Andreas Schnaas

Andreas Schnaas (l) and the late Lucio Fulci (r)

Born in Hamburg, Germany on April 1, 1968, filmmaker Andreas embraced the cinema at a very young age. Since many of the local theaters in his city didn’t care about how young their patrons were, he was exposed to violent martial arts, zombie films, and splatter at a very tender age. The results, as his films portray, are quite unmistakable. Schnaas has become the poster-boy for Germany's ultra-violent horror film industry.

EARLY YEARS

Schnaas' parents were not always pleased with his choice of entertainment, but recognized his artistic talents and vivid imagination. He used this imagination, compounded with his love of horror, to make his first film at age twelve. The film, entitled Hunted, featured Andreas and his friend killing a man, who was played by his grandfather. His father filmed this feature, as well as many other movies that the boys made over the next several years. With no budget, Andreas took what he had and made the very most of it. It wasn’t until 1989, however, that he mustered together five thousand marks - enough to make his first full-length feature.

FILMMAKING

Shot with his friends over four extremely long weekends, Schnaas' gory tale of "Karl the Butcher", entitled Violent Shit, went on to become Germany’s first direct-to-video horror film. Catapulting into an overnight sensation, the film quickly appeared on video stores in America and the rest of Europe. When asked where he came up with such a vulgar title for his film, he once explained that a pen pal frankly told him, “All you’re making is violent shit,” and it stuck.

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Director Andreas Schnaas

Still spiraling off of Violent Shit’s unexpected success, Andreas created his homage to the undead with Zombie 90 - Extreme Pestilence (1990), the English version of which features the most hilarious dubbing ever committed to celluloid. The following year, he decided to continue the story of Karl with Violent Shit 2 - Mother, Hold My Hand, eventually releasing it in 1992. The fans’ outcry for a final film in the series kept Schnaas going - filming the third portion of the Violent Shit trilogy the next year. Budget constraints kept the film from being released for years, but it eventually saw the light of day in 1999 under the title, Violent Shit III - Infantry of Doom (or Zombie Doom in the US). Andreas also played the killer, Karl, in all three films.

Andreas then directed Der Kelch - Goblet of Gore in 1996, although various issues kept it shelved until 2005. As a homage to Italian director Joe d'Amato, he then remade the classic slasher film, Anthropophagous, changing the title to Anthropophagous 2000 (1999). It was also in 1999 that Andreas began preparing for his next film, which he would release as his “millennium shocker”. The movie, Demonium (2001), was his first 35MM project, made with completely professional actors and shot in English.

Schnaas then directed his first film in America, Nikos (2003) - which featured Demonium star Joe Zaso and Felissa Rose of the 80s classic, Sleepaway Camp. After that, he directed the zombie action film Don't Wake the Dead (2006).

FILMOGRAPHY

• Violent Shit (1987) - Director/Actor
• Zombie '90: Extreme Pestilence (1991) - Director
• Violent Shit 2: Mother Hold My Hand (1992) - Director/Actor
• Goblet of Gore (1996) - Director
• Diabolica (1999) - Actor
• Mutation (1999) - Actor
• Violent Shit III: Infantry of Doom (1999) - Director/Actor
• Anthropophagous 2000 (1999) - Director/Actor
• Dämonenbrut (2000) - Actor
• Midnight's Calling (2000) - Actor
• Demonium (2001) - Director
• Fog²- Revenge of the Executed (2002) - Actor
• Parts of the Family (2003) - Actor
• Nikos (2003) - Director/Actor
• Don't Wake the Dead (2006) - Director