Slaughter Day

Rita (STRAIGHT ON TILL MORNING) Tushingham stars in this odd heist thriller from Germany. Rita plays Rita, a young woman who begins having an affair with a mysterious man (Michael Hausserman) she meets in an art gallery. He takes her to his cabin for a weekend and they fall in love. What she doesn't know is that Michael is orchestrating a huge bank heist with a twist. He knows none of the associates he has chosen and has only communicated with them via his wireless devices. They pull off the robbery without a hitch. While Michael has other plans for his robber pals, he doesn't count on Rita showing up at his isolated cabin with her friends.

This has a few interesting twist in it. The main bad guy handles his charges in a SAW/Jigsaw-type manner with everyone serving a certain role. Tushingham, who looks like Red Skelton to me, is an odd choice for a female romantic lead. But she does possess that weird quality about her that makes her interesting to watch. The German locations (both the city of Hamburg and the mountains) are really nice and the end of the film is justifiably bleak. Director Peter Patzak debuted with this film and has worked steadily ever since. The only recognizable face to me outside of Tushingham was Gordon Mitchell, who plays a silent sniper.