"There are precisely three reasons why people drink: First, to forget about the bad things. Second, to celebrate the good things. And third, when nothings going on to make things happen! "
— Siggi Honka to his brother Fritz.
Der Goldene Handschuh (translated into English as The Golden Glove) is a German horror drama film directed, written, and co produced by Faith Atkins that was released on February 9th, 2019 at the 69th annual Berlin film festival.
The film is an adaptation of the novel of the same name by Heinz Strunk, which followed the real life Serial Killer Fritz Honka, who is played by Jonas Dassler. The film has garnered infamy for both its nauseating set design and its grim, disturbing retelling of real events.
All spoilers are unmarked. Readers discretion is advised.
The Golden Glove contains examples of:
- Accidental Hero: The Greek Family living in the same appartment as Honka become this when their Stove sets the place on fire, which starts a Chain of Events leading to the Discovery of the Bodies as well as Honka's Arrest.
- Adaptational Attractiveness: While it certainly isn’t for a lack of effort on the makeup teams part, there’s only so much they can do to cover up Jonas Dasslers granite chin for his role as Fritz Honka. Still, it’s a Downplayed example based on the fact that he still looks hideous.
- In the Novel, Willi looked "a little ugly", due to suffering from Noonan syndrome. In the film, his actor Tristan Göbel does not fit that description at all.
- Generally averted for the rest of the cast, however, as all of them look roughly how you’d expected late middle aged alcoholics to look.
- Adaptation Distillation: Aside from the Plotline concerning Honka, the Novel also featured two Major B-Plotlines, both of these were omitted in the Movie.
- The Alcoholic: Drinking is almost a theme with how frequently it comes up, with nearly every character but the much younger Petra and Willi and Fritz’s coworker Helga being deep in the pit of alcoholism. The worst example, of course, is Fritz Honka, who drinks so heavily that it practically pouring out his skin. Unfortunately, he’s also a mean drunk…
- Artistic License – History: The Movie makes it seem that, except for Honka's first Killing, all of the Murders as well as Honka's Arrest took place over the Course of the Summer of 1974. In Reality, Honka wasn't arrested until an entire year later, and the third and fourth murders took place in December 1974 and January 1975 respectively.
- Ax-Crazy: The end result of Fritz drinking is invariably some kind of violent episode. It’s the primary reason he ends up killing people in fact, as he’s generally cordial (if still unpleasant) when he’s sober.
- Based on a True Story: Namely, the serial killings of Fritz Honka, and only the killings, as everything else before this has been left out of the film.
- Being Evil Sucks: One of the things about the film that gets the most attention drawn to it is how it portrays the Serial Killer character not as a psychotic genius who can run circles around law enforcement and act with impunity, but as a slovenly, miserable creature who kills innocents entirely based on his own childish tantrums and only gets away with it because no one is really looking.
- Bullying a Dragon: Willi ends up offending SS Norbert, a rather intimidating older man, in the bathroom of the titular bar. Norbert responds by pissing on him. For an example regarding our lovely protagonist, see Groin Attack.
- Crapsack World: Hamburg’s Red Light District is portrayed as a filthy, squalid place full of living husks who can find no joy except for drinking and performing depraved acts, and that’s without Honka skulking around.
- Dark and Troubled Past: It’s not featured in the film, but Honka’s early life was a deeply unpleasant series of event based on his own account of his family being locked up in a concentration camp and his father drinking himself to death after they were freed. It’s easy to see where he got his current issues from.
- Demoted to Extra: In the Novel, Willi was the Protagonist of one of the major B-Plots, his full Name was given as Wilhelm Heinrich von Dohren III and was the Son of a wealthy Family running a Shipping Company. None of this made it into the Movie.
- Doomed by Canon: Honka claims four victims, and, if you’re up to date on who is victims are, you’ll be able to see who it is before it happens.
- It’s also a plainly known fact that Honka will be arrested after he claims four victims, so when he reaches that point it’s just a matter of when.
- Evil Makes You Ugly: Honkas lifestyle of hard drinking and poor hygiene has left him looking more like an orc than a person, a fact which does nothing but make him drink even more.
- Girl on Girl Is Hot: Honka at one point tries to get two women he brings home, Inge and Anna, to perform oral sex on each other, which is soundly rejected by Inge, who has to flee from Honkas apartment when he loses his shit. Anna, as you may have guessed, is not so lucky…
- Gonk: Fritz Honka has a wall eye, a huge, bulbous nose, several broken or dead teeth, and always walks with his back hunched forward. The effect only serves to make him look even more ghoulish.
- Groin Attack: After Frida, a woman Honka tries to have sex with, laughs at his erection, he beats her senseless. She retaliates by rubbing spicy mustard on his crotch and then kicking it. This ends poorly for her…
- He-Man Woman Hater: Honka has a very crude attitude toward women, generally just wanting them for sex and becoming violent when that sex is refused.
- Hipster: Willi and Petra give off this vibe, though Willi is this more-so given he has no reservations about going into The Golden Glove, primarily because he wants to get Petra to date him
- Hope Spot: Shockingly, yes. After Fritz kills his second victim, he stumbles outside while drunk and gets hit by a van. This event actually prompts him to quit drinking and start behaving himself, which allows him to get a night watchmen position at Shell and meet a coworker named Helga, whom he is attracted too. He then discovers that she’s married, which is disappointing, but the situation can be salvaged. Then he shares a drink with Helga that causes him to relapse, which then leads to him attacking her and going right back to square one.
- Laser-Guided Karma: Honka is eventually captured when his apartment catches fire, exposing the numerous bodies he couldn’t be bothered to actually get rid of. For further injury to insult, he gets immediately arrested after this discovery is made because he had been following Petra, who he is sexually obsessed with down the street from the bar, leading him right to the police.
- The Nicknamer: The bartender for The Golden Glove has nicknames for seemingly all of his patrons, such as Tampon Gunther (who we see dipping a tampon in his mouth), Ginny Max (who drinks gin 24/7 and is actually named Peter), and SS Norbert (guess…)
- Saved by Canon: A recurrent thread throughout the film is Honkas obsession with a schoolgirl named Petra, who he ends up going after when he sees her leave the bar. Given he’s already killed four women at this point and none of them were named Petra, she lives, and doesn’t even realize what kind of danger she was in before Honka gets arrested.
- Serial Killer: As you already know. Interestingly, Honka is an example of a disorganized killer as opposed to an organized one as is usually portrayed in films like this. He kills purely on a whim without any prior planning or perpetration, and only gets away with it because Police Are Useless.
- Soundtrack Dissonance: The end credits song of this violent, miserable horror film about a real life serial killer is an ethereal, wistful song by Stein Ingebrigtsen called Wir sind jung, wir sind frei which literally translates to ‘We are young, we are free’ for maximum Irony.
- Villain Protagonist: We see things almost purely from Fritz Honkas perceptive, so expect to feel like needing a shower afterward.
