2hotFeature one of my absolute favorites!

Plustown A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.

Hadrina The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Kinley This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows

elanor-3 In contrast to most other reviewers the film worked not very well for me. Probably because I watched it only for educational reasons not because I have a liking for this kind of films. So anybody interested in this kind of film should take my reactions as one of the uninitiated.I think "The Cremator (1968)" is a very black comedy with some weak horror elements (there are no shock elements but some genre situations generating a very slight nightmare feeling). The humour is of a kind about which I cannot laugh. Others obviously can. It is a grotesque more than anything else.Acting is a lot more unconvincing for me than in "Man of Straw (1951)" or "Vital (2004)" {films I felt reminded of}; the film obviously plays in the late sixties (inferred from female make-up and the whole feeling) though it is meant to play in the 1930s. Also in this respect "Man of Straw" is far more convincing. I liked some of the visualisations and some script ideas of "The Cremator" (for instance the protagonist's love for the Tibetan Book of Dead and Tibetan Lamaism).In comparison with the rather good "Vital (2004)" by Shin'ya Tsukamoto the Czech film feels much weaker to me (in atmosphere, characterisation, direction) and less well constructed. It's for certain not a bad film, but also nothing I would recommend with conviction. Thus it gets 6/10 from me.

NateManD "The Cremator" is a film that is dark and unforgettable with its horrifying images. At times it's an extremely dark comedy, but mostly a psychological horror satire. In Wold War II Czechoslovakia, Kopfrkingl is a rich and wealthy cremator. He's obsessed with his job to the point of sadistic insanity. He thinks that cremating people is a way to free them for the afterlife. His hunger for power causes him to join up with the Nazi occupiers. That's when he really goes nuts, he even thinks his family needs to be killed; including his son Milli for being too flamboyant. He takes over the crematory by murdering the head director. He longs to build a larger crematorium, where he can pretty much dispose of anyone not living up to the Reich's standards. Again in his own sick mind, he wants to free them for the afterlife and reincarnation. The film is extremely disturbing in it's psychological atmosphere. Director Juraj Herz builds tension as the film progressively