Violent Shit (1987)
AKA Maniac 2001: Violent Shit

Starring Andreas Schnaas, Gabi Bäzner, Wolfgang Hinz, Volker Mechter, Christian Biallas, Uwe Boldt

Directed by Andreas Schnaas

We at Silver Emulsion occasionally circle the globe in order to bring you only the best in classy, foreign entertainment. We find that sometimes it takes a different cultural approach to the human condition in order to broaden perspectives and break down social barriers. Sometimes we also feel that breast dismemberment and rape by kitchen knife are criminally underrepresented in contemporary cinema. Which is why we have braved the frosty woods of Germany to bring you today’s exercise in cinematic subtlety, Andreas Schnaas’ 1987 direct to video classic, Violent Shit.

Violent Shit is definitely a film that lives up to its namesake. It’s not so much a movie as it is a string of outrageously brutal scenes featuring… well, violent shit. The amusing opening credits contain such nuanced gems as “Starring K. The Butcher Shitter” and “Produced By the Violent Shitters.” Yes sir, from the moment it begins Schnaas isn’t afraid to let you know that his movie is indeed full of shit.

The film follows a string of insanely graphic murders by deranged serial killer, K. the Butcher Shitter as he escapes police custody and wanders the woods murdering any random strangers he happens to come across. Although simple and rudimentary, the gore is still graphic and downright shocking at times. In order to give a perspective on just how much overkill Violent Shit dishes out in comparison to other genre films; take this as an example… There is a scene where a forest worker is chopped in half with a chainsaw. The Butcher Shitter drags his severed legs into the woods, and in 9 out of 10 horror movies the scene would be over. Not this time. The Butcher Shitter then emerges from the bushes, proceeds to chop the victim’s head off, and then proceeds to chop the severed head in two!

That about sums it up. As crass and awful as this film is, I do have to admit that Schnaas does somehow find a way to continuously top himself over and over again. I was a little distraught after seeing a scene about 15 minutes in where The Butcher slices off a woman’s breast and eats it while gallons of titty blood sprays up and into his face. I thought there was no possible way he could top that, however that was before I realized that in terms of tasteless gore this man truly knows no limits. One scene in particular involving rape that begins with a kitchen knife and ends with complete disembowelment was pretty hard to stomach. And just wait to see what happens when The Butcher Shitter stumbles across a crucified vision of Christ in the woods. Simple blasphemy does not even begin to explain it. Honestly, if you want the gory details, then give the film a spin. I don’t want this blog to get flagged.

The film was shot entirely on videotape and seems like it was edited together on a couple of lo-fi VCRs. I’m guessing that the only real budget constraint was the foam latex appendages and about 100 gallons of watered-down Karo’s corn syrup for blood. Budget-wise, this is something I’m sure any ragtag group of young horror fans could bang out in a weekend. However I doubt most of them have the morbid creativity and complete lack of moral restraint that Schnaas had though, which probably explains why he ended up spearheading Germany’s low-budget horror film industry.

The gore is cheap and primitive, which is the only thing keeping this film from being truly disturbing. Now that this man has a somewhat sizable budget to work with, I’m almost afraid to see what twisted stuff he has come up with since (Violent Shit itself has spawned three sequels).  At 72 minutes however, the film feels about a half-hour too long. The scenes in between the killings, which mostly feature ridiculously long over the shoulder shots of Germans driving around town to UB40’s Red Red Wine, are virtually unwatchable. If you choose to give this film a shot, my advice is to keep a finger on the fast forward button for these moments.

Also be aware that Schnaas had a lot of those cheesy stock video effects on what was probably his first camcorder, and he sure wasn’t afraid to use them. His overuse of the strobe and monochrome effects in particular make portions of this film eyestrain-inducing nightmares. The unreliable auto-focus mechanism definitely doesn’t help things either.

I should also let you know that I didn’t have the convenience of subtitles this time around. But rest assured, they do not impair in any way your violent reaction to enjoyment of this film. In fact, this film needs subtitles about as much as a game of Pac-Man does. Dialogue comprises about 5% of the total running time anyway, and I’m sure most of it is mindless babbling while K. the Butcher Shitter stalks his victims.

It’s hard to file a film like Violent Shit away. It’s definitely not well made and it’s sure to offend. But I imagine that it did fulfill what Schnaas set out to do with it. Personally I think I can live with my single viewing of it. I don’t know how many vaginal knife rapes I need to witness in my lifetime.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KOepP5lsj-U