The Cremator (1969)
TW: I'm going to talk about a film with a lot of really dark stuff in it, particularly around WWII and the Nazi party.
The Cremator is one of the most terrifying films I've ever seen and the reason is because of how real it is. Ghosts, aliens, kaiju, monsters, etc. aren't really scary because I know they don't actually exist. Even movies about human killers usually give them some kind of supernatural power: Mike Myers is practically able to teleport and he has superhuman strength.
The monster in The Cremator is not any one person, but an ideology that spreads like a sickness. Worse, it targets the most impressionable kind of person: pathetic antisocial people with delusions of grandeur. People who aren't really very important in life and are willing to do anything, break any code they may profess to believe in, just to feel more powerful.
The movie takes place in Czechoslovakia in the months leading up to WWII. Karl Kopfringl has a simple job as a head waiter in a small cafe and has transitioned to working in a crematorium. He has a small family, a wife and two children. It's not a glamorous life but a perfectly normal one. And he despises it because he thinks he should be more important than he is. He exercises what little power he has in the most ridiculous ways: he has a habit of combing someone's hair without asking (and then amusingly, he immediately combs his own hair with the same brush).
The Nazi party is a dream to a man like him. They provide a framework that reinforces his delusions and elevates his status. Any and all of his vices are forgiven and he becomes more comfortable with them; he drank and cheated on his wife before but now he does both openly and in greater quantities. All the Nazis ask of him is to commit acts of cruelty against innocent people, and he's more than happy to make that trade.
He informs on his friends and neighbors, attacks people he has petty issues with and generally agrees with anything the Nazis do. He even begins to have visions of becoming the next Dalai Lama and the reincarnation of Buddha, all because he's convinced himself that everything he's doing is justified. To the Nazis he's just a useful pawn but he doesn't really care what their goals are, he just wants to keep feeding his ego.
It's terrifying because we know that there are millions of Karl Kopfringls throughout history, and many even today. People that embrace cruelty because it makes them feel better about themselves. These people will happily fall for any lie that a talking head tells them, so long as it helps them feel superior. Politicians, cult leaders, radio hosts, online personalities, anyone that leads a movement of hate is essentially creating Karl Kopfringls en masse.
When you watch The Cremator, you watch hatred and bigotry distilled into its purest form.
