By Johnathan Bonham.

Coming into this movie, I had virtually no idea what I was getting myself into. I knew that it was a German film, and I knew that it was considered a psychodrama. That’s about it. It almost reminded me of back in the day when I renounced movie trailers. I went to the midnight premiere of Casino Royale back in 2006, and that very night I watched a trailer that showed a cool part from the movie and I thought to myself “Man! I wish I hadn’t just watched that and could’ve seen that part live.”

For a period of time after that I avoided movie trailers like the plague so that every part of every movie I saw was fresh and foreign to me. I did really enjoy being able to see movies like that, but anticipation got the best of me and eventually I had to start watching trailers again. Point being, going into a movie with no knowledge of what you’re getting yourself into can be a great thing. Honestly, I think having no knowledge of this movie improved my experience, especially with it being a psychodrama. It had my nerves raised every time it was night or there was creepy music playing. I’ll stop right here for a brief synopsis.

The film opens to a girl wandering the streets wearing a robe and slippers. She is clearly unstable, and we see her make a phone call where she says that everything is quiet now, and there is peace at home again. From there the film cuts to a young couple, Jessi (Esther Maria Pietsch, the wandering girl) and Lorenz (Matthias Lier), moving into a new apartment with the help of some friends. On their first night in the place they get a knock on the door from a fellow tenant, Hilde (Tatja Seibt), who asks that they turn the music down. The following day they go upstairs and apologize once more to Hilde for the music.

While chatting with her they come to learn that no one winds up staying in that apartment, for one reason or another. Jessi, a cellist, later notices that she can see Hilde peering into her apartment as she practices for the big music competition she’s recently been selected for. As the movie progresses, bad things start happening over and over again to Jessi while she is alone in the apartment. Someone rings her doorbell multiple times but is nowhere to be found, animal feces are left on their doormat, and the kitten that they recently purchased goes missing. Jessi suspects that this is all the doing of Hilde, who is trying to force them out of the apartment. From here, things start to spiral out of control for Jessi who can’t tell if she is losing her grasp on reality, or if her neighbor really has it out for her.

I thought the first half of the movie was very successful. In a psychological movie, I like it when things get set up slowly, but then crescendo to a powerful climax or twist. In the first half we meet all the main players, and we get the point that someone has it out for Jessi, which is starting to drive her insane. There are some great shots at night in their apartment that were very creepy, and lead you to believe that something bad will happen at night later on in the movie. There was almost the sense of a Paranormal Activity vibe going on. I could feel my heart rate rise a number of times either during the night shots or when the music would get intense, just anticipating something to pop out. The problem here is that this movie is a psychodrama, so although it sets up all of this great tension, it doesn’t ever actually move forward with it. It builds up to something popping out and making you jump…but nothing ever pops out and makes you jump. That isn’t really the movies fault, I’m sure that is the effect the director, Jakob M. Erwa, was going after.

Had he wanted to scare people shitless and have them jumping out of their seats, he’d have made it a psychothriller. So shame on me really. It just felt that the movie had more to offer had it actually upped the ‘psycho’ and toned down the ‘drama.’ The second half of the film more or less just keeps pace with the first half, offering what I felt was a weak climax and not the intense crescendo I was hoping for. As the movie was coming to a close, I was taking a few notes and wrote that the movie needed a twist and has a weird, awkward climax. Having said that, the movie does, quite literally, end with a twist. So I suppose I “jumped the gun” (it’s a joke for this movie, not my best) with my final thoughts. Does the twist save the movie? Eh, not really. Does it make you think a bit and perhaps say, “Oh!” out loud, yes I’d say that’s fair.

This movie had potential, there is not doubt about it. There were certainly shots that were filmed well, and the movie would cut very quickly at times as a good thriller does. As I mentioned, though, this wasn’t really the directors intent. He was more interested in the downward spiral of his main character as she becomes more and more unhinged. I would’ve been ok with that being the focal point, but I don’t think they convinced me enough that what was going on warranted her going crazy. I wasn’t bored during the movie and I was on the edge of my seat at times, but if you’re looking for a movie tha t gets your heart pounding, has you jumping, and rewards you with a grand ending, this isn’t it.