La Petite Mort is an early 2000’s slice of torture porn- the German film finds a trio of friends getting caught in the clutches of the members of a deranged S & M club. It features effects by German splatter fiend Olaf Ittenbach, with a keen atmosphere of sleazed perversion and grimy unease. Here from Unearthed Films is a recent Blu-Ray release, featuring the director's commentary track & a few other extras.

La Petite Mort (aka La Petite Mort: Die Nasty) is from the year 2009. It was directed by German-born director relocated to LA Marcel Walz. Since 2005 he’s racked up an impressive twenty-one films to date, with two in production. These go from camp-based slasher Kadaver (2007), fashion designer-focused horror comedy James St. James Presents Avantgarde (2010), haunted forest horror Raw: The Curse of Grete Müller (2013), and  Herschell Gordon Lewis remake Blood Feast (2016).

The film opens with a fairly lengthy text & voice over claiming the film is based on a murder at a German S & M club, where the killers were never found. Then we meet our three twenty-something leads- Simon (Andreas Pape), his blind girlfriend Nina (Inés Zahmoul), and her best friend Dodo (Anna Habeck)- they are in Frankfurt for a few hours on a stop off, before catching another flight. We get footage of the three walking around the city, going to the museum of the blind(!), getting mugged, and having an argument. As the day slides by the three find themselves on the seedier/ rundown of the city- with Simon deciding to go into a bar, which turns out to be in the half-light, covered in chains, and has a darkly slamming electro soundtrack.

The bar is full of pushy hookers, and shade-wearing male clients. After the more outspoken Dodo has a go at one of the hookers- things turn nasty, as a phone call is made, and the three are put in clutches of mannish/cross-dressing madam Manoush(Maman) and her band of perverts who run an extreme S & M/ murder club below the bar.  The film is very clearly influenced by Hostel 1 and 2- with a few of the effects/kills coming from the films.

When things turn nasty, around the twenty-five-minute mark Walz creates a feeling of doomed sleazy unease which is punched by moments of torture & gore. We have an eye pulled out, a brutal castration, gut slashed open & gory shower taken. There’s a gruelling scalping, deep neck slashing, fingers in a meat grinder, and a few other things. The torture scenes feature a wild-eyed leather-masked man, and of course, madam Manoush egging things on. We also get a face-burnt male client, who takes a liking to the gustier Dodo.

The three leads are passable for low budget 2000’s euro horror- with Anna Habeck as the more outspoken Dodo being the most memorable of the three. Maman as the cold ‘n’ camp Madam is effective too. The film runs at one hour and seventeen-minute mark, and for the most part, it rolls by well enough- though a few of the shaky opening shots of the city aren’t great, but at least things improve after this.

The region-free Blu-Ray takes in a few extras. First up we have a commentary track which finds director Marcel Walz joining Unearthed’s Stephen Biro for a chatty track.  It opens with the director confirming the films was very much meant as a Hostel rip-off, and that it (surprise, surprise) wasn’t based on a true story. We find out the club they use in the film was a real sex club, and the rather troubling things that went on in the real location. They discuss how easy it is to film without permits in Germany.  We find out the three leads were in past Walz films, and how easy they were to work with. Later on, they talk about issues with the cover artwork for this release, and they had to change due to issues from US retailers. There's chat about worrying about having issues with filming knife-based scenes, and making sure to have several sets of clothes for gore scenes. All in all, an entertaining/ interesting enough track. Otherwise, we get a German language/ English dubbed making of (51.08). a recent interview with the director (8.14), and an archive interview with make-up artists Olaf Ittenbach. Plus, trailers for the film, and its sequel.

La Petite Mort is an effective example of extreme torture porn- with some nastily successful gore/ torture, and a grimly sleazed atmosphere. And it’s nice to see it getting this release from Unearthed…oh, and they are reissuing the film's 2014 sequel in April- so keep an eye out for that too!.