User Reviews

An average TV mystery flick

The plot: Phillip (the grandnephew of the wicked Eric Hansen) who became an orphan at the age of eight returns after 15 years to his homeland village, in order to sell the inherited mansion of his Grandpa. But after Phillips's arrival strange occurrences begin to increase - and there are the first dead ones. Is a "Gonger" (sort of poltergeist believed to exist on the German island Sylt) behind it? After the legend humans murdered in the Watt turn after two generations as "Gonger" back, in order to afflict the grandchildren of its murderers. Can Phillip and his youth friends defeat the curse?

My comment: The movie begins promising under-laid with moody music and gloomy light effects. But as soon the actors begin to talk (in that ugly German slang, commonly used in TV series) the magic gets somewhat lost... (Well I hope the English dubbing will be done much better!)

The pace and suspense is not too bad. Some scenes are sort of goofed by unrealistic acting of reaction, in my opinion.

But all in all, this movie is quite recommendable, especially for the fans of the mystery genre.

Bottom line: ***** out of ten

"Gonger" or "Gonger - Das Böse vergisst nie" is a German horror film from 2008, so this one will have its 10th anniversary next year. It was directed by Christian Theede and he is also one of the writers who worked on this one. These 1.5 hours are perhaps the most known stuff from him and only those who saw his fairy tale films may disagree. The cast does not include any big names really, but German film buffs may have come across Ströbel, Zillmann, Glowna, Schroedter or Cortez already. And Die Ärzte singer Bela B. is on board too. Well German horror... what can you say, it is a genre where my country has tried many times and failed in over 90% of the attempts probably. This is just another example as this was honestly never a good watch. I guess it also wasn't a failure, but it comes relatively close. The thriller moments were sometimes fine in my opinion. And the non-supernatural explanation near the end with the revelation of the bad guy was tolerable too. But every time the film really focused on the Gonger, it was a bit of a mess as the concept and execution were never scary or realistic enough. And that comes from somebody who likes hidden danger horror films usually more than the gory stuff, so go figure. Another problem is that this is one of the movies that take itself seriously from start to finish without ever having the right to and that makes it pretty painful to watch as there are moments that just feel impossible to be taken seriously. This small screen production gets a thumbs-down from me and I think everybody who decided after this mess to not return for the sequel (including Theede) made the right decision. Don't watch.

The title of my comment is actually the best line in the movie - sadly a comedic one in a supposedly serious horror movie. I'll divide this comment in plot and acting:

Plot:

After 15 years, the main character Phillip needs to return to his rural northern German hometown because the town's mayor wants to buy his parents's bequest - a big creepy old mansion. Phillip shouldn't have returned to the town however, as his presence awakes the "Gonger" of a child that died in the forties. A Gonger is the spirit of a killed person, who is said to haunt the second generation descendants of its murderer. Oddly enough, in 2008 there are only four descendants of the 4 boys who killed the child back in 1943. You would at least expect them to have twenty incestuous relatives somewhere.

Anyway, due to Phillip's presence, the descendants will dream of each other's death inflicted by the Gonger - a dream which could become reality if the friends don't act fast enough. If they successfully save one, then it'll be the next one's turn... Wait, isn't this ripped off from Final Destination? Not only does the movie copy the formula of the mentioned movie, it's also full of every horror movie cliché from the last decade.

First off, you have your specific 'important' characters who WON'T die in the movie, and the 'unimportant' characters which include your token pothead, token fat guy and token nerd. Then you have the "Gonger", your creepy little child with dark sordid clothes, face covered by something and moving in a slow "creepy" manner. I'm so tired to see this stupid "creepy" kid in every goddamn horror movie these days.

In the end, the dude figures out that the only way to end his (and his new girlfriend's) misery is to redeem the Gonger from whatever. But unfortunately the kid was no "Gonger" because Gongers actually do not exist - the kid was some devil child or some other crap. Instead of giving salvation to the kid, he reincarnated an evil child from the past. Why call this movie "Gonger" at all then? And why does the kid want to kill the descendants at first if he very well knows that he could be more effective (in killing) if exactly those people resurrect him? What I also hated about the movie is that the plot advances way too fast. There's no time invested into introducing the characters. I could have cared less if the Gonger got them.

Acting:

Acting is as expected subpar. ProSieben poured enough money into nice cinematography but spent no cent for decent actors? The main character did the best job, but this is saying much because his performance came off wooden in many scenes. On the other end is Helma, the girl who is probably a soap opera reject - otherwise I would not be able to explain her terrible acting "skills". In Germany, it seems that you only need to look halfway handsome to get roles in movies. Especially bad are the people who are acting as corpses (expect to laugh out load when you see Phillip's mother). The kid is most likely also a bad actor or otherwise they wouldn't have limited him to one phrase and pushed all of his scenes into the last three minutes. Last but least Bela B. should either have acting classes or stay far away from movies altogether - I haven't realized his acting was so bad in "Garden of Love" but in that movie he was dubbed with a demonic voice - go figure why.

I thought this movie would be at least a little more enjoyable. I really didn't expect too much - hey it's a TV horror movie for 12 year olds after all. But all the scenes in the trailer, which were all crammed into the last two minutes of the movie, looked a little different because the boy had evil blue glowing eyes added to him. Why did they do that? A case of false advertising, if you ask me. The ending also sucked, as it felt like the cliff hanger of a TV episode. Does this mean they will make a sequel? How should that work? They can't use the Gonger name anymore for obvious reasons. If you feel like wasting your time for nothing and losing brain cells in the process, then "Gonger" is the perfect solution.