Edge Rewrite
everything Source code View original
// HTMLRewriter · presentation

This page was redesigned at the edge.

Cloudflare fetched the original article and streamed it through HTMLRewriter to apply an entirely new visual system without rebuilding the source page.

// request.cf · coarse context

A page that knows where it met you.

Only coarse request metadata is shown. This demo does not display or persist visitor IP addresses.

Country
US
Cloudflare location
CMH
Connection
HTTP/2
Language
Not provided

Ray ID: a4658d9c6f74fa14

Jump to content

// Workers AI · dad joke modeWhat did "Der Fan" say to the blade? You're a cutting fan.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Der Fan
Theatrical release poster
Directed byEckhart Schmidt
Written byEckhart Schmidt
Produced by
Starring
CinematographyBernd Heinl
Edited by
  • Patricia Rommel
  • Eckhart Schmidt
Music byRheingold
Production
company
Barbara Moorse Workshop
Distributed byScotia International Filmverleih
Release date
  • 4 June 1982 (1982-06-04) (West Germany)
Running time
92 minutes
CountryWest Germany
LanguageGerman

Der Fan (transl. The Fan) is a 1982 West German horror thriller film directed by Eckhart Schmidt. The film follows a disturbed teenage girl's obsessive love for a pop singer named R who, after meeting her, eventually reveals that he does not love her back, leading to disastrous consequences.

An uncut and restored version was released by Mondo Macabro on DVD and Blu-ray in 2015.[1]

Plot

[edit]

Simone loves a new wave-style pop singer known only as R and does nothing else but listen to his music and write him fan letters. She does not eat, she does not sleep, and she starts skipping class. Every day she waits at the local post office in hopes that a letter from R has come for her. This fixation on R has consumed her entire persona, and she has internalized all her passions into a lifeless shell. When Simone finally meets R at an autograph session outside a television studio, she freezes up and faints.[2]

R instantly takes a liking to her, inviting her into his dressing room and to the rehearsal of his show. Much to his entourage's dismay, he leaves without revealing his next move and takes Simone back to a friend's apartment to which he has the keys. After having sex with her, R tells Simone he will leave, crushing her fantasies of a life with him. She bludgeons him to death with a statue, then carves up his body and places his dismembered parts in the freezer. She then cooks and eats his body piece by piece. When only his bones are left, she grinds them into ashes and scatters them outside the television studio.

A bulletin reporting the mysterious disappearance of R emerges on the news just as a shaven-headed Simone returns to her parents. She writes him a final fan letter, stating that he will always be a part of her, and that she missed her period.[3]

Production

[edit]

The film received funding from the Bayerische Filmförderung and the Filmförderungsanstalt (FFA).[4] Director Eckhart Schmidt later said that after the FFA initially rejected the project, he revised the story so that its events were presented as a dream in order to secure financing.[5]

Désirée Nosbusch later said that she had been assured before filming that very little of her body would be shown, but that nude images from the production were subsequently published without her knowledge. She said she felt humiliated by the experience, although she and Schmidt later reconciled.[6]

Release

[edit]

Under the working title Trance, the film was shot in Ulm and Munich and premiered at the Europa cinema in Stuttgart on 4 June 1982.[7]

The film's home-video release was placed on West Germany's list of media harmful to minors in January 1983, with the authorities citing its depictions of murder and dismemberment. It was removed from the list in 2003.[8]

In 2026, Fun City Editions completed a new 4K restoration of Der Fan from the original 35 mm camera negative. The restoration also reinstated the film's original stereo soundtrack, presented for the first time since its original German theatrical release in 1982.[9]

The restored version opened at the Metrograph in New York City on 28 August 2026, marking the film's first official theatrical release in the United States. It subsequently received additional theatrical bookings in the country.[10]

Home media

[edit]

In 2015, Mondo Macabro released Der Fan on Blu-ray and DVD. The edition featured a new high-definition transfer sourced from the original negative, German and English audio tracks, English subtitles, and an interview with director Eckhart Schmidt.[11]

Fun City Editions announced a Blu-ray edition of the restoration for early 2027.[12]

Reception

[edit]

Retrospective reviews have generally emphasized the film's psychological and sexual themes. Vice praised Schmidt's handling of the film's psychosexual tension and interpreted the relationship between Simone and R as reflecting themes of celebrity worship, propaganda and authoritarianism.[13] Mondo Digital described the film as a slow-building psychological horror whose later developments have helped it acquire a cult following, drawing comparisons with Audition.[14]

Kat Ellinger of Diabolique Magazine praised Désirée Nosbusch's restrained performance, noting the contrast between Simone's emotional detachment and the obsessive behaviour beneath it. Ellinger described the film as a distinctive example of West German psychological horror and a cult work of 1980s European genre cinema.[15]

In 2025, the British Film Institute included Der Fan in its list of "10 great German horror films".[16]

See also

[edit]

References

[edit]
  1. ↑ Macabro, Mondo. "THE FAN". Mondo Macabro. Retrieved 2019-01-02.
  2. ↑ "Cult Cinema Corner: Eat Your Idols: Der Fan (1982)". 13 March 2018. Retrieved 2019-01-02.
  3. ↑ "Celluloid Screams 2013: The Festival's Top Feature Films". 2013-10-30. Retrieved 2019-01-03.
  4. ↑ "Der Fan". filmportal.de. Deutsches Filminstitut & Filmmuseum. Retrieved 2 October 2026.
  5. ↑ "Von Ulm in die weite Welt – Interview mit Eckhart Schmidt". critic.de (in German). 2019. Retrieved 2 October 2026.
  6. ↑ Lebert, Stephan (6 January 2003). "Die Reifeprüfung". Der Tagesspiegel (in German). Retrieved 2 October 2026.
  7. ↑ "Der Fan". filmportal.de. Deutsches Filminstitut & Filmmuseum. Retrieved 2 October 2026.
  8. ↑ "Der Fan – Listenstreichung" (in German). Bundesprüfstelle für jugendgefährdende Medien. 3 April 2003. Retrieved 2 October 2026.
  9. ↑ Navarro, Meagan (26 August 2026). "'Der Fan' 4K Restoration Brings the Cult Horror Shocker to U.S. Theaters for the First Time This Friday". Bloody Disgusting. Retrieved 2 October 2026.
  10. ↑ Gingold, Michael (27 August 2026). "Exclusive poster: German '80s shocker "DER FAN" begins 4K rerelease this weekend". Rue Morgue. Retrieved 2 October 2026.
  11. ↑ Hurtado, J. (17 November 2014). "Exclusive! Mondo Macabro To Bring German Cult Thriller DER FAN To Blu-ray In 2015". ScreenAnarchy. Retrieved 2 October 2026.
  12. ↑ Castel, Jacqueline (31 August 2026). "I WILL DELIVER YOU INTO THIS WORLD: Seduction, Consummation & Rebirth in Der Fan's Lost Germany". Screen Slate. Retrieved 2 October 2026.
  13. ↑ VICE Staff (18 October 2015). "'Der Fan' Is the Batshit German Exploitation Horror Film You've Been Looking For". Vice. Retrieved 2 October 2026.
  14. ↑ "The Fan". Mondo Digital. Retrieved 2 October 2026.
  15. ↑ Ellinger, Kat (23 April 2015). "Der Fan aka The Fan (US Blu-ray review)". Diabolique Magazine. Retrieved 2 October 2026.
  16. ↑ Bitel, Anton (18 September 2025). "10 great German horror films". British Film Institute. Retrieved 2 October 2026.
[edit]
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Der_Fan&oldid=1378087070"