Here are reviews of two gorgeous looking, recently restored films from Deaf Crocodile, now playing on OVID.
Alraune
Directed by Henrik Galeen
Deaf Crocodile, Horror, 1927, 121 mins
Germany
Official synopsis
A deranged Weimar-era erotic sci-fi/horror starring Brigitte Helm (Metropolis) as the unholy offspring of a genetics experiment conducted by her scientist “father” (Paul Wegener), who implants the semen of a hanged man in the womb of a prostitute. As an adult, the lithe, sinuous Helm drives men to suicide and madness – including her own pseudo-father Wegener.
Review
Brigitte Helm is a force of nature in her portrayal of Alraune ten Brinken in the silent film Alraune (AKA A Daughter of Destiny). Alraune is a young woman who is the product of a mad scientific experiment in which Professor Jakon ten Brinken (Paul Wegener, who played the titular supernatural entity in Der Golem, 1914) implanted the semen of a hanged criminal in the womb of a prostitute. Listen, if that doesn’t press your genre-movie enthusiast buttons, what else do you need to know? Director Henrik Galeen, who cowrote the screenplay with Hanns Heinz Ewers, has plenty more weirdness and madness in store, not the least of which is what occurs after Alraune learns that Jakon is not her father and what her real heritage is. She already was driving men to doom with her seductive powers, and cranks things up intensely once she makes that discovery. As great as Helm’s (Metropolis, 1927) performance is, Wegener rises to the occasion with his fantastic turn as the diabolical scientist who raises Alraune as his daughter. With the horror and science fiction classics credentials of the two leads and fine direction by Galeen, who also directed The Student of Prague (1926) and wrote the screenplays for Nosferatu (1922) and Waxworks (1924), and cowrote the screenplay for Der Golem with Wegener, genre-film enthusiasts need to place Alraune high on their need-to-see lists.
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Dead Mountaineer’s Hotel
Directed by Grigori Kromanov
With Jüri Järvet, Karlis Sebris, Lembit Peterson
Deaf Crocodile, Horror, 1979, 84 mins
Estonia
Official synopsis
Estonian director Grigori Kromanov’s dazzling, paranoid mixture of locked-room mystery, the film combines an eerie Shining-like mountain locale with 1970s Euro giallo and classic noir, with a stellar electronica/prog score by composer Sven Grünberg. Based on a novel by famed Soviet authors Arkady and Boris Strugatsky (Stalker), the hall-of-mirrors plot follows Glebsky as he’s trapped by an avalanche in the ski lodge with a gallery of strange suspects.
Review
If you are in the mood for something decidedly different and strange, director Grigori Kromanov has you more than covered with his genre mash-up Dead Mountaineer’s Hotel. Imagine a whodunit mystery with suspects not far removed from the likes of characters of Lynch and Fellini, add in a science fiction angle, place the proceedings in a hotel struck by an avalanche, and you’ll only be partially on your way to what this film has in store for you. Uldis Pucitis heads up a superb, sizable ensemble cast as no-nonsense Detective Peter Glebsky. Dead Mountaineer’s Hotel is a head-scratcher in all the right ways, and viewers will find their jaws dropping, as well.
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Alraune and Dead Mountaineer’s Hotel debut on OVID on October 28 and October 30, 2026, respectively. For more information, visit https://www.ovid.tv/.
