OTTO; Or Up With Dead People [DVD] [2008]

Like Marmite, it seems, you either love LaBruce or hate him. Despite the hostile reviews on Amazon, I loved his movie The Raspberry Reich [2004] (REGION 1) (NTSC) [DVD] [US Import], and, to be honest, I approached `Otto; or, Up With Dead People' with some trepidation, thinking that it might not match up to the earlier work. I needn't have worried. If anything, I think this is LaBruce's best film to date. It includes many of the themes of his earlier movies - situationist agitprop, dark humour, gay pornography - as well as cleverly revisiting the concept of a `movie within a movie' that he employed in `Super 8 ½'.

Otto, the protagonist (*superbly* played by Jey Crisfar), is young, gay, undead and confused (well, you would be, wouldn't you?) and the film tells his story as he struggles to come to terms with his past life and present unlife, a contrast which is brought out in flashbacks as Otto begins to tap his memories of his former existence (set to the sublime Homophones track `Everyone's Dead').

What perhaps gives this movie the edge over LaBruce's previous work is the extent to which one comes to identify with its (undead) protagonist. The ending feels right (at least to me) and the whole film has a satisfying circularity and completeness to it. This is, in fact, a *beautiful* movie. Yes, there is a great deal of blood and gore, not to mention highly graphic zombie sex. But there are also some really poignant scenes - I can't go into detail because it's difficult to describe the scenes without introducing spoilers; you just need to see the film.

The Extras are just the usual Trailers, plus some Deleted Scenes. The deleted scenes, which include some superb animations, are actually rather good, and I think it's a bit of a pity that they didn't make the final cut of the film. But there you go - that's just my opinion, and at least they're on the DVD.

Overall, a sublimely beautiful movie.

Running Time: 1 hour, 34 mins
Language: English
Subtitles available on the disc: English, German, French, Spanish, Greek, Portuguese and Italian.
Extras:
4 Deleted Scenes, totalling about 13 minutes of extra footage
Trailers

Wow. I have never seen anything quite as erotic and squirm-inducing as this saucy little number! Bruce LaBruce's latest sees gorgeous zombie boy Otto (cute Jey Crisfar) go to Berlin to find his ex-boyfirend. What happens on his exploration there is completely barmy and a lot of fun, especially a zombie orgy which has got to be a cinema first? Don't really know what else to say about this film, as it's pretty bonkers. If you are familiar with LaBuce's work you'll know what I mean!

I have long been a devoted admirer of Bruce LaBruce's work, and for me, "OTTO" is unquestionably his finest piece yet. That said, this film is absolutely *not* going to appeal to everyone.

In a film-within-a-film, Medea Yarn is making an indie political-gay-zombie movie, with the aid of her girlfriend, Hella Bent, and her brother Adolf. The setting: the not-too-distant future, where the undead are commonplace, and, in particular, the homophile undead. Otto, a young zombie, is subliminally drawn to Berlin, and onto the set of Medea's movie, where he is quickly cast into a lead role... though the cast don't believe that he is a 'real' zombie, and think he's just living the role. Otto has flashbacks to his life before he joined the ranks of the undead, but can't remember how or why it happened ("I was a zombie with an identity crisis"). He is isolated, persecuted, lonely, displaced, shunned even by conformist-gays... and has come to the anonymity of the city for refuge. He is housed by one of the other cast members, Fritz, who is evidently attracted to him. Will Otto find love, sanctuary... assimilation?

At the level of the image, the viewer may find enough (highly-explicit) male/male action, and gory entrails-eating (you'll need a strong stomach), to keep him/her watching... though ultimate satisfaction will perhaps be elusive, since there will be no 'final resolution'; and the boy-meets-zombie, boy-and-zombie-fall-in-love, boy-loses-zombie, boy-finds-zombie, story arcs do not play out as expected. I can imagine that at this level, the viewer might ultimately disdain the film...and I fully expect reviews to that effect.

However, this is a LaBruce film, and as such it is a far more nuanced, artistic experience. On this plane it has a huge amount to offer: a diverse range of camera mediums, a powerful soundscape, and multiple stylistic experiments. In particular, the politico-philosophical, postmodernist aspects are inescapable: Otto as Marxist alienation; Medea as the post-Marxist left (yet ambiguously complicit with the existing order); the murder of the Real by the Sign... and ultimately the question of what remains after the murder of the Sign itself; the end of all metaphor. At this level, it matters not whether Otto is a zombie, or only believes himself to be one ("the first step in becoming a revolutionary is to act-out against any consensual reality"); whether - as flesh-eater in a post-industrial society - he 'represents' the ultimate consumer, or is merely "the only sane and logical response to a dead and sterile world".

Clearly there's a lot on offer in "OTTO"... if the viewer is receptive to it. As stated at the outset, this film is not for everyone; for the rest, its playfulness and experimentation is engaging, and borders on the sublime. 18/19 year old Jey Crisfar (as Otto) puts in an excellent, courageous performance in his, extremely difficult, first film role. I look forward to seeing more from him, and of course impatiently await Bruce LaBruce's next work.