It is safe to say you’ve never seen “gay” horror like German film Der Samurai from director Till Kleinert. In a way, the only thing that makes it “gay” is the fact that the killer is in drag. I know. You’ve heard that one before—Psycho, Hide and Go Shriek, Dressed to Kill, etc. But Der Samurai is a whole new ball(s tucked) game.
A cop (Michel Diercks) is attempting to rid his small village of wolves, using bags of guts as bait. When he arrives at the home of a scared citizen, he instead finds a man (Pit Bukowski) dressed in drag. The man seems to taunt and flirt with the cop before running off into the woods waving a Samurai sword.
The initial chase through the dark woods is so creepy and unnerving, especially since the “monster” the cop is chasing is a muscular, athletic, psychotic drag queen that leaps and runs like a wild animal. What exactly is he and why is he teasing and taunting the cop? He leads him into town and then slaughters anyone in sight in a flurry of martial arts moves—and a nice amount of blood and gore.
Is the drag queen just tripping? Is he some sort of werewolf? Or could he represent the cop’s caged up sexual orientation? Did the cop unconsciously attract the drag queen with his irresistible meat package?
After being easily lured into chasing the seductive drag queen, the cop tries to get back into the heterosexual mindset. He also finds his grandmother devastated and afraid to go near him, denying that he’s her grandson as one might do when rejecting a gay child. And he and the drag queen bring to life the drag queen’s fantasy of the two of them meeting at a party and dancing together.
Then comes nudity, including the drag queen’s fully erect penis (you don’t see that every day in a horror film). Yes, the cop finally gets his hands on the drag queen’s sword. And he likes how it feels…. The way the two leading men carry the movie along is intense.
In the end, Der Samurai is definitely open to interpretation, but as a gay horror film it’s trippy, bizarre, suspenseful, gory, features a freaky killer drag queen like none other, and shows the real hard truth about what happens when a man gets excited.
Learn more about the film and buy a copy here.
