Welcome to BEAST’S FLASHBACK, where like the critics said of Elias Mehrige’s BEGOTTEN: we point a flood light in those places we choose not to look. For those new to this column, allow the author to explain. In this space we will look at films from the past and present that have, for some reason or another, gone relatively unnoticed...

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Even in these modern times, where nothing seems to be hidden, these films have evaded mass viewings, major DVD/Blu-Ray revivals, and far-reaching retrospectives, remaining below the surface, clawing at the coffins of avoidance, screaming to be let loose.

While these movies may not be well known, they still have a resonance on those few who have experienced them, some of which have become well-known genre auteurs, using these underground gems as the measuring stick against their own levels of celluloid depravity. You may have not of heard of them, but they exist… and here they are.

As for the title of this column, the more astute of you out there will pick up on it as a reference to one of the more hilariously baffling moments in the mad annals of horror history; the moment in Wes Craven’s execrable HILLS HAVE EYES PART 2, where we see the dog Beast flash back to events from the previous film.

Alright, now that this is out of the way, let us take an isolating stroll through corroded cerebellum with…

ANGST (aka FEAR or SCHITZOPHRENIA)

1983
Austria
Written and Directed by Gerald Kargl

Four years after the murder of an old woman, a killer goes free. With near-immediacy, his homicidal urges get the best of him, and we find ourselves plunged into the mess of his prurience as he menaces and eventually murders a family living in a rural home, pausing only to revisit his own dismal upbringing.

When the above is read back, it appears that Gerald Kargl’s ANGST is little more than yet another chapter in the textbook of serial killer cinema. But it only takes one viewing to take notice of the myriad brilliance on display. From Erwin Leder’s perspiration lathed performance as the Psychopath, to the chilling cinematography of Zbigniew Rybczynski, to the Tangerine-Dream-becoming-a-nightmare score of Klaus Schulze, to Gerald Kargl’s tense script and direction, ANGST is either the thinking man’s video nasty or the gore-obsessed pervert’s arthouse drama; existential despair and chaotic violence whose mirroring senselessness keep them in bloody tandem.

The more astute “cinephiles” out there may notice some subtle and not-so-subtle similarities in the works of Darren Aronofsky (particularly in the camera work of REQUIEM FOR A DREAM), and French Extremist Gaspar Noe. Noe himself has referenced ANGST several times as a favorite film of his, and the influence is no greater presented (or complimented) than in his seminal last-angry-man shocker I STAND ALONE. Much has been said of ANGST’s camerawork, and the praise is every bit deserved and then some. Some moments, we are the air following the Pschopath, other moments the thoughts in his head, and other moments we are the recipients of his wrath. But we never once feel removed from what is happening. We’re either there, taking part, or being taken apart.

Gerald Kargl never made another feature after ANGST, but he continues to work in the TV and Documentary fields. His website is here; http://www.karglfilm.com/

Sadly, ANGST doesn’t have much in the way of stateside video/DVD releases, but there are 2 sets available a single disc and a double disc set, on Amazon UK. It probably won’t happen, but this film was made for the Criterion treatment. That’s just my opinion though.

Thanks for reading. And remember… even the dog had a flashback.

HorrorBid columnist: N.

N is the vocalist/lyricist for the NY based grindcore band THE COMMUNION, and his short piece "Lycanthropy Wife" is available in the USERLANDS anthology, available from Little House on the Bowery.