Spalovac Mrtvol (The Cremator) poster & wallpaper

Vlasta Chramostová, Rudolf Hrusínský

A cautionary gothic tale.

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93% liked it

645 ratings

Unrated, 95 min.

Directed by: Juraj Herz

Release Date: January 1, 1968

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DVD Release Date: March 31, 2009

Stats: 52 reviews

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Flixster Reviews (52)

  • flixsterman
    September 8, 2009
    flixsterman
    A Czechoslovakian funeral director, obsessed with cremation, adopts a warped sense of purpose when his German ancestry becomes a topic of interest in his community. Director Juraj Herz manages to take his main character from "merely distasteful" to "completely repulsive" in the ...( read more)span of 95 minutes, completing an arc that is as riveting as it is macabre. A dark and distinctly unnerving film.
  • columbiatch
    April 5, 2008
    columbiatch
    A blend of horror and political allegory, with plenty of black humor. Rudolf Hrusínský gives a fantastic performance playing the demented lead role. Everything in the film is filtered through him, and the use of fish eye lens, close-up POV montages, and these weird invisible cut ...( read more)(where a new scene begins with what appears to be a close up of the previous scene, and zooms out to reveal the new scene) all characterizes his his twisted perspective. The film draw a connection between cremation/death and the Nazi racial cleansing. It's interesting how Herz makes the lead into a Tibet/Dali Lama nutcase, since the Nazis perverted (or were inspired by?) the Buddhist swastika.
  • rezspacenor
    November 17, 2009
    rezspacenor
    A creepy political allegory on totalitarian regime.
  • WitchfulThinking
    November 10, 2009
    WitchfulThinking

    ...( read more) style="width:280px;">







    The Cremator (Czechoslovakian 1969)
    Written by Ladislav Fuks based on his novel.
    Directed by Juraj Herz.
    Production Designer: Zbynek Hloch
    Cinematography by Stanislav Milota.
    Original Music by Zdenek Liska.
    With Rudolf Hrusínský, Ilja Prachar, Milos Vognic, and Zora Bozinová

    In this mesmerizing, Gothic horror film, a funerary specialist becomes obsessed with what he believes to be the nobility of his calling with terrifyingly tragic and bizarre results.

    In late 1930?s Prague, Kopfrking (Hrusínský) is a misguided, enigmatic crematorium operator. He is an impeccably groomed, eerie, enigmatic and meticulous figure and always talks in a hypnotic, soft spoken, poetic manner. He is overly preoccupied with mortality, morbidity, the human soul, and deeply devoted to the funerary arts.

    Kopfrking feels a physical affection for the instrumentality of his trade, lovingly caressing the equipment of the crematory process. He speaks constantly, literally and metaphorically of death and the liberation of the soul through the process of cremation.

    As the story progresses, he becomes increasingly obsessed with his work, finding it glorifying and cathartic. He sees visions of the ghost of his living wife in her youth, along with his future incarnation as he begins a spiraling descent into fantasy and madness. He is on a mission to free the souls of the deceased (and in time the not so deceased) through the pyrolization of human flesh, be it living or dead -just as long as that flesh is consumed and vaporized by fire.

    The influence of the pre-WWII German political machine is enveloping Eastern Europe, polarizing aspiring Nazis and oppositionists. Drawn toward the philosophy of the Third Reich, Kopfrking becomes morbidly obsessed with racial purity and the percentage of German blood flowing within his own veins -literally to the point of having his vessels opened and the contents examined. While The Cremator is not a raving anti-Nazi film, it uses the political ideology as an allegory for exploring the phenomenon of sweeping, consuming mass delusion and insanity.

    The gathering of Nazi forces on the border offers Kopfrking an opportunity to realize his misguided aspirations on a grand scale, one much larger than he could have ever hoped for, one seemingly without limit. Before he can apply his fervor and passion to the task, he hatches a plan to betray and destroy his own acquaintances, colleagues and family.

    While there are elements of black satire in the The Cremator, the movie is so compelling as to nearly overshadow it. The film insidiously and steadily flows to its inevitable and horrifying conclusion like a hot rivulet of liquefied fat.

    The production design is crisp and symmetrical. Stanislav Milota?s stunning black and white cinematography is haunting and beautiful. It features successions of extreme closeups that emphasize slightly grotesque and disturbing features of the biological condition. Milota?s use of black and white film stock?s enhanced tonal range is artfully employed to focus attention on rich textures and multitudes of shades. This gives The Cremator a uniquely unsettling dreamlike quality. The musical score by Zdenek Liska is alluring, phantasmic, and aesthetically intriguing. Viewing The Cremator is akin to experiencing a nightmare that one is reluctant to wake from.

    As a side note, Rudolf Hrusínský's grandson is now in the film industry in is also an actor in the Czech Republic.. Writer Ladislav Fuks allegedly fled the country to escape Communism. His publications have apparently been banned there for many years. The Cremator was a Czech nominee for the Best Foreign Film Oscar.

    "Released in 1969 as a smart arthouse spine-tingler, The Cremator is being pitched today as a sui generic horror show." -Gary Dretzka, Movie City News

    The Cremator was released on Dark Sky DVD, March 31, 2009.
  • Stinger839
    September 22, 2009
    Stinger839
    read TheQueenShilling's review to remind self why this is a MUST SEE

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