The most interesting aspect of Lukas Rinker’s directing debut are the unlikely reasons it is almost as bad as one would expect with the crude title and premise: one-man survival show in a portable toilette. Architect Frank (engaging: Thomas Niehaus) wakes up in a confined space with vague memory of how he got there and limited time to alert someone or escape. The shitty situation is complicated by a metal rod piercing his arm and his big-talking boss (Gedeon Burkhard) wanting him dead. This crappy copy of Buried almost works as a puerile parody of McGyver-ish inventory spirit.
However, in line with the phony preachiness of the simple storyline, Frank’s use of makeshift tools basically only serves to prolong his punishment. His degrading dilemma is all too obviously a case of fateful fecal comeuppance because he didn’t feel ready for kids with predictably pregnant wanna-be wife Marie (Olga von Luckwald). Blatant sexism and racism make this moralist messaging paired with a splatter sadism reminiscent of Saw feel especially hypocritical. Gratuitous female nudity and a PoC chief detonator (Rodney Charles) acting as absurdly unintelligent magical negro spoil the small moments of fun while generating the wrong kind of chills.
- OT: Ach Du Scheisse!
- Director: Lukas Rinker
- Screenplay: Lukas Rinker
- Country: Germany
- Year: 2022
- Running Time: 92 min.
- Cast: Gedeon Burkhard, Micaela Schäfer, Rodney Charles, Uke Bosse, Friederike Kempter, Yuki Iwamoto, Olga von Luckwald, Thomas Niehaus, Björn Meyer
- Release date: 20.10.2022
- Image © Drop-out Cinema