Best German fantasy movies
A curated collection of popular fantasy movies from Germany.
The Unprecedented Defence of the Fortress Deutschkreuz (1967)
The Unprecedented Defence of the Fortress Deutschkreuz (1967)
A satire on war and on the stupid things war inspires people to do. Four young men enter an abandoned fortress. Inside, they find military uniforms, which they immediately resolve to use to stage a bizarre war game. Their actions appear all the more senseless in relation to the peaceful everyday reality of the workers in the surrounding countryside.
The Door (2009)
The Door (2009)
A successful artist loses control of his life after his young daughter's death. A chance for a new start appears, but all is not what it seems.
The Samurai (2014)
The Apple (1980)
The Apple (1980)
In the glitzy, glittering futuristic world of 1994, music is king -- and the man who controls it is all-powerful malicious mogul Mr. Boogalow. Now he has his eye on two fresh-faced young singers, Alphie and Bibi, who score a hit at his WorldVision Song Festival and fall under the irresistible spell of fame, money, and temptation.
Tears of Kali (2004)
Tears of Kali (2004)
Helmed by writer-director Andreas Marschall - and a piece of fiction passing as fact - the direct-to-video horror indie Tears of Kali returns to the early eighties and plunges into a nightmarish scenario wrought when several EST-like groups establish themselves in India. One of the more extreme communes, the Taylor-Eriksson cult, carries its "quest for self-knowledge" to a malevolent end, with numerous group members trapped, tortured, murdered and mutilated. Tears of Kali tells their twisted and disturbing story. Mathieu Carriere, Peter Martell, Cora Chilcott, Vronie Kiefer, and Nuran Celik head the ensemble cast.
Ghost Chase (1987)
Ghost Chase (1987)
In an old Hollywood mansion, the spirit of an old family retainer inhabits an old grandfather clock. When a movie company uses the mansion for a film, the spirit inhabits the body of an alien and persuades the two filmmakers to track down an old house that will resolve a family scandal.
A Daughter Of Destiny (1928)
A Daughter Of Destiny (1928)
Hanns Heinz Ewers' grim science-fiction novel Alraune has already been filmed twice when this version was assembled in 1928. In another of his "mad doctor" roles, Paul Wegener plays Professor Brinken, sociopathic scientist who combines the genes of an executed murderer with those of a prostitute. The result is a beautiful young woman named Alraune (Brigitte Helm), who is incapable of feeling any real emotions -- least of all guilt or regret. Upon attaining adulthood, Alraune sets about to seduce and destroy every male who crosses her path. Ultimately, Professor Brinken is hoist on his own petard when he falls hopelessly in love with Alraune himself. Alraune was remade in 1930, with Brigitte Helm repeating her role, and again in 1951, with Hildegarde Knef as the "heroine" and Erich von Stroheim as her misguided mentor.
Silver and the Book of Dreams (2023)
Silver and the Book of Dreams (2023)
When Liv moves to London, she meets the mysterious Henry and his group of friends, who pull her into the enthralling world of dream-travel. She and her newfound band of dream-wanderers conduct a ritual to make their biggest dream come true, but it demands the gravest sacrifice.
Destiny (1921)
Destiny (1921)
As a young couple stops and rests in a small village inn, the man is abducted by Death and is sequestered behind a huge doorless, windowless wall. The woman finds a mystic entrance and is met by Death, who tells her three separate stories set in exotic locales, all involving circumstances similar to hers.
The Doll (1919)
The Doll (1919)
The misadventures of an effete young man who must get married in order to inherit a fortune. He opts to purchase a remarkably lifelike doll and marry it instead, not realizing that the doll is actually the puppet-maker’s flesh-and-blood daughter in disguise.
Heart of Stone (2016)
Heart of Stone (2016)
Peter and Lisbeth are two young but unfortunate lovers living in a rigid rural community in the Black Forest. She comes from a wealthy family of glassblowers; he is a poor coal worker on the lower end of society. To become rich and respected, Peter makes a pact with a devil named Dutch Michael, who rips out his heart and replaces it with a stone. Robbed of all warmth and feeling, Peter becomes a cold-hearted go-getter who rapidly achieves his goals. Ruthlessly he strives for money and power.
Melancholie der Engel (2009)
Melancholie der Engel (2009)
Marian Dora’s second feature-length film Melancholie der Engel is a 165 minute neo-pagan cinematic Nachtmahr of dreamy Dionysian depravity. Germany. Two friends - Katze and Brauth - meet again after a long time in a sad context, to share their last days of life in an old house lost in the countryside. They invite a group of people (two minors, a woman, an elderly man and his younger companion who moves in a wheelchair) with the aim of putting into practice their most twisted fantasies, giving life to a nihilistic orgy with disconcerting results.
The Devil's Plaything (1973)
The Devil's Plaything (1973)
Three women head home to collect their inheritance, but they stumble upon a group of witches trying to bring their vampire leader back to life.
The Nine Lives of Tomas Katz (2000)
The Nine Lives of Tomas Katz (2000)
The last day of creation. A stranger arrives in London. No one knows who he is or where he has come from. By the time he leaves, the entire universe will have been erased.
Eerie Tales (1919)
Eerie Tales (1919)
A demon, a reaper, and the ghost of a prostitute read gothic short stories and act them out.
