Buy Grimm Love on DVD

Grimm Love

DVD

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$17.99 (10% off)
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Synopsis

An American criminal psychology student discovers the surprisingly tender relationship between a cannibalistic killer and his voluntary victim in this macabre film based on the infamous real life story.

3 Reasons To buy this film

If you think you have a fucked up relationship, you'll think twice after seeing this tale.
Inspired by the true story of Armin Meiwes and Bernd Jürgen Brandes - Meiwes killed and ate Brandes (with permission). They met in an internet chat room called "The Cannibal Cafe".
As sick and twisted as the events in this film may get, it is presented as a love story.

Review

Armin Meiwes, the modern day boogeyman who enlisted a volunteer online to be killed and eaten, has already been the subject of several films - the 2005 German shock-fest Cannibal, gay director Rosa von Praunheim's thus-far-unreleased Your Heart in My Head, and (in part) the gory cult-classic Feed. His story is a contemporary horror legend - a true tale that sounds more like something from urban folklore - and the films about him made up to this point have been predictably simplistic and/or sensationalist. Martin Weisz's Grimm Love, however, is a deeper, more psychological look into the story that made Germany cringe in disgust - a strange and unsettling gay romance about two very disturbed people.

Grimm Love is not a simple glimpse into the depravity of the cannibalistic crime, but a deeper voyage of discovery into the relationship between Meiwes and victim Bernd Jürgen Brandes - fictionalized as Oliver Hartwin (Thomas Kretschmann) and Simon Grombeck (Thomas Huber), two lonely gay men with traumatic histories who never felt comfortable in their own skin.

Keri Russell breaks type - and gives her best performance since Waitress - as Katie Armstrong, an obsessed criminal psychology student living in Germany who chooses the macabre relationship between Hartwin and Grombeck as the topic for her thesis. What she discovers is a gruesome tale of love, intimacy and trust in the unlikeliest and darkest of places. Grimm Love cleverly rides the fence between horror and thriller, never pushing the viewer away with over-the-top scenes of gore (unlike Cannibal and Feed - which, though inspired by the same story, prove to be grotesque, nightmare-inducing exercises in endurance).

Our only real complaint about the film is that the German actors are made to speak English in an attempt to cater to American audiences - which is completely unnecessary and takes some getting used to. They did, at least, cast real German actors in the first place, as opposed to Americans. Other than that, Grimm Love proves far more impressive, thoughtful and restrained than a straight-to-DVD horror flick from the new Fangoria Frightfest label has any right to be. Of course, we still can't recommend it to the squeamish.

-- Clay Dempsey

Product Format Information

DVD : $17.99

Availability: Usually ships in
5-10 days
Region Code: 1
UPC: 625828560903
Catalog #: DV2747062

Studio : Phase 4 Films

Languages: English Dolby Digital 5.1 (Primary)
Aspect Ratio: Widescreen
Extras: Trailers, Deleted Scenes
Features:
Audio commentary: Commentary (Director & Co- Producer)

Keywords

BDSM, Cyber Romance/Sex/Internet, Fetish, Gay Male, Gay/Lesbian, Horror/Science Fiction/Fantasy, International, Obsession

Genres

Horror/Science Fiction/Fantasy

Customer Reviews

A Sinister Film

Amos Lassen wrote on 07/15/2010:

“Grimm Love” (“Rohtenburg”)

A Sinister Film

Amos Lassen

Katie Armstrong (Keri Russell) is a graduate student studying in Germany and researching cannibal killer, Oliver Hartwin, for her thesis. She is soon sucked up in her own project and finds herself in a lifestyle like Hagen’s and other cannibals like him. Unlike other horror movies this is a personal story that pulls you in and takes to the chambers of a diseased mind. This movie is a commentary on a depraved culture.
Thomas Kretschmann plays Hartwin, a man who fantasizes about eating human flesh and he meets Simon Groembeck (Thomas Huber), a man with a plethora of issues who leaves his good-looking boyfriend to be eaten by Hartwin. The two men met on the Internet.
Everything about the film is dark and it has the real feel of a horror movie. However, this is a film that is based on an actual event, the life of Armin Meiwes, a lonely and introverted gay male who placed an ad on the internet for volunteers who were willing to lose their lives by being slaughtered and eaten by him.
This film is a light version of the facts but that does mean that it is not shocking.""Grimm Love" takes place after the facts and the story is a re-enactment via the research and profiling of an American psychology student residing in Germany to work on her thesis. However, I found that the inclusion of Keri Russell as narrator detracts from the film. We never understand exactly what her person she is and why she is researching the man. Her role is totally useless unless it is there to give the movie a longer length. Also surprising is that the film has no really graphic scenes especially due to the nature of the subject.
The movie is sinister and depressing but very well made. It takes a strong stomach to see it but it is worth the effort.