Solitude of the Tormentors (Einöde der Peiniger) Review from Black Lava Entertainment!
Juval Marlon is no stranger to poisoning the pages of Severed Cinema. His underground roster of cinema sickness includes Torture Fetish (review here), Torture Fetish 2 (review here), Dead Baby Mutilation (review here), Strychnin (review here), and Sturmgewehr (review here). This time around however, we are witness to his most accomplished film to date, Einöde der Peiniger (aka Solitude of the Tormentors). My good buddy Richard from Twisted Minds fortunately gave me the heads up about the film.
It’s obvious that Solitude of the Tormentors is a love letter to Marian Dora (interview here). From the sprawling nature shots of emerald forests to various forms of wildlife from cows to insects (dead and alive), Marlon shows his eye for beauty within torment. The film’s delicate soundtrack by Viktor Astrup echoes that of the best from Dora as well. That said, fortunately there will be no animal cruelty found here.
Our film opens to the body of a blood-splattered woman resting nude (complete with explicit shots) in the woods amongst a bed of leaves a beetle saunters around some dead carpenter bugs. There are sequences of beautiful foliage, and we are introduced to our main antagonist and her victim. Isa Bellé Fitzgerald (Snuff Tape Anthology, The Last Tape), exceptionally plays the pitiless Karla, a caretaker of the cognitive and mobility impaired, who is taking a man out for a stroll to enjoy nature, played by Marco Klammer (The Yearning of Maria D.)
Once back at his apartment, the man pleads with Karla to stay with him longer and to take him outside again. She argues with him and next thing we know, he is dead in the woods with a lopped off arm. Karla documents with a camcorder.
Karla uses her profession, under the guise of caregiving, to select and dispatch her victims. When she isn’t murdering patients in the woods, she can be found frolicking nude, appreciating an animal skull. In one scene we see Karla gently urinating on the skull, later worshiping it, caressing it, and rubbing it over her body in a scene similar to that of Shivabel Coeurnoir’s character in The Yearning of Maria D.
Not only does Karla choose the mentally and physically disabled as her victims, but she also branches out for her them. In one instance she builds a relationship with a woman online professing her excitement to meet her. Once Karla meets the woman at the train station, one thing leads to another and the duo a nude and frolicking in the woods together. However, the playful innocence is quickly disrupted when Karla stabs the woman in her breasts viciously with a hunting knife. Ending their visit with an oral stabbing.
Solitude of the Tormentors takes another depraved turn about midway, when Karla introduces cognitively and mobility impaired Titus (Vlad Petrov), to a man called Morris (played unnervingly by Jörg Wischnauski from Blight of Humanity. She brings him to an Elizabethan-esque rural house where the affluent Morris gives Karla an envelope of cash in exchange for Titus. She leaves.
Shortly thereafter Morris wheels Titus around the property, stopping to piss on a tombstone. They return home where the two sit down for a meal — the house adorned with artwork and nice finishes. Morris has a little too much wine, and becomes in the mood to dance, so he attempts to carry Titus, but he crashes to the floor. Enraged by this, Morris smashes a plate of food over him. He begins to apologize, “I’m sorry, I lost control.” Beginning to unbutton his pants he continues, “But you know I have been alone for such a long time.” He vigorously rips off Titus’s t-shirt and proceeds to unbutton his jeans and begins to rape him. Thus, Titus’s torment begins.
The fact that the predominant victims in Solitude of the Tormentors are of the helpless innocent variety, makes the movie even more visceral and disturbing. The power both Karla and Morris possess over their victims is endless. Not to mention Jörg Wischnauski plays a glorious creep with the character of Morris. There are scene where he merely walks around the house wearing nothing but a dress shirt and socks, his genitals swinging around, giving the character an additional unhinged aura.
There are several more gratuitous scenes of sexual torment, and torture that has not been divulged here. Solitude of the Tormentors is a standout achievement for Juval Marlon. The end sequences of imagery with Isa Bellé Fitzgerald is pure art which contracts the absolute degradation of humanity here perfectly.
Seekers of subversive underground horror cinema need not look elsewhere for Solitude of the Tormentors absolutely delivers.You can grad a 2-disc limited addition coming July 20, 2022, from the fine folks at Black Lava Entertainment.
AKA: Einöde der Peiniger
Directed by: Juval Marlon
Written by: Juval Marlon
Produced by: Juval Marlon
Cinematography by: Juval Marlon
Editing by: Juval Marlon
Special Effects by: Juval Marlon
Music: Viktor Astrup
Cast: Isa Bellé Fitzgerald, Jörg Wischnauski, Marco Klammer, Vlad Petrov, Maria V., Sven Zinserling
Year: 2022
Country: Switzerland
Language: German (English Subtitles)
Colour: Colour
Runtime: 1h 3min
Studio: Beheading Films
Distributor: Black Lava Entertainment
