Directed by: Olaf Ittenbach
Country: Germany


Holy shit, is this thing gory.

Sorry, pardon my French, but I had started to forget just how bloody a zombie movie can be. I know that's an odd thing for a die-hard zombie fanatic to admit, but I think it says more for the films I've reviewed this month than it does me. I guess I didn't even realize how tame most of this month's selections had been, until experiencing the wall-to-wall grue of Premutos.

But then, it's not like the extreme gore of Premutos was a complete shock, either. In a sense, I knew what I was getting into, given the film's era and country of origin. With Italy's zombie-boom effectively coming to an end with Michele Soavi's brilliant 1993 masterpiece Dellamorte Dellamore (aka Cemetery Man) , it was up to another country to pick up the slack. Germany bravely rose to the challenge, with a number of Teutonic "auteurs" unleashing a wave of low-budget, carnage-filled zombie epics that made even some of the goriest Italian films look like family films. Unfortunately, though, the majority of these German gore-fests lacked the charm and compelling ideas that made the earlier European zombie films so memorable. Instead, the German films seemed to value little more than a constant display of crimson, with only the slightest attention paid to little things like story or dialogue.

I would say that Olaf Ittenbach's Premutos is no exception, but I'm not entirely sure that's the case. Here, at least, the writer/director has clearly given some thought to crafting the film's plot (perhaps too much thought, but more on that later). That's not to say his chief concern isn't the gore, though. Because, believe me, it is. The main goal of Premutos appears to be to rival Peter Jackson's Brain Dead (aka Dead Alive) as the goriest of the gory zombie films – and it comes pretty damn close to doing so. What Ittenbach failed to realize, however, was that just being as violent as Brain Dead does not make your film as much fun as Brain Dead - a miscalculation that explains why Jackson is the famous director he is today, and Ittenbach is…well…not.

Premutos, we learn, is the first Fallen Angel, having been cast out of Heaven even before Lucifer. In the centuries since, he has made periodic visits to Earth, always during times of great suffering and war. An earthly visit from Premutos is never good news for humanity, as he is able to raise legions of the undead into his own loyal army. Luckily for us, he has so far been defeated in every attempt to conquer our world, but is given another chance in modern times, thanks to the bumbling antics of Matthias (played by Ittenbach) and his gun-obsessed step-father.

It turns out Matthias is the human incarnation of Premutos – a fact which he is completely unaware of, although it does explain the visions he frequently has, depicting him in past time periods like WWII and even the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. As if the increasing frequency of these nightmares wasn't enough, things get even worse when his step-father uncovers an ancient book while planting a tree. What do you think the odds are that book has something to do with Premutos? I bet you're thinking they're pretty good, huh?

Hey, you're right! After reading the book, Matthias undergoes a brutal (and quite gooey) transformation into Premutos, and immediately unleashes his zombie army on his parent's dinner party in the other room. Uhh, alright…seems like kind of a minor thing for the first Fallen Angel to concern himself with, but give the guy a break. He hasn't been on Earth in years, and needs to get his human-killing legs back under him.

You might read this description and think there's a lot going on in this film, and I suppose, in a way, you'd be right. But this is one of those rare cases where a story is both overly-elaborate and somehow completely empty at the same time. With Matthias' constant flashbacks, the discovery of the book, and a lengthy prologue involving a peasant who tried to resurrect Premutos long ago, the film sure gives the impression of being about something.

However, it turns out the entire first hour of the film is little more than a diversion – simply killing time till we get to the movie's blood-soaked final 30 minutes, in which the dinner party guests engage in a lengthy battle with Premutos and his legion of ghouls. This incredibly gruesome section – a splatter-fan's wet-dream – is clearly the film's chief reason for existing, and you can't help but wonder why Ittenbach even bothered with the rest. Yes, it's somewhat impressive to see an obviously low-budget film pull off some pretty decent looking historical set-pieces, but that only makes it more depressing later, when you realize these scenes are essentially wasted in a film that's really nothing more than just another blood-and-guts extravaganza.

But then, I guess that's what most fans will be coming to Premutos for in the first place, so it's probably silly to question the story's merits, anyway. So, let me instead question the merits of the gore-scenes. Now, don't get me wrong, the effects here are, for the most part, pretty top-notch, especially for a film of this budget. Horror fans like me will always have a soft-spot for the kind of old-school, pre-CGI carnage that made films like Evil Dead and Re-Animator so much fun, and in that regard Premutos is a lot of fun. There's a near endless array of sticky, gross, mayhem (the highlight definitely being when a character inexplicably enters a scene with a tank, and blasts the zombies to kingdom-come with heavy artillery).

So what's the problem? Well, as gore-fests go, Premutos just isn't that original. Ittenbach is obviously aping the outrageously over-the-top bloodshed of The Evil Dead and Brain Dead, yet also obviously has no idea how to match the gleefully demented genius of Sam Raimi or Peter Jackson. Apart from a few pretty-cool death scenes, Premutos is essentially a non-stop cavalcade of heads blowing up and limps being chopped off. Yes, it's entertaining to watch if in the right mindset (and preferably with a group of rowdy friends), and yes, you'll be impressed at the quality (and sheer quantity) of the gore. But that doesn't mean it doesn't start to repeat itself and get tedious, particularly during the film's extended zombie-massacre climax. So while it's a nice temporary fix for gore-hounds looking for a bit of fun, it lacks the creativity and winning humor that brought fans back to films like Evil Dead and Brain Dead – I don't think there will be many repeat viewings of Premutos.

Then again…there is one thing that might make Premutos more of a cult classic than it really deserves – and it has nothing to do with the movie itself. Rather, it's the piss-poor English dub job on the Shock-O-Rama DVD. Since there are inexplicably no English subtitles provided for the original German audio track (who made that call??), English-speaking viewers like myself are forced to watch the English audio track, which will certainly go down in history as one of the worst dubbing jobs in film history. Not only does it sound like it was recorded in a closet by a couple guys reading the script for the very first time, but the dialogue is often so strange and off-the-cuff that I question the accuracy of the translation anyway. And that's just when they actually are dubbing the characters – there are several moments when someone is obviously talking (or, even better, screaming), and they don't even bother to dub a voice in. Wow. Just…wow.

Of course, when the terrible dubbing is the best part of a movie, you know you have a problem. Overall, I'm glad this year's Zombie-Thon had at least one splatter-fest to satisfy the bloodthirsty horror fans out there. And yes, Premutos likely will satisfy them, at least a little. Still, there are far better examples of ultra-gory zombie comedies out there, and it's for a good reason that Ittenbach's film will probably never join their ranks. Sleep easy, Peter Jackson, for you still wear the splatter crown.

FINAL SCORE: 2.5 out of 4 Bubs (Mildly Recommended)