Disc Details
Special Features:	Widescreen format Chapter selection Short film: "Coup De Boule" Short film: "Demontage"
Video Format:	Widescreen (1.66:1) [SS-SL]
Languages:	German (Dolby Digital 2.0) Mono
Subtitles:	English.
Captions:	No
Casing:	1-Disc Keep Case

In 1924 Fritz Haarmann (Gotz George) confessed to killing and chopping up 24 young boys. Professor Ernst Shultze (Jurgen Hentsch) has been appointed to examine Fritz to see if he is competent to stand trial. During the period of examination, Fritz comes to trust Professor Schultze. Fritz becomes more open about his crimes. At the same time, Fritz's twisted psyche is revealed. A childhood of abuse, religious mania, ambiguous feelings about his own homosexuality and a myriad of other issues are revealed in Fritz's words and actions during the examination.

"The Deathmaker" is a deliberately paced film, which draws you into a world of pure evil. The film is also interesting in it's depiction of psychiatric examination. Jurgen Hentsch's Professor Schultze patiently probes the darkest recesses of Haarmann's mind, trying to determine if he is insane or just playing games. At times, the immoral immensity of Haarmann's acts cause the good doctor to cry out in an. Schultze plays good-cop/bad-cop in an attempt to uncover why someone would kill and butcher 24 people. Hentsch's performances is one of those low-key performances that is never recognized by the Oscars. It is excellent work.

Gotz George is amazing as the troubled murderer. He is at once, childlike, pitiable, maleficent, charismatic, manipulating, terrifying, evil and all too human. Once seen, "The Deathmaker" is not likely to be forgotten. For those who might want to read in depth about Fritz Haarmann and other famous criminals, CLICK HERE to go to one of my favorite sites, Crime Library. This site was recently bought by Court TV. They have a huge archive of scholarly articles to read and study.

Picture Quality: 9/10
The movie takes place in one room. The period is evoked wonderfully in the costumes, sets and dialogue. Rich, well-saturated colors. No delineation problems, artifacts or pixilation. You can count the pores on Haarmann's evil face!

Sound Quality: 8/10
With the exception of the opening credits, there is no music on the soundtrack. Nothing but dialogue. That's OK as it adds to the claustrophobic atmosphere. I don't speak German, so I couldn't tell you if there was any loss of dialogue. It is interesting reading the subtitles and listening to an unfamiliar language. You can still tell if the actors are giving good performances. Both leads come across just fine.

Menu: 7/10
The menu is simple in design. The various menus have still photos from the movie with some German choral music playing over it. The Extras menu is very disturbing though. It is animated. It is a close up of Gotz George's face as he grins at the male stenographer. Before I saw the movie, I thought the menu screen strange. After watching the film, the extras menu really bothers me. Very creepy.

Extra Features: 4/10
The extras consist of two short films by director Romuald Karmaker. I guess I just don't get these films. "Coup De Boule" is eight minutes inside an Army barracks. The young soldiers introduce themselves and them slam themselves against lockers, or bench press bunk beds.

"Demontage" is a 26 minute film. This film is more performance art than anything else. A bald, skinny guy who reminded me of Michael Stipes from REM, hanging upside-down from a rope between two sheets of tin (like the kind used to make thunder sounds during stage plays.) Another guys swings the bald guy back and forth the two sheets of metal for most of the movie, inflicting a lot of pain. The end of the film has the bald guy being cut loose and walking away with his batterer. Good S/M fun for artistic gays.

The Final Word:
True crime buffs, and those interested in psychoanalysis will find "The Deathmaker" interesting. The heck with the extras. At $19.98, Anchor Bay didn't need to put any extras on this DVD anyway.

Rusty White