Punk band Zeckenkommando - singer Kalle (Lars Kokemüller), bassist Xena (Lea Ostrovskiy), guitarist Flash (Niklas Bähnk) and drummer Titus a.k.a. Brutalo (Philip Spreen) - is basically one of the many bands that will probably never make it past city limits (and they only live in a small village), but the bandmates just enjoy jamming together and have lots of fun, beer and unrealistic illusions. And Kalle, owning a camera, thinks it's actually a good idea to make a documentary about themselves, for their "fans" ... and then their landlady (Elena Meissner) tells them she has sold the building their rehearsal room is in, and the new owner Thorben Schüssler (Alexander F. Obe) won't extend their lease. And while most of the band don't really care that much and are ready to move on, Kalle suspects foul play and persuades the others to investigate - but they seem to run into closed doors everywhere, be it press or city hall - until they secretly follow the mayor deep into the woods - and see him, Schüssler and a few others summoning ... none other than the "Old God" Cthulhu. From a World War II veteran they learn about a Nazi conspiracy to summon Cthulhu to destroy the world that was only stopped by them being utterly defeated too soon, but now Schüssler and company try to bring to a closure what the Nazis have begun - and there's only one way to stop him, and that's playing a certain song once Cthulhu has arrived but isn't at his strongest yet. Now Zeckenkommando is a band, so playing the song should come easy ... only the guitar player isn't up to it and has an affair with the bass player, who Kalle considered his girlfriend - so it's really up to Kalle whether he wants to save the world or break up the band to make a point ...

A mockumentary about an unsuccessful punk band that's thrown into a horror situation much too big for them to handle ... this sounds like such a good idea on paper that it's almost bound to fail as a movie - but surprisingly, this movie doesn't fail by a longshot, it's actually really funny, really delivers in terms of narrative, and the mockumentary approach actually really works here, too. The reasons for this are probably that the humour might be silly at times, but in a good-natured way, and the whole thing never becomes just moronic, the suburban punk band seems to be accurately portrayed without falling into cheap caricatures, the actors actually play their instruments, which adds authencity, the mockumentary approach here means something else than just shaky camera, the direction is never in-your-face, so gives the story and characters room to breathe, and other than many mockumentaries, this movie's well-structured, too. All that said, the movie doesn't reinvent the genre by any means - but it's a really good laugh!

review © by Mike Haberfelner

 

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