The Curse of Doctor Wolffenstein

 

1930

Small village in the backwoods of Germany.

An uprising is being breathed into life. Villagers are angry. One too many graves have been desecrated by the witch, Doctor Wolffenstein! He must be made to pay for his necromantic ways!

In a laboratory within the confines of his tower the not so good doctor continues with his failing experiments. What is the missing link to obtaining his  goal?

…the Elixir of Life…Immortality!

Villagers and their holy priests burst into the tower of dread to obtain justice for their families. He can hear the coming room to room closer and closer. But he has one more subject to inject his serum into and cannot let the small minded crowd get in the way of progress!

Doctor Wolffenstein injects the one individual left!

Himself just before the villages burst in and hold him on witch trial.

His punishment; placed in a coffin and  buried alive! 

But before he is confined to his eternal cell he speaks dreaded words to his judges…

The Curse of Doctor Wolffenstein!

From the weak confines of his grave prison the curse arises and resumes his quest for eternal life. But one that doesn’t involve rotting away.

For Doctor Wolffenstein will be following out his curse on the relatives of the original villagers.

Kidnapping the the unwary for their body parts to replace his own failing ones. 

Bodies will be hacked and blood will flow as mad determination pushes towards it’s goal of immortality!

 

The Curse of Doctor Wolffenstein is the latest offering of German Splatter and Underground horror from filmmaker, writer / director Marc Rohnstock. My first excursion into the cinematography of Mr Rohnstock‘s is the fantastic gore and insanity filled Necronos: Tower of Doom (2010). A tale of Demonic proportions, of a plan to rise up a zombie army to destroy humanity. Loving it, it was to my excitement that The Curse of Doctor Wolffenstein appeared on the horizon. Naturally Extreme Horror Cinema kept an eye on this exciting promise in German Splatter here http://extremehorrorcinema.com/index.php?topic=2586.0 in German Underground.

Then it came lat week, an e-mail request from Marc Rohnstock of Infernal Films!

“Are you interested in reviewing our latest movie “The Curse of Doctor Wolffenstein”?…”

“Never heard of it, I’ll be right mate!”

As you can see not really!

Being a writer for EHC Reviews & Interviews I was naturally was over the moon with excitement! Finally the new Rohnstock will be flashing across the screen in all it’s bloody g(l)ory for yours truly! An experience that promised its share of…

GORE…SICKNESS…FILTH…INSANITY…DEPRAVITY

The Curse of Doctor Wolffenstein is an experience in both the love of horror with Marc’s own distinctive flavour.

It’s also one with a fucking awesome promise! Mad scientist harvesting the body parts of his victims to replace his own that are rotting away!

The Curse of Doctor Wolffenstein exists in two parts. Five friends heading off to a festival interluded with Doctor Wolffenstein preying upon one of his many victims. Collision course between both parties begins with mechanical problems with their car. Unfortunately they end up at the village with the curse over it. Also unfortunate for them they end up at a run down Motel of sorts where the owners are fixing their car.

So obviously what we get essentially is a slasher film. Killer being a mad scientist providing over some very dubious surgeries and medical experiments. Then other times he seems to go even farther off the deep end and just hack people’s skulls in with his machete.

As mentioned in the above The Curse of Doctor Wolffenstein is an experience in the love of the horror genre. In my experience I noticed a couple of nods. Opening scene to Premutos (1997) with the villages…but without the cheese of the bad dubbing…The Evil Dead (1981), Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday (1993). But there is more but that lies outside the scope of this review, go check out The Curse of Doctor Wolffenstein and see for yourself.

Yes, I bet you are wondering about the Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday (1993) influence. Or maybe not. But anyway I am going to tell you anyway as it is an important aspect to the storyline!

Influence to me is of the critter that crawls into the victim’s mouth and takes them over to become a killing machine. But in this case the victim becomes a tool to kidnap future victim’s to the not so good doctor’s very unethical medical experiments. But there is only a vague resemblance here. In this case the creature has a skeletal head of a mutant ferret or something and the slug. bloated body. When you see Doctor Wolfenstein    you see the movements of a mad scientist who is rotting away so not quite agile enough to be going out and kidnapping people. Kinda hard to go into town anyway rotting away and covered in blood wearing a medical mask of sorts. Thought this was pretty damned cool!

But in stating all of this it is a nod to films that obviously had an effect on Marc as a horror fan. In the end his offering of blood and gore soaked goodness has his own flavour all over it!

Marc excels in blood and gore! He did most of the Special Make-up Effects himself! Though not as gory as his Necronos: Tower of Doom (2011) there is more than enough for lovers of these films!

We get Doctor Wolffenstein replacing an arm. Lobotomy, hackings and slashing, guttings and so on. Really fun for all the family…Extreme Horror Cinema Family!

My only real ‘wha..?’ moment was the only real weakness to The Curse of Doctor Wolffenstein. We come to a scene where this woman who has obviously escaped from the lab or whatever comes suddenly out of no where bursting through a door and into a room where others are kept prisoner. There was no warning and I was like who the fuck is she? But then he arrives and hacks the fuck out of everyone with his machete before dealing with her so all was made good.

Have to admit I would have loved to have scene more drill bit lobotomy plus would have been cool if a limb fell off at some point. Perhaps when he was chasing after our group of friends.

All up though these are minor points that may or may not really bother anyone.

Lastly there are some nice cameos for those of us into German Splatter / Underground films. Olaf and Tanja Ittenbach, Manoush, Marcel Walz, Isabella Fitzgerald along with a host of other names play victims. Some were blink and you will miss them or just plain not recognise them. Manoush is Manoush and played the rich bitch with her dog who becomes chow for Doctor Wolffenstein‘s pet of sorts. She cops a machete to the head in short order.

The Curse of Doctor Wolffenstein was worth the wait. Though not as gory as it’s predecessor it was also its own beast with its own flavours. Wolffenstein ticks all the right boxes for a fun slasher night…blood and gore, slash and dice plus some nice female forms not afraid to go the whole nine yards when it comes to getting it off..then getting gutted, lobotomised, knife fucked etc for their efforts!

Marc Rohnstock and Infernal Films are for me an artist and a team to keep an eye on. On saying that his second film Graveyard of the Living Dead (2008) is coming to us through www.lastexitentertainment.com soon.

Last but far from least a massive thank you to Marc for his generosity of sending me an online copy of his The Curse of Doctor Wolffenstein, deeply appreciated of having this chance to give it a squizz!