When innocent snow becomes a deadly threat and gritty gunfighters suddenly go at each other’s throats in a frosty survival thriller, genre fans should pay attention. After all, such confident and cordial clashes of different film genres are not commonplace. And in one notable case, such a mix was swept under the carpet by youth protection for decades:
“Death March of the Beasts“ entered the index in 1983, was even confiscated eight years later and only rehabilitated 31 years later! The comeback of the home cinema was complete in 2022 with FSK approval from the age of 18 – but only in a limited edition, which quickly sold out. Those who didn’t get anything then, now get a second chance: “Death March of the Beasts” is back in home theaters this week – uncut, of course!
The combination of brutal westerns and snow chaos thrills should be of particular interest to fans of Quentin Tarantino – after all, they didn’t just influence individual moments from “Django Unchained”. Above all, this film is a major source of inspiration for the epic snow western room game “The Hateful Eight” recognize.
This is “Death March of the Beasts”
Sergeant Brown (Claudio Undari) runs a proper suicide squad: he transports a group of unpredictable criminals across rugged, snowy terrain. The journey’s destination is a forced labor camp, but the chances of Brown ever reaching it are extremely slim. In the end, he only got two soldiers and his daughter Kathy (Emma Cohen) to support him. It turns out as feared: the journey is interrupted after a violent attack – and a bitter struggle for survival begins…
Director José Romero Marcent, also known as Joaquín Luis Romero Marcent, may not even be known to many die-hard movie fans. But as a filmmaker who dabbled in those same genres during the rise of gritty adventure and Western entertainment, he once reached a huge audience. Including one of the most prominent fans to have blood-soaked low-budget tearjerkers from Europe: Quentin Tarantino. And he breathed new life into Marchent’s work through homages.
Even the title of The Hateful Eight is a reference to Death March of the Beasts: On the English market, Marchent’s film was dubbed “Cut-Throats Nine” – Tarantino has, as it were, made himself smaller than his idea generator.
Incidentally, according to legend, he had a less lurid film in mind: according to Claudio Undari, “Death March of the Beasts” was originally shot without blatant violence. But according to Undari’s anecdote, the US rental pushed for a bigger shock factor. As a result, individual scenes were reshot – well with escalating spikes of violence, including liters of fake blood and grotesquely disgusting effects.
Whether these scenes complement or distract from the film’s nihilistic mood is up for debate. However, they must have undoubtedly contributed to the popularity of “Death March of the Beasts”.