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2014 - 79m.
Germany

At a time when all the best genre flicks seem to be coming from overseas I really wanted to like Der Samurai a lot more than I did. It's an amalgamation of slasher flick and art house where you get the impression that writer-director Till Kleinert really is trying for a broader message that just gets lost due to the film's apparent lack of focus and logic lapses. Which may have to do with the brief 79 minute running time and is really too bad since there's some striking moments within and you just have to love the imagery of a psychotic killer clad in a long dress with their hair hanging over their face while clutching a samurai sword.

Meet Jakob (Michel Diercks), a small town cop who we first see trying to stop a rash of wolf attacks by stringing up a bag of bloody meat in the nearby woods. Yeah, I don't see how that would help either. He's a pretty diminutive type of guy and pretty naive which leads to him being picked on not only by his grumpy chief but also the local biker gang. To say he gets no respect is an understatement. However, that's all about to change when he receives a mysterious parcel at the station as well as a phone call from the sender that draws him to an abandoned house and a face-to-face encounter with a strange man (Pit Bukowski) who we first see applying make-up sitting in front of a vanity mirror and wearing a dress.

From here Kleinert starts a cat and mouse game between Jakob and our cross-dressing sociopath beginning with a foot chase that includes a decapitated dog and manic leap into a lake. But this is sure to be only the first incident in a night of bizarre encounters and death as our pair hunts each other throughout the town with victims being attacked along the way. It's just too bad the entire thing just feels too sparse to really work, we're constantly sitting there wondering why Jakob doesn't call any fellow officers in to help when there's all this mayhem going on, and an attempt at an artsy finish (that brings it back full circle to our wolf) that is cool in theory but didn't stick for me.

Given that Diercks and Bukowski spend a good majority of the running time playing head games and at each other they do fairly well here. Diercks is wimpy enough for the role but I did find his character turned out a lot more illogical than he should have. Meanwhile, Bukowski does have some great moments where he goes over-the-top but also has to struggle with Kleinert's tendency to overdose on the artsy side of things - he just did a dark comedy/horror called Der Bunker that sounds pretty outrageous.

Considering my love of modern foreign horror like France's Inside and Spain's [Rec], I do appreciate what Kleinert was trying here. He wants to elevate this above your normal North American slasher movie and I think he's been successful in brief spurts with a memorable villain, a good spattering of bloodshed, and some well-staged shots that make this look bigger budgeted than it is. It was also cool seeing this kind of thing coming from Germany as it's more concerned with mood and pathos than the splatter of the cult favourite Nekromantik series and low-budget gore of Andreas Schnass (Violent Shit) and Olaf Ittenbach (Premutos: Lord of the Dead).

When all is said and done, Der Samurai (or The Samurai) just didn't do it for me. Kleinert brings an interesting viewpoint to the table but doesn't really seem to know what to do with it. It's a small movie with big ambition that ends up being tied up by too minimal a scope to really make a huge impression. If you're a fan of foreign cinema or want a less formulaic take on slashers then you might get something more out of this than I did. I think Kleinert is an interesting voice and am hoping his follow-up to this can cash in on that potential.

Released on DVD and Blu-Ray in North America by Artsploitation Films and it fits prefectly with the company's mindset. There's a solid transfer on hand as well as a trailer, a standard "Behind-the-Scenes" featurette that runs ten minutes, and a listenable commentary (in English) by Kleinert and producer Linus De Paoli. (Chris Hartley, 11/19/15)

Directed By: Till Kleinert.
Written By: Till Kleinert.

Starring: Michel Diercks, Pit Bukowski, Uwe Preuss, Ulrike Hanke-Haensch.