Butterfly: A Grimm Love Story ---- Movie Review # 1

This is my first movie review! How exciting is that! At least, I will know that my blog is now, as in now, interactive with the world. Hurrah, hurrah!

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Gory. I woke up in 1 in the morning and what did I found: a bloodthirsty man, seeking for another meal--a human meal, by the way--on the net. This, at first, looked scary. Who wanted to be asked to be dined? I mean, he is saying on his customers that he is dead serious about the eating and masticating and stuff but, who would?

Butterfly: A Grimm Love Story is not scary. It is just so UN-understandable. It has its eerie scenes where you will see his victim’s half-dead on a tin table and Oliver Hartwin holding the knife against his meal. Then, he stabbed him repeatedly on the throat until he was dead. From then on you will know what will happen to the dead guy (his name is Simon Grombeck). Imagine him carefully slicing the meaty parts, the thigh, the arms and the breasts, and slowly cooking them and eating them as if they were meat.

The story is all about a woman named Katie Armstrong, who was a student studying criminal psychology. She was preparing her researches about a rather disturbing topic: the cannibal killer Oliver Hartwin. In the movie, she went to places that have been part of Oliver's past: their home where his mother died & his school where he met a friend who was dealing the same problem as he is: inferiority.

Katie was really absorbed in her thesis topic. Her friends referred to her as being obsessed, but she replied, quoting "It is just human curiosity. We all have it." From then on she continued and pursued her research. And, on one point, she decided to look for the controversial tape, the tape that Oliver took himself, recording his manslaughter. To her surprise, her e-mail received a reply that a certain unnamed person has the tape. She continued to negotiate, preparing for the necessary arrangements for the proper retrieval. Oddly enough, as if by magic or something, the tape was in her doorstep the second she replied to that man her address.

The man told her to look outside. Then, the tape is there. Though bewildered, she got the tape then quickly went back inside. She went in front of the TV. She opened the package, which contained the VHS tape, then inserted it on the player. Then, the true story behind the hearsays.

There had been much feedback as she was watching; most often she closed her eyes and ears, trying not to let the screams, shrieks and cries get into her. But all of it was ineffective because she just cannot remove her eyes on it. All she did was sob and it was useless. And, in the end, she removed the tape, destroyed the film, and threw it on the ground. Then she crouched, sobbing and crying from the experience that is too true to her.

This movie was banned all over Germany--the country it was supposed to be for. The German court said that it was "infringing the personal rights of Armin Meiwes." It was from him the inspiration of the character Oliver Hartwin was withdrawn from. But, the film was sold for international release and is shown worldwide. So, there you have it.

Again, the Butterfly: A Grimm Love Story is not scary. It is not vulgar, either. It is just that, it was like auto-suggestion. It doesn't need words anymore to describe it because there are the scenes that recognize its entirety as a reminder that past can hurt and the past can destroy, too.