La Petite Mort II is a torture porn/ faux snuff film- with a fair bit of spit, bite and unpleasantness about it, as well as a few sly touches of dark humour. The German production is from  the mid-2010, and mixes torture with reality show banter ‘n’ bitch in an often effective & shocking manner. Here from Unearthed Films- those seekers of extreme cinema around the world- is a recent Blu-Ray release of the film.

La Petite Mort II (aka La petite mort 2 - Deformation professionelle, La Petite Mort 2: Nasty Tapes) is from the year 2014. It comes five years after the first La Petite Mort- which told of a group of three tourist friends landing up in the basement of Maison de la Petite Mort- a Frankfurt club, where they torture and kill folks for paying clients. The first film was very much of a rewarding enough Hostel clone. The second film is a lot more episodic in its layout- with a reality show/ faux snuff wrapping around it.

The film was directed by a German-born director who relocated to LA Marcel Walz- who also helmed the first La Petite Mort. Since 2005 he’s racked up an impressive twenty-one films to date, with four in production as I write. 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 is once again set in the underground Frankfurt club. Which is now under new the new ownership of Monsieur Matheo Maximè (Mika Metz)- a thin gothy, black make-up wearing, and snappy/ aggressive man- who rather wants to be a woman. He is joined by a selection of scantily clad females, and gender-troubled henchmen.

The film comes in at just under the hour and a half mark. It’s made up of a mix of torture and mutilation of the various victims that have been brought to the club- with their names, ages, and price for torture. And reality show-type interviews, and backstage argument/ banter.

On the gore/ torture side of things, we get nasty finger-snipping’s & fingernail pulls. Blunt object face battering, mouths sewn up, blasé suffocation, entrail sushi, gassing with nazi undertones, flesh cutting & stippings, breast severed-then-sewn on & sudden/ brutal castration. The mixing in of the reality show elements/ in job arguments/ banter really sells the nasty stuff well, making the whole thing more tense & troubling.

Acting wise Metz is great as Monsieur Matheo Maximè- really switching well between deranged campness & depraved showman. The rest of the staff of the club do a good enough job. We don’t really get to know much about the victims- but they mostly sell their pain & suffering.

Moving on to this Blu-Ray release, and as this is a relatively modern film- the print is of good & balanced quality. Though I do have one issue- during the gassing sequence in the film, the swastikas on the torturers have been covered with very obvious graphic symbols.   I of course understand that the use of this symbol is still barred from use in all German media- so it’s fair enough, I just wish it had been done more subtly. Otherwise, on the extra side, we get a Making of (12.34) which is all/ most of the effects footage in one place. And alternative sequence (3.44) which is the gassing scene- with swastikas showing, and effects filters taken off. We also get behind the scenes gallery, and trailer.

La Petite Mort II certainly is a successfully troubling & deranged follow-up to the first film. Going down a more episodic route for a pure torture porn/ faux snuff venture with a few twists of Nazi exploitation here and there. And I’m sure it will manage to shock/ appal even the more seasoned extreme horror fans. Here’s hoping for La Petite Mort III!