ANGST

A psychopathic killer, after serving several years of imprisonment, finds himself free. Confused and disoriented, he begins to wander the streets of a city he doesn't know, with no money and no place to go. His only thought is to immediately seek out a potential victim to satisfy his never-quenched murderous instincts. Unique feature film by the Austrian director and screenwriter who brings to the screen the story of Werner Kniesek, a serial killer who in the 1970s was arrested for the murder of an elderly woman; shortly after his release, he was captured again for having tortured and exterminated an entire family in their own home. Kargl strictly adheres to the facts that actually occurred using a detailed and intimate chronic approach. The peculiarity of the film is due to the almost total absence of dialogues that give way to the protagonist's voice-over. The latter, through a distorted and complex introspective journey, recounts some traumatic episodes of his life, starting from the difficult family situation experienced during childhood, revealing an altered and perverse psychological portrait. The film, also released under the titles "Fear" and "Schizophrenia," strikes for the crudeness with which it portrays the sadistic character, distancing itself from the stereotypical serial killer, but without sparing us macabre and ferocious sequences. The idea of the "superhero" serial killer who studies and stages a flawless plan, camouflaging his true nature, is indeed abandoned in favor of a terribly realistic and therefore imperfect representation. Prison, instead of having a re-educational effect, causes the man a real abstinence, making him plunge into a vicious circle that seems like a time bomb. The atrocities of which the executioner stains himself are made even crazier and almost surreal by the discrepancy between the intentions narrated and the actions actually carried out: there is no connection between thought and the concreteness of the act. Thus, when the killer devises the perfect murder, planning every move with conviction, he does so with apparent lucidity and a sense of control; a mastery and security that in reality find almost no echo in reality. All this to underline the schizophrenic nature of the maniac, who fights an internal war from which he will inevitably emerge defeated: the visceral and animal instinct to satisfy his fantasies will make him lose every glimmer of rationality and with it every chance to act in the most logical way possible. Completely at the mercy of the irresistible and uncontrollable impulse to kill, the killer operates with such disorganization and lack of organization that it almost arouses a comic tenderness. Excellent the acting performance of Erwin Leder, who brilliantly carries on his shoulders an extremely heavy burden, using only the language of the body. Merit also to the directorial setup that exploits unconventional but very artistic stylistic elements, perfectly expressing the protagonist's psychic discomfort: body cam, long tracking shots, and off-center framing - realized from every possible angle - make the viewing much more anguishing and verisimilar, thanks also to the support of a cold and elementary photography that highlights the squalid settings in which the story unfolds. The death of other human beings is for the killer the only reason for living, an urgent physical and mental need that sucks him into a whirlwind of sexual excitement: seeing fear arise in the eyes of his prey is a stimulus so untameable, essential, and desperate that it takes precedence even over his own safety and freedom. "Angst" is not just a film, it is the inhuman and dramatic cry of a tormented and pitiless soul that makes the suffering of others the central pivot of his existence.