Nirwana Blute is a German short film that was recently screened at the HorrorHound Weekend Film Festival in Cincinnati, Ohio. It brilliantly combines horror, science fiction, comedy, and straight weirdness to deliver an Invasion of the Body Snatchers style coming of age tale mixed with elements of David Cronenberg’s early body horror movies, and a level of grossness that is comparable to Troma or John Waters. It is mysterious at times. It is scary at times. It is funny at times. It is disgusting at times. It is a visual treat most of the time. It perfectly hits on pretty much every level.





This coming of age tale is about 19 year old Bender, who lives with his parents in a fairly boring town where the only things keeping him interested are his older brother and the girl next door. Strange occurrences convince him that something bad is happening to the townspeople and he is determined to figure out what is going on. Similar to The Blob in terms of the main characters age, it places the teenage protagonist into an unusual sci-fi setting while still dealing with typical youth issues and family drama. The final reveal is held until nearly the end of the picture, leaving the viewer uncertain of the true mystery and constantly trying to figure out what exactly is going on.





The directing and cinematography are excellent, featuring unique colors, nice camera movement and angles, and really well lit and colored scenes. The score contained a mixture of various genres, which made certain sequences feel a little bit like music videos. At first it was off-putting, but then it seemed right for the teenage character and the situation. The rest of the score consists of synth music that is superb and works well for this production. When can you not go wrong with a synth score?

This is the new "scary German guy"





The negative aspects are purely nitpicky, specifically comic book storyboarding that was unnecessary. Other than that, this is a fine short film that is worth tracking down once it has been officially released. Nirwana Blute is currently appearing in film festivals. They recently distributed DVD’s to contributors of their Kickstarter fundraising campaign. You can follow them on their Facebook page for further updates. Check out the trailer below.









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