It’s been labelled as pretentious, slow and gay, but I find all that, except the gay part, to be untrue. In stark contrast to other poets on this site I found Otto both entertaining, funny and down-right disgustingly enjoyable at times. The tale of the young, homosexual zombie is definitely not for everyone, I can see why, but to call it boring or uninspired is a mistake in my book – a mistake as big as taking this to be a serious film de art.

Director Bruce LaBruce IS a pretentious filmmaker, and he’s aware that he is. But he fights it in Otto. In many ways that’s what the film is about. As seen so many times in cinema history, the director chooses to set up an alter ego, a filmmaker within the film, and expose all of his own pretentiousness (it’s a word, I looked it up) in a light of irony and humour. In Otto this reflection of LaBruce is of course a woman. Her name is Medea Yarn and she’s trying to finish her epic, political zombie-porno-masterpiece “Up With Dead People”, when she stumbles upon Otto, a real life zombie looking for his past in Berlin.

It’s classic meta-film, blending and distorting the lines between the film and the film within the film, thereby saying something about the filmmaker, but it’s way more than that. Because more than anything else Otto actually is a zombie movie. There’s only one zombie, he never really kills anybody and he can even talk, but thanks to the many scenes from the Yarn movie, you still do get the occasional load of flesh-eating, violent attacks and all the other things you would expect from a zombie flick. Otto does his part as well, devouring road kill and having one of the best zombie walks ever.

So yeah, it’s an arthouse film starring the walking dead, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be funny. LaBruce excels in lowbeat, ironic comedy, putting the moronic figure of the zombie and the German punk clichés of Medea Yarn and her posse to good use. Otto’s interaction with particularly political actor Fritz Fritze - who like everyone else thinks Otto is just an enthusiastic-Troma-like kid who saw the add and can’t let his zombie-act go - is funny, sometimes bordering hilarious, bending genre clichés and even letting the zombie engage in romantic relations. LaBruce keeps these different plotstrings in a firm knot, and shows a remarkable knack for quirky, dark comedy. At no time is Otto supposed to be scary or, for that matter, particularly thrilling. It’s an ironic zombie-satire more than anything.

There’s blood, there’s zombies, there’s humour, and then there are the penises. Oh yes, the penises. I guess this is what scared of the Sundance crowd, because apparently showing a huge close up of an erect zombiepenis humping the wound of a recent victim is still a major taboo. They seem to pop up once in a while in Otto, these flailing penises, culminating in a giant zombie orgy, that’s more or less all-out gay porn, but I didn’t mind much. Sure, they didn’t really have to be there, but it’s part of the films provocative nature – and part of the filmmakers that are actually being portrayed. It’s so far out in many other aspects, that male genitalia seems like a natural part of the grand provocation.

If you’re able to see past the fact that is has dirty, gay porn in it, Otto is actually quite a rewarding and thoroughly entertaining experience. LaBruce knows his horror-history and he’s in total control of his medium. It’s off beat and off key, but in intends to be, and the way this film combines lovely, strange music and wonderfully original gore with colourful characters and muted humour is, in lack of a better word, unique. Just remember not to take it to seriously.