The Haunted Castle (1960)
The Haunted Castle (1960)
The ghosts of thieves help a beautiful young countess save her inherited castle from modern developers in this comic horror/musical.
The Metropolitan Opera: Siegfried (2011)
The Metropolitan Opera: Siegfried (2011)
Robert Lepage’s remarkable Met Opera production of Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen, the 2013 Grammy Award Winner for Best Opera Recording, is now available as individual DVDs. Siegfried features Bryn Terfel, Jay Hunter Morris, and Deborah Voigt, with Fabio Luisi conducting.
Nosferatu (1922)
Nosferatu (1922)
The mysterious Count Orlok summons Thomas Hutter to his remote Transylvanian castle in the mountains. The eerie Orlok seeks to buy a house near Hutter and his wife, Ellen. After Orlok reveals his vampire nature, Hutter struggles to escape the castle, knowing that Ellen is in grave danger. Meanwhile Orlok's servant, Knock, prepares for his master to arrive at his new home.
BloodRayne (2005)
BloodRayne (2005)
In 18th-century Romania, after spending much of her life in a traveling circus, human-vampire hybrid Rayne escapes and plots to take down her father, Kagan, the evil vampire king. When she's discovered by three vampire hunters, she manages to convince them to spare her life and join her cause. But slaying a vampire as powerful as Kagan will be no easy task.
The Golem: How He Came Into the World (1920)
The Golem: How He Came Into the World (1920)
In 16th-century Prague, a rabbi creates the Golem - a giant creature made of clay. Using sorcery, he brings the creature to life in order to protect the Jews of Prague from persecution.
Ever After (2019)
Ever After (2019)
An apocalyptic female buddy movie. Two years ago zombies took over the earth. Weimar and Jena are the last places of human civilisation. Vivi and Eva have to fight the undead together, as well as the demons of their past.
Waxworks (1924)
Waxworks (1924)
A poet is hired by the owner of a wax museum in a circus to write tales about Harun al Raschid, Ivan the Terrible and Jack the Ripper. While writing, the poet and the daughter of the owner, Eva, fantasize the fantastic stories and fall in love for each other.
The Golem (1915)
The Golem (1915)
This mostly lost film is often confused with director Paul Wegener third and readily available interpretation of the legend; Der Golem, wie er in die Welt kam (1920). In this version of the golem legend, the golem, a clay statue brought to life by Rabbi Loew in 16th century Prague to save the Jews from the ongoing brutal persecution by the city's rulers, is found in the rubble of an old synagogue in the 20th century. Brought to life by an antique dealer, the golem is used as a menial servant. Eventually falling in love with the dealer's wife, it goes on a murderous rampage when its love for her goes unanswered.
Malpertuis (1971)
Malpertuis (1971)
Malpertuis is the name of an old, rambling mansion which is in reality a labyrinth where characters from Greek mythology are imprisoned by the bedridden Cassavius. He manages to keep them, as well as his nephew and niece, prisoners even after his death, through a binding testament. As Jan, the nephew, unravels the mystery, he discovers that he cannot escape the house because Malpertuis is far more significant than he was led to believe.
Warning Shadows (1923)
Warning Shadows (1923)
During a dinner given by a wealthy baron and his wife, attended by four of her suitors in a 19th century German manor, a shadow-player rescues the marriage by giving all the guests a vision what might happen tonight if the baron stays jealous and the suitors do not reduce their advances towards his beautiful wife. Or was it a vision?
Qissa: The Tale of a Lonely Ghost (2013)
Qissa: The Tale of a Lonely Ghost (2013)
Set in post-colonial India, Qissa tells the story of Umber Singh, a Sikh who is forced to flee his village due to ethnic cleansing at the time of partition in 1947. Umber decides to fight fate and builds a new home for his family. When Umber marries his youngest child Kanwar to Neeli, a girl of lower caste, the family is faced with the truth of their identities; as individual ambitions and destinies collide in a struggle with eternity.
Bloodsuckers (2022)
Bloodsuckers (2022)
1928: Lyovuschka, a Soviet worker, is cast in the role of Trotsky for Eisenstein‘s latest film, but quickly finds his dreams of an actor‘s life shattered when Trotsky falls into Stalin‘s disfavor. Exiled from his homeland, he poses as a wealthy baron and finds himself stuck in a glamorous seaside resort in Germany awaiting a barge that will take him to Hollywood. A summer romance kicks off when he meets the eccentric factory owner Octavia Flambow-Jansen - it's just too bad there are vampires around.
Faraway, So Close! (1993)
Faraway, So Close! (1993)
Damiel is now married to Marion, runs the pizzeria “Da Angelo” and the two have a child. The solitarily remaining angel Cassiel is more and more dissatisfied with his destiny as a mere observer of human life and finally decides to take the great leap. As Karl Engel he soon gets into a dubious milieu and finds himself as the assistant of the German American Baker, who makes his money with shady arms deals and sends films east in exchange for weapons. Cassiel’s adventure turns into a “thriller” when he decides to put a stop to Baker’s game.
Faust (2011)
Faust (2011)
A doctor in early 19th-century Germany becomes infatuated with the sister of a man he unintentionally killed and bargains with the Devil incarnate to conjure their union in exchange for his soul.
Mara and the Firebringer (2015)
Mara and the Firebringer (2015)
Mara Lorbeer, a fifteen year old girl, finds out that she has to save the world because the Norse god Loki is threatening to break free of his chains.