3 out of 5

Director: Jörg Buttgereit

A better film than the first movie, but less inspired by the same token.  Nekro 1 wasn’t mind-blowing – I’d also give it an average rating – but director Buttgereit was definitely up to something with the film.  The general themes of sex and death were obvious, but I can only make guesses at to what else, exactly, Jorg was trying to communicate.  The point being, though, that it was something, and it was something filtered through a pretty watchable shock film.  Nekromantik 2 is more polished – there are some pretty impressive panning shots, and the compositions are better, tactful decisions (mostly) of shot placement, and when to go steadicam and whatnot.  There’s also more of an attempt of making an actual film with characters.  There’s still not much development, but there’s as much as any other horror flick.  Most pleasingly, if the first film leans more toward being an art-shock piece, in this one, Buttgereit sinks fully into the genre.  It’s actually pretty funny at parts, and he really pushes the “gross” envelope (though I’m still uncertain about the medical accuracy of the decay of these corpses, but do we care?), and both of these decisions seem purposeful.  Alas, without the grinding need to prove something, the flick is also less interesting… it reeeaaallly drags at parts, and the attempt to make it more like an actual movie – tying scenes together, linking story elements – ends up feeling sort of like padding.  A valid entry in the shock genre, more worthwhile than most, but you get where this is going after a few minutes.