Kondom des Grauens

Internationales Festival Fantasy and Action, Kanada ‧ Publikumspreis

“118 Minuten rasante, nahtlos gute Unterhaltung. So wünschen wir uns deutsches Kino.”

(Quelle: Zitty, 1996)

SAFE SEX IT IS NOT

Cinematically speaking, it’s a difficult summer for the male reproductive organs. First there was that poor fellow in “There’s Something About Mary“ and his difficulty with his tuxedo trouser zipper on prom night.

Now to make matters worse, there are the little creatures with mouths like lampreys, teeth like sharks and an insatiable appetite for men’s external sexual parts and the occasional nose (sex no barrier).

And to make matters even worse, these creatures are on the loose in New York in the guise of condoms.

Yes, these are the chirping, jabbering, bouncing little monsters that give “Killer Condom“ its title.

The film, opening today at Cinema Village, is a Troma Entertainment release, but it is one with a difference. “Killer Condom“ is actually an import from Germany with a level of deadpan humor considerably above the company’s usual adolescent subnorm. “Killer Condom“ is gory, its fixation on blood and severed flesh in keeping with its subject.

That this German-language film with English subtitles also deals with dislocation, urban anomie, love and tolerance is among its assets, as are its fun with movies like “Psycho“ and its mockery of American politicians who preach moral values while practicing familiar vices. On the other hand, the film is a flaccid detective story that after far too long dredges up a standard-issue eccentric old scientist and a flipped-out female physician with a bad case of religious fanaticism to explain its mystery.

At the tender heart and deranged mind of “Killer Condom“ stands Luigi Mackeroni, a New York police detective played with unwavering seriousness by Udo Samel, a sort of Teutonic Bob Hoskins. Uprooted from his native Sicily, cynical about love, unreformed in his devotion to cigarettes, comfortable in the demimonde of the pre-Disney Times Square, Mackeroni is unashamedly gay.

At the outset of the film, a male college professor who has lured a female student from Oklahoma to the aptly named Hotel Quickie, where he intends to persuade her to exchange sex for an improved grade, becomes the first victim of a voracious condom provided gratis with the room.

Naturally, no one believes that such a creature could exist, but when Mackeroni takes a young hustler named Billy (Marc Richter) to one of the Quickie’s rooms, he, too, becomes impaired but by no means permanently disabled in an attack.

As in all such movies, Mackeroni’s straight partner and his superior remain skeptical about the condoms until too late, and eventually Mackeroni has to threaten to go it alone. Meanwhile, Mackeroni is dealing with his conflicted feelings about Billy, his yearning for Sicily and the overtures of Babette (Leonard Lansink), a transsexual chanteuse at the Hotel Quickie who used to be a colleague named Bob.

The film is directed by Martin Walz, who wrote the screenplay with Ralf Konig, based on one of Mr. Konig’s comic books. They’re far out and sometimes dead on.

(Quelle: New York Times 1998, Lawrence van Gelder)

“In German director Martin Walz’s outrageous sex farce, „Killer Condom“, putting on a condom is not a recipe for safe sex. … „Killer Condom“ is the kind of film fellow German Rosa von Praunheim has always wanted to make but never quite pulled off. Like von Praunheim, Walz takes funny cheap shots at the expence of just about everybody…

Walz keeps things moving with a brilliantly witty script, but the coup de grace are the special effects, which, among other things, bring the carnivorous prophylacticsto hilariously funny life. At one point the killer condoms do a kind of mad square dance as they size up their prey. Don’t wait for the Hollywood remake, „Killer Condom“ is the whole cheese.”

(Quelle: Bay Area Reporter)

Martin Walz’s „Killer Condom“, based on the graphic novel by Ralf König, is a bizarre, touching, provocative and funny piece of work. It’s the story of Luigi Mackeroni, a hard-boiled New York detective torn between his transvestite ex-partner and a street hustler with a heart of gold. If there is a hot-button issue that this flick doesn’t push, I can’t imagine what it is.

When he’s not musing on the chances of true love lasting in this town without pity, or reminiscing about his childhood in Sicily, Luigi’s tracking down an invasion of vicious creatures masquaerading as innocent condoms. How they kill, I’ll leave to your imagination, though if you think moray eel with retractable fangs, you’ll have the general idea. Done low-key, deadpan and on location in New York, it’s German dialogue only enhances the general aura of surrealistic sillyness.

Udo Samel as Luigi has a careworn face that is the perfect canvas for Luigi’s air of weltschmerz. He and the other actors play up this satire on extremism, injustice and society’s failings by playing it, you’ll forgive the expression, straight. The passion and pathos of people kicked around by life a little too much meshes with the genuine terror provoked by toothed latex and is enhanced by the clever art direction that captures the gritty film noir feel of a graphic novel come to life.

The „Killer Condoms“ themselves are deceptively cute. They wiggle, they coo, and by the time one of their victims realizes his mistake, he’s singing either soprano or with the heavenly host. It’s a concept that procks those dark recesses of the human psyche where sex and death are hopelessly entwined and provokes the most unexpected reaction of all. Laughter.

(Quelle: Movie Magazine International, Andrea Chase – 1998)

A homicidal prophylactic, a „cross between a giant worm, a jellyfish and a piranha”, feasts on the phallic population of Manhattan’s Hotel Quickie in director Martin Walz’ German-language, English-subtitled black comedy. Udo Samel stars as your typical gay, mega-endowed, Sicilian-born NYC cop determined to end the toothed condom’s reign of terror. In the course of this messy investigation, Luigi encounters lovesick transvestites, mad scientists, power-crazed politicos and even (dare we say it?) true love. Based on Ralf König’s comic book, „Killer Condom“ has more on ist mind than your typical frightcom romp. Part core-movie spoof, part broad political satire, „Killer Condom“ is nothing less than a plea for tolerance – a plea with outrageous gags, kinky erotica and splashy special effects.

(Quelle: Daily News, NYC, 1998)