Review of Angst

Angst (I) (1983)
7/10
Angst, Indeed.
21 November 2022
Between the musical score, and the sound effects alone- Angst is certain to conjure a panoply of negative emotions; then you add in the narration, and the pathetic narrator, and you've got a movie which will stay with you for awhile. This was certainly the very effect the director desired, and he accomplished it marvelously. Lead actor, Edwin Leder, puts in his most earnest efforts at achieving a potent mixture of disdain, and disgust for his character, never letting vanity get in the way of a depraved scene. (There's an uncanny resemblance between Leder, and GoT's Alfie Allen, who himself has the same ability to waller in someone's diseased creation.) Close up shots of Leder eating a sausage, while unrealistically fantasizing about two young women, goes beyond the limits of tolerance. Loud smacking, and breaking glass get to be annoying, but these are but two stops on the road to true angst. The family he torments isn't given any actual background, or character formation, so instead of feeling any real pity for them, the viewer stays focused on the human worm who is their antagonist. None of this attention is wasted, either, as Leder gobbles up our disgust, smacking, and drooling all the way. German directors are wunderbar at conjuring up these kind of jangly, uncertain feelings in an audience, so well, in fact, the music from Nekromantic came back to haunt me for a moment. If you want to have a disturbing experience, look no further.
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