''Otto; or, Up with Dead People'' is a 2008 Canadian and German

queer cinema "New Queer Cinema" is a term first coined by the academic B. Ruby Rich in ''Sight & Sound'' magazine in 1992 to define and describe a movement in queer-themed independent filmmaking in the early 1990s. It is also referred to as the "Queer New W ...

horror film Horror is a film genre that seeks to elicit fear or disgust in its audience for entertainment purposes. Horror films often explore dark subject matter and may deal with transgressive topics or themes. Broad elements include monsters, apoca ...

. The film was directed by

Bruce LaBruce Bruce LaBruce (born January 3, 1964) is a Canadian artist, writer, filmmaker, photographer, and underground director based in Toronto. Life and career LaBruce was born in Tiverton, Ontario. He has claimed both Justin Stewart and Bryan Bruce as ...

and stars

Jey Crisfar Jey Crisfar (born Jeremy Di Cristofaro on 24 April 1988 in La Louvière) is a Belgian actor and artist. Work He became known playing the lead role in Bruce LaBruce's '' Otto; or Up with Dead People'' (2008). The character he plays is a zombi ...

, Marcel Schlutt, Nicholas Fox Ricciardi and Gio Black Peter.

Plot

A young gay man named Otto believes that he is a

zombie A zombie (Haitian French: , ht, zonbi) is a mythological undead corporeal revenant created through the reanimation of a corpse. Zombies are most commonly found in horror and fantasy genre works. The term comes from Haitian folklore, in whic ...

and has hitched a ride to

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

and begins to explore the city. Otto is discovered by underground filmmaker Medea Yarn, who begins to make a documentary about him with the support of her girlfriend, Hella Bent, and her brother Adolf. Medea is trying to finish ''Up with Dead People'', the epic political- porno-

zombie movie ''Zombie Movie'' is a short zombie film produced by 2Chums Moving Pictures in 2005. 2Chums Moving Pictures consisted mainly of Michael J. Asquith & Ben Stenbeck, both former employees at Weta Workshop and current employees at Valve. The movie wa ...

that she has been working on and convinces its star, Fritz Fritze, to allow the vulnerable Otto to stay in his guest bedroom. Otto discovers that he has a wallet that contains information about his past life, remembering details about his ex-boyfriend, Rudolf. He arranges to meet him at the schoolyard where they met. It becomes clear that Otto is human, but dealing with

schizophrenia Schizophrenia is a mental disorder characterized by continuous or relapsing episodes of psychosis. Major symptoms include hallucinations (typically hearing voices), delusions, and disorganized thinking. Other symptoms include social withdra ...

- the

soundtrack A soundtrack is recorded music accompanying and synchronised to the images of a motion picture, drama, book, television program, radio program, or video game; a commercially released soundtrack album of music as featured in the soundtrack o ...

and visual background repeatedly feature discontinuous sounds and abrupt flashes of light. As Medea prepares to finish her film with a climactic gay zombie orgy, Otto is queerbashed. He makes his way back to Fritz' flat and the two of them make love. Medea finally ends her project with the fictionalised version of Otto burnt to non-existence. However, offscreen, Otto decides to leave Berlin and is last seen hitch-hiking out of the city.

Cast

as Otto * Marcel Schlutt as Fritz Fritze * Nicholas Fox Ricciardi as Man in Hooded Sweatshirt * Keith Boehm as Man in a Suit and Hat * Olivia Barth as Woman in Black Burga * Christophe Chemin as Maximilian * Katharina Klewinghaus as Medea Yarn * Gio Black Peter as Rudolph * Bürger P.

Soundtrack

The film's soundtrack (released on CD and as a Limited Double LP on the ''Crippled Dick Hot Wax'' label) contains an eclectic selection of pieces by contemporary musicians. Among them:

Antony and the Johnsons Antony and the Johnsons is an American music group presenting the work of Anohni and her collaborators. Career British experimental musician David Tibet of Current 93 heard a demo and offered to release Anohni's music through his Durtro label ...

CocoRosie CocoRosie is an American musical group formed in 2003 by sisters Sierra Rose "Rosie" and Bianca Leilani "Coco" Casady. The group's music has been described as folktronica, freak folk and "New Weird America", and incorporates elements of pop, blu ...

, The Homophones, Othon Mataragas and

Ernesto Tomasini Ernesto Tomasini (born 15 May 1968, in Palermo, Italy) is an Italian actor/singer/writer living in Britain. Best known for his more recent forays into contemporary music, he has also had a 35-year career on the stage. Early Performances Tomasini ...

Reception

Critical reception for ''Otto; or Up with Dead People'' has been mixed. On ''

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

'' the film has an approval rating of 50% based on 20 reviews, with an average rating of 5.00/10.

Awards

Merlinka festival The International Queer Film Festival Merlinka or Merlinka Festival is an annual LGBT-themed film festival which is annually organized in Belgrade (since 2009), Sarajevo (since 2013) and Podgorica (since 2014). The Belgrade edition is organized ...

International Queer Film Festival, Belgrade Serbia - Best Queer Film

References

External links

* * * 2008 films German horror films 2000s German-language films English-language Canadian films Pornographic zombie films Films directed by Bruce LaBruce Canadian LGBT-related films Gay-related films German LGBT-related films 2008 LGBT-related films LGBT-related horror films Canadian zombie films 2000s Canadian films 2000s German films {{LGBT-film-stub