Killer Condom – Vinegar Syndrome (4k UHD/Blu-ray Combo)

Theatrical Release Date: Germany/Switzerland, 1996
Director: Martin Walz
Writers: Ralf König, Martin Walz, Mario Kramp
Cast: Udo Samel, Peter Lohmeyer, Iris Berben, Leonard Lansink, Marc Richter

Release Date: August 29th, 2023
Approximate Running Times: 118 Minutes 41 Seconds (Director's Cut), 107 Minutes 54 Seconds (Theatrical Cut)
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 Widescreen / 2160 Progressive / HEVC / H.265 / HDR10 (Director's Cut), 1.85:1 Widescreen / 1080 Progressive / MPEG-4 AVC (Both Versions)
Rating: NR
Sound: DTS-HD 5. 1 German (Theatrical Cut), DTS-HD Stereo German (Both Versions)
Subtitles: English (Both Versions)
Region Coding: Region Free (4K UHD), Region A (Blu-ray)
Retail Price: $52.98

"In one of the seediest parts of Midtown, Manhattan, strange things are going down at the aptly-named Hotel Quickie. The male patrons, who use the establishment as a playground for their every sexual whim, are mysteriously getting their genitals bitten off, with bizarre claims abounding about a carnivorous condom on the loose. Assigned to the peculiar case, Sicilian-born cop Luigi Mackeroni is initially skeptical - but the matter soon becomes intensely personal when, during an encounter at the hotel with a young rent boy, he himself is attacked by one of the man-eating prophylactics, losing a testicle in the process. It quickly transpires that the Big Apple is being besieged by an entire army of ravenous rubbers, and Mackeroni must work to crack the case before the emasculation epidemic escalates!" - synopsis provided by the distributor

Video: 5/5 (4K UHD), 4.75/5 (Blu-ray Theatrical Version, Blu-ray Pre-Release Version)

Here’s the information provided about this release's transfer, "newly restored in 4K from its original camera negative by the mad celluloid scientists at Vinegar Syndrome."

Killer Condom, the director's cut, comes on a 66 GB dual-layer 4K UHD.

Disc Size: 61 GB

Feature: 60.6 GB

The source used for this transfer looks excellent. Flesh tones look healthy, colors are nicely saturated and at times vivid, image clarity, black levels, and compression are solid, and the image always looks organic.

Killer Condom, the director's cut, comes on a 50 GB dual layer Blu-ray.

Disc Size: 46.1 GB

Feature: 32.4 GB

This Blu-ray uses the same master that is used for the 4K UHD disc.

Killer Condom, the theatrical cut, comes on a 50 GB dual layer Blu-ray.

Disc Size: 44.6 GB

Feature: 30.1 GB

Just like the director’s cut, this version of Killer Condom also looks excellent.

Audio: 4.5/5 (DTS-HD 5. 1 German - Theatrical Cut, DTS-HD Stereo German - Theatrical Cut, DTS-HD Stereo German - Director's Cut)

The director's cut comes with one audio option, a DTS-HD stereo mix in German with removable English subtitles. The theatrical cut comes with two audio options, a DTS-HD 5.1 mix in German and a DTS-HD stereo mix in German. The theatrical cut comes with removable English subtitles. All audio tracks are in excellent shape. Dialog comes through clearly, everything sounds balanced, ambient sounds are well-represented, and the score sounds robust. Range-wise, the DTS-HD 5.1 track does a great job expanding the original stereo source.

Extras:

Extras for this release include an audio commentary with director Martin Walz and special effects supervisor Jörg Buttgereit.

Extras on the Blu-ray disc with the director's cut include an interview with editor Simone Klier titled Rubber and Rushes (21 minutes 9 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo English with removable English SDH), an interview with special effects supervisor Jörg Buttgereit titled Severed Parts (25 minutes 55 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo English with removable English SDH), an interview with Martin Walz titled This Is What We Built! (19 minutes 45 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo English with removable English SDH), an interview with Martin Walz titled A Rough Ride (35 minutes 23 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo English with removable English SDH), and an audio commentary with Martin Walz and Jörg Buttgereit.

Extras on the Blu-ray disc with the theatrical cut include original video trailer (1 minute 17 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo German with removable English subtitles), original theatrical trailer (4 minutes 53 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo German with removable English subtitles), archival featurette titled Would You Use This Condom? (1 minute 55 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo English with removable English SDH), archival interviews (8 minutes 57 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo German with removable English subtitles), an archival making of featurette (9 minutes 37 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo German with removable English subtitles), a short film titled Ich hätt's ihm früher sagen sollen… directed by Martin Walz (7 minutes 27 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo German with removable English subtitles), an interview with prop collector Roman Güttinger titled Really Special Items (14 minutes 21 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo English with removable English SDH), an interview with actor Peter Lohmeyer titled It's Just a Movie (22 minutes 29 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo English with removable English SDH), an interview with actor Adriana Altaras titled What Is This? (14 minutes 3 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo English with removable English SDH), an interview with Martin Walz and actor Udo Samel titled Holy Mackeroni! (18 minutes 45 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo English with removable English SDH), and an archival audio commentary with Martin Walz and Jörg Buttgereit.

Other extras include reversible cover art and a spot gloss hard slipcase and slipcover combo limited to 7,000 units.

Summary:

Killer Condom was adapted from Kondom des Grauens (Horror Condom) and Bis auf die Knochen (Down to the Bones), two comics created by Ralf König.

The narrative revolves around a gay detective investigating a series of bizarre incidents involving a condom with razor-sharp teeth that is biting off John's penises.

From its opening moments, it is clear that you're in for a wild ride. The outlandish premise is superbly executed, and a briskly paced narrative overflowing with politically incorrect humor ensures that there is never a dull moment. And if things were not already weird, placing a film in New York where all but one character speaks German somehow works.

Everything about Killer Condom is hyper exaggerated; the neo-noir visuals are bursting with style; and caricature characters are always played for laughs. The humor is best described as dark. Another reason why the humor works so well are the performances, which are all great, especially Udo Samel in the role of Luigi Mackeroni, a chain-smoking detective who looks like he has walked out of a Philip Marlowe noir novel.

When discussing Killer Condom, one cannot overlook the construction of Jörg Buttgereit (Nekromantik), who worked on the special effects. Anyone who is familiar with Jörg Buttgereit’s films will be pleased to know that he brings that same level of creativity and intensity to the special effects in Killer Condom. Another key contributor was H.R. Giger (Alien), who worked as a creative consultant. Needless to say, the combination of their twisted imaginations greatly enhances Killer Condom.

Though Killer Condom is associated with Troma Entertainment, it was a film that they actually picked up after it was completed. And the result is a film that is too polished to be a Troma film. Ultimately, Killer Condom is a highly entertaining film that pushes the boundaries of good taste, and it is not a film for those who are easily offended.

Killer Condom gets a definitive release from Vinegar Syndrome, highly recommended.

Note about the 4K screenshots: It is not possible to make Dolby Vision or HDR10 screenshots that faithfully match the experience of watching a film in motion on a TV. Instead of not having any screenshots, all of the 4K screenshots are m2ts taken with a VLC player and lossless PNGs.

Written by Michael Den Boer