Ratline: Eric Stanze’s Masterpiece of Brutality, Supernatural Horror, and Nazi Mysticism!
I reckon if someone ever writes a huge book about the history of extreme horror movies, Eric Stanze should get a large chapter devoted to his output and importance to the genre.
It’s easy to forget the impact Scrapbook (see Scrapbook DVD Review: A Raw and Unflinching Dive into the Depths of Realism in Horror Cinema) had back upon its release in 2000. Off the top of my head, we only really had Nekromantik and Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer circulating on VHS tapes along with a fair few classic ‘70s and early ‘80s gore gems, so this was fresh and nasty (Soon afterwards arrived the juggernaut called, August Underground and the extreme really erupted).
Eric is a guy who can work with a micro budget, formulate and construct something that stabs into your memories, then disappear then reappear a while later to repeat the above. Ratline appeared in 2011, proving itself to be a whole new beast. Brutal, repulsive, graphic, but with a very deep complex tale to tell.
Starting out with a throat gunshot, two half sisters, Crystal and Kim, kill a bloke in a garage, then run out. They burn their bloodstained clothes, checking over a bag of cash, plus guns, as solid rock plays on the soundtrack. Legendary Eric Stanze actress, Emily Haack plays Crystal, and she is totally captivating straight up with her dead-eyed cold cast iron face. Cutting to a guy with satanic shit on his wall, he’s got two buddies designing a very edgy 666 on one side. There’s a few of them meeting that night for rituals and such. They do so and strip in front of flames to speak to their Lord Satan.
One lad sacrifices a very sad faced dog — he’s going to die soon! The ritual continues with mass nudity, wandering around the fire, dog blood, and music. It’s decided that the hound just wasn’t enough so tomorrow night they’ll select a human to sacrifice at random. They pick on a passing driver, knocking him out and taking him to an abandoned building. This man is Frank Logan, and they’ve basically chosen the wrong man to fuck with. He’s clearly from the beginning not what they expected him to be.
Twenty-two minutes in, Ratline has shown more inventive awesomeness, atmosphere, and sensible gore (as opposed to splashes all over for no reason) than a lot of extreme flicks manage in their whole running time. Eric Stanze is a genius when it comes to handling a film, the script, acting, like Scrapbook, is phenomenal. The camera lens itself becomes a central character, bringing us intense scenes of horror!
Once Frank has finished with the satanic cult, he goes to the restroom to clean up and show his dangling bollocks. Checking into a motel to rest, we see a wound he received in the prior slaughter has healed… oooooh. Crystal and Kim, meanwhile rent a lakeside cabin to chill out a bit. Unfortunately, they’re overheard discussing their crime. Crystal is revealed to be wired up differently, as she feels nothing when killing people.
Our man, Frank Logan seems to be having flashbacks involving Nazis, severed heads and torsos whilst looking at an obituary notice. The plot thickens. At a cemetery, he’s sitting at an old grave, a lady called Penny (who earlier overheard the fugitive duo) approaches him and asks if he knows who’s buried there as the graves are to be moved. The writing has corroded with age, so no one is able to identify the occupier. He has no idea, he says.
Crystal meets with Penny. She explains why the crime happened. In conversation they both admit that they’re gay. Yeah, they like each other so it’s doubtful that Penny will run to the authorities. As they stroll away, Frank Logan is following, accompanied by eerie music.
Logan visits Penny’s grandfather, Miles, he knows a lot about his dad’s death. Logan has turned up to claim a flag that holds importance to him and the overall story building up. As Frank Logan speaks, his personal knowledge dates back to WW2 — he should be far older than his physical appearance! It transpires that he worked for a paranormal division in Hitler’s SS alongside his father. Due to experiments undertaken, they investigated another realm. One after effect is lack of aging. We gather more so the flag’s history and how it’ll help in his continuation of those experiments.
Miles gets on the phone once Frank has departed, he needs to hunt out a US military film series from the 1960s, centrally looking for anything on the paranormal division, Geheimnisvolle Korps. Incidentally, this group actually existed, if you didn’t know. They had ties with Aleister Crowley and were led by Himmler. Frank’s real identity is gradually brought to light. It shows what the division were truly seeking — and the flag!!
Ratline is incredible. It is easily Eric’s masterpiece. The linking of Nazis and the supernatural is nothing new (the Outpost trilogy for instance) but this feels deeper and convincingly believable. Experiments like this could have happened as Adolf had unlimited resources to fuel the imaginations of his leagues of scientists.
The way everybody in the plot sort of catch up to one another is handled brilliantly. Personally, I felt that the lead up to the finale kind of drops its head, becoming cat and mouse chasing with a cliche reveal in the last scene.
Nevertheless, Emily Haack and Jason Christ as Crystal and Frank absolutely steal the whole show. Both are featured in Eric’s latest creation, Anxiety (see Phantasmagoria in Isolation: A Surreal Journey Through Eric Stanze’s ‘Anxiety’ here) by the way. Full top tier Creepy Severed thumb in the air to Jim Wayer and Christ Belt for the realistic gristly effects throughout. As mentioned before, Ratline is not wall to wall gore, but when the red stuff arrives, it’ll make you shit your pants (Hope you all have your shitting pants on — yeah, that’s a Negan quote, I have no shame).
Ratline comes gloriously recommended for gorehounds, extreme fans, and general passing by rubber necking curiosity seekers.
Directed by: Eric Stanze
Written by: Eric Stanze, Jason Christ
Produced by: Jeremy Wallace, Eric Stanze
Cinematography by: Eric Stanze
Edited by: Eric Stanze
Special Effects by: Jim Wayer, Chris Belt
Cast: Jason Christ, Emily Haack, Sarah Swofford, Joseph R Engel, Alex Monacco
Year: 2011
Country: USA
Language: English
Colour: Colour
Runtime: 1h 43min
Studio: Dirtnap Productions
Distributor: Wicked Pixel Cinema