somehow innevitable

German filmmaker Uwe Boll gained fame making really, really bad movies out of video games, openly-antagonizing internet movie writers who hated them, challenging his critics to boxing matches and opening the action/comedy "Postal" with a slapstick-comedy restaging of 9-11. Really.

When that well dried up, he moved on to making "straight" horror/action films and questionable-taste dramas built around hot-button political issues; notably "Darfur" (that was actually the title) and "Rampage" - a kind of rural, youth-oriented "Falling Down" about a small-town loner on a day-long killing spree. At least one thing is clear: The man understands the importance of a "hook" for selling low-budget movies.

For what it's worth, "Rampage" was kind of a revalation for me: Well directed, well written (he also scripted) and possessed of a genuinely keen undestanding for the unique nihilism of a theoretical Middle American sociopath. It's his best film, by far, and if ANYONE else had released the same product it would've been recieved as one of the better indies of that year. If nothing else, it means that it's impossible to simply dismiss him as a resourceful hack - the man has actual talent. Which is kind of too bad, because I get the sense that most would prefer and excuse to dismiss or otherwise not acknowledge what is apparently his next "big" project.

"Auschwitz." Seriously. (NSWF trailer and more after the break...




Hat-tip to Chud and Twitch...

For those unfamiliar, that's Boll himself in the Guard uniform.

Someone was eventually going to make a "torture/gore-FX-showcase" shocker out of The Holocaust, which is what this looks like - and it's definitely interesting to see it coming from Germany of all places - but still... yikes.