Reconstruction:Angst (1983)

You are reading a reconstruction.

Quick guide (IMPORTANT): please read our quick reading guide.

Spoiler note: we advocate a “spoilers don’t matter” stance. Read more about it.

Copyright note: we do NOT generally own the rights to the reconstructed content. Reproduction is made under the provisions of fair use for educational purposes.

For more info on reconstructions, we refer you to our manifesto or the online book.

Angst starts with the camera <moving around>⁠DEF the main character as he roams around before finding and shooting his next victim:

• 
• 
• 

He is then captured and imprisoned for several years. His first stop after release is at a diner, where he catches people <watching>⁠DEF him:

The <watching> coincides with extreme close-ups of him <eating>⁠DEF:

After the scene, he finds a cab but the suspicious driver makes him flee. He finds an isolated house. He <moves around> it before breaking in:

• 
• 

<Inside>⁠DEF the house, the camera resumes <moving around> him as he scouts:

• 
• 

He kills the occupants, while entertaining fantasies of making them <watch>:

❝ First the mother should visit her dead son. She should observe very carefully… how he could no longer move. ❞

❝ The old one had to stay conscious, no matter what. I wanted to strangle her after all. And the daughter should watch how her mother slowly died. ❞

❝ I made a new plan. I wanted to show the corpses to the new victims. I was convinced that I could really scare them with that. I had the idea that I would lock the new victims together with the corpses. That would scare them enormously. ❞

He then loads the bodies into the trunk of a car:

He goes out in the car, bringing the now friendly family dog with him. He gets into an accident, causing many bystanders to <move around>⁠DEF the car and <watch> <<inside> the car>⁠DEF, sending him into a panic frenzy. Note that the scene is shot from inside the car:

• 
• 
• 

He manages to start the car and flees. We later find him back at the diner, with the same people <watching>:

The dog <<inside> the car> barks, making him go outside. He makes the dog <eat> his food.

Policemen arrive at the scene and check on the car, <moving around> it.

• 
• 

They order the killer to open the trunk, while the people that were at the diner, the policemen, and even the killer, all check on the car.

As they <move around> the car, with the <eating> dog <<inside> the car> hypostatizing the killer being <watched> (by the people at the diner during the eating scenes, and then by the bystanders following the car accident), and the bodies in the trunk reminiscent of what he did <inside> the house, they hypostatize the movie viewers when they were <watching> the killer as the camera was <moving around> him since the beginning of the movie. In fact, since the killer himself is among the watchers, the scene plays out like an out-of-body experience where the killer moves out of the car (and out of the subjective view from inside the car) and takes the viewers’ place, <watching> the car-dog-bodies as himself, and giving a very particular meaning to the word “everybody” in the following quote:

❝ [Voice-over from the killer as the car trunk is being opened] The moment was very thrilling. It really excited me. Now everybody’s going to be scared to death. Now everybody is afraid of me. I’m famous. ❞