Angst (1983): Austrian Director Gerald Kargl’ Horror Movie

Like Psycho (loosely inspired by Ed Gein’s crimes) and Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer, Austrian director Gerald Kargl’s film is based on real-life murders.

In this movie it’s the notorious “Kniesek case,” in which a criminal was given early release, and then used his newfound freedom to break into a house and slay its three occupants.

What sets Kargl’s version apart is how the filmmaker refrains from trying to aestheticize his subject. Instead, he depicts the man’s actions in almost real time, alternating between subjective camerawork (we see what the killer does), reverse angles of lead actor Erwin Leder’s face (shot via chest-mounted, backward-facing camera rig) and disembodied surveillance-style footage recorded from high above.

French director Gaspar Noé (I Stand Alone) and Greek Yorgos Lanthimos, who used cinematographer Zbigniew Rybczyński’s technique for The Killing of a Sacred Deer, have professed admiration for this picture.