SLIFF 2016 Review – LONG LIVE DEATH

LONG LOVE DEATH screens Friday, Nov. 11 at 9:00pm at The Hi-Pointe Backlot as part of this year’s ST. Louis International Film Festival. Ticket information can be found HERE

In “Long Live Death,” a serial killer sedates his female victims and makes their murders look like suicides. When the body of another woman is found, Lt. Murot finally catches the culprit, appearing to end the deadly spree. But even after his arrest, the killer still exerts terrifying control over the situation, and Murot seems to play an unwitting part in his master plan. As detective and criminal play a cat-and-mouse game with the highest of stakes — a person’s life — Murot is forced to confront his own past and inner demons. A tense thriller, “Long Live Death” is a quasi-sequel to the same director’s “At the End of the Street” (2015 SLIFF), with both films inspired by the long-running German television series “Tatort (Scene of the Crime).”

Review of LONG LIVE DEATH by Dane Marti

Going from jazzy 1970’s opening titles which announce that this is a ‘Tatort’ production, the film bluntly and brilliantly shifts to a bleak noir landscape of murder. Soon, the viewer is in the grimy midst of a brutal crime scene and focuses on the dogged and pragmatic world  of a German detective. It won’t be too many years until his retirement, but he’s got more on his mind. As he briefs reporters on another senseless, grotesque crime, the viewer is shown,  through skillful editing and tight close ups, someone mysterious is in the media crowd. Is it the killer? A Voyeur?

The acting by Ulrich Tukur  ( playing the Detective Felix Murot ) has the perfect balance between realism and obsession. He’s great/
 Obviously, there are comparisons going to be made between U.S. films like Seven and The Hannibal Lecter films, but this modern serial killer noir stands on its own. It addresses such topics as Assisted Suicide and the nature of evil.

I don’t believe that I’ve seen any of the writer/director, Sebastian Marka’s other cinematic work, but this work is a professional production from top to bottom. Yes, it has blood, it has all the obligatory elements contained within so many other crime thrillers, but it entertainingly conveys grit and underlying horror with all the horror and power that a grim story can convey.
  I’ve read that this is simply one segment of an ongoing crime television show that airs in Europe and Germany. If you like old Film Noir, or the more recent branch of the psychologically dark style, this is a film that you should definitely see. And then, try to get some sleep. Ha.  This film is a foreign film that almost anyone would  enjoy: Quality.