YMMV / Angst

• Awesome Music: The panicked, propulsive score by electronic music legend Klaus Schulze is among the artist's greatest works, and has become more famously idiosyncratic than the actual film. Standout tracks include "Pain", "Surrender", and "Freeze", the latter of which was later re-used in Michael Mann's Manhunter, where it appears during the scene where Graham visits Lector in his cell.
• Fridge Brilliance: The killer rear ends a car almost immediately after trying to drive away from the scene of his crime, then panics, leaving the car motionless for a solid few minutes before driving away. Having spent half his life in prison and the other half with abusive parents, it's highly likely he had never been taught how to drive a car.
• He Really Can Act: Erwin Leder, best known as shy, timid Johann in Das Boot, is both convincing and incredibly unsettling in his portrayal of an Ax-Crazy serial killer.
• Nausea Fuel:
  • If the gore doesn't make you heave, then the camerawork certainly will. Needless to say, it's not a good idea to watch this film if you suffer from motion sickness.
  • Special attention goes to the scene in which the murderer drinks the blood of one of his victims, then graphically vomits it up.
• Too Bleak, Stopped Caring: The main character is a crazed psychopath who causes nothing but misery for everyone involved, which in combination with the relentlessly downbeat, almost nihilistic tone can make the film very difficult to sit through.

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