User Reviews

"The Last Employee" is a movie directed and written by Alexander Adolph. If you are a bit familiar with German cinema, you may have heard of "Der König von St. Pauli" from back in the 1990s. Adolph wrote the script for that and also worked on several "Tatort" episodes. The lead actor here is Christian Berkel, a successful German actor who acted in several movies that were also successful abroad and also stars in a critically lauded TV show named "Der Kriminalist".

Here, he is also involved in a case of crime (or not?). It is actually a suicide. Berkel plays a man who is instructed to fire people as the real bosses do not possess the courage. He had some psychological problems in the past and as the film goes on these come back to surface. In the end, he has completely descended into insanity and is about to lose everything, his family and his life. I really did not like the sound work here. Sometimes it's too loud, sometimes not loud enough. Apart from that the films works best as a psychological thriller. Every time it tries to be a kind of horror movie, it does not really work out. Also the audience has difficulties to see what is really happening and what is only happening in the mind of the protagonist.

This movie is like a much darker version of "Up in the Air". I'm not sure if this was inspired, but I saw some parallels, especially the profession of course. And finally some random side-notes. The boy in this movie looks like the boy from Alf, Brian Tanner. Berkel's makeup near the end is really scary, almost too intense already. People keep ramming their heads against heavy things in this film. I was underwhelmed watching this. Not recommended.

Laywer David Bottcher, (Christian Berkel) after a year long absence has been hired by a new firm, to act as its liquidator, as the company is deemed unprofitable. After being out of work a year himself, this is not something he takes lightly, and doesn't particularly relish it.

After giving the staff their marching orders, one of them, Frau Blochs (Bibiana Beglau) is reluctant to leave, and seems really depressed and upset. David offers her coffee, comfort and a lift home. Frau Blochs pleads to be kept on, while David politely explains that it's not his decision.

Frau Blochs is not amused and proceeds to semi stalk him, via phone calls, and turning up at his son's afternoon care centre.

David is not happy with this, and goes to Bloch's flat to confront her. However, when he gets there, he finds she's committed suicide. David is stressed with guilt over this. He was out due to mental stress and this is the last thing he needed while just getting back on track.

Then things start to happen. His radio won't play at work. The lights act funny. He keeps thinking he's seeing Frau Bloch, but she's dead, so this can't be. His suspicious, interfering Mother-in-law seems to think that David is simply cracking up again, and his wife is worried.

David himself isn't sure if it's hallucinations or... something else. Especially when events then seem to touch on others around him...

Is it all in his head, an unwelcome return to the previous year? Or is something more sinister at play here?

The Last Employee is a really good and rather unpredictable horror from Germany. Although mainly a psychological horror, it's also punctuated with some dead straight nasty ultra violence, courtesy of German splattermeister Olaf Ittenbach, who did the FX.

My previous experience of Ittenbach's FX have found him reminiscent of early Peter Jackson. But Fox studios are behind this, so when given a half way decent budget, Ittenbach's work is much more impressive, with some scenes sure to have you wincing.

As for the film itself, it's dark, original and with some left field touches, not to mention being quite vicious in parts, which makes this one worth checking out by any horror fan.

8/10, recommended film and a shame the Germans aren't more prolific, as their horror output has been rather impressive, or at least quite solid, over the years.