The Most Notorious Underground Horror Film Ever Made: Nekromantik (1987)
While mainstream horror in the 1980s was busy delivering polished slashers and rubber monsters, Jörg Buttgereit was operating in complete secrecy on the fringes of West German cinema. With a budget of roughly $2,000 and a Super-8 camera, he created Nekromantik — a film so extreme, so philosophically bleak, and so sexually transgressive that it was banned, confiscated, and indexed as harmful to minors in multiple countries. It quickly became the ultimate forbidden object of the international underground tape-trading scene.
The story follows Rob (Daktari Lorenz), a quiet man who works for a company that removes corpses from accident scenes. He brings home body parts to share with his girlfriend Betty (Beatrice Manowski). Their relationship is built entirely around necrophilia. When Rob manages to bring home an entire male cadaver, Betty’s obsession with the corpse grows until it completely displaces Rob. What begins as a perverse romance becomes a grotesque love triangle that ends in jealousy, despair, and one of the most infamous self-destructive climaxes in the history of extreme cinema.
Beauty in Decay: Soundtrack and Aesthetic
What separates Nekromantik from mere shock exploitation is Buttgereit’s deliberate artistic choices. The film is accompanied by a surprisingly beautiful and melancholic piano score composed by Daktari Lorenz, Hermann Kopp, and John Boy Walton. This romantic, sweeping music plays against images of rotting flesh and sexual acts with corpses, creating a deeply unsettling cognitive dissonance. The film treats necrophilia not as simple perversion, but as a tragic, romantic response to human loneliness and the failure of living relationships.
★ THE DIAMOND TIP
💎 Cinematic Diamond: Jörg Buttgereit distributed the film himself by driving around West Germany and personally delivering VHS tapes to small video rental stores from the trunk of his car — completely bypassing official censorship channels. The rotting corpse prop was constructed using real animal organs and parts obtained from a slaughterhouse. The film remained on Germany’s “Index” list (media harmful to minors) for over 20 years before receiving a partial review.
Why This Film Still Matters
More than three decades later, Nekromantik remains a landmark of transgressive cinema. It is not merely shocking for the sake of shock. It is a bleak, romantic, and deeply cynical meditation on loneliness, the failure of human connection, and society’s desperate attempt to sanitize death. In an era where even extreme horror is increasingly sanitized for streaming platforms, Buttgereit’s uncompromising vision feels more vital — and more dangerous — than ever.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Nekromantik about?
The film follows Rob and Betty, a couple whose shared necrophilia becomes the center of their relationship. Rob supplies corpses from his job cleaning up accident scenes. When he brings home a full cadaver, Betty’s obsession with it drives Rob into jealousy and despair, culminating in one of the most shocking endings in extreme cinema.
Why was Nekromantik banned in so many countries?
Due to its graphic depictions of necrophilia, explicit gore, animal slaughter footage, and complete rejection of moral boundaries, the film was banned, censored, or confiscated in numerous countries. It was officially indexed in Germany as harmful to minors for over two decades.
Is the animal death scene in Nekromantik real?
Yes, the rabbit slaughter footage is real. However, the filmmakers did not kill any animals for the production. Director Jörg Buttgereit used existing documentary footage of a farmer slaughtering a rabbit for food. This choice added a layer of unflinching realism to the film’s disturbing atmosphere.
How was Nekromantik originally distributed?
The film was made on an extremely low budget of around $2,000 and shot on Super-8 film. Jörg Buttgereit personally distributed VHS copies from the back of his car to independent video stores across West Germany, completely bypassing official censorship channels.
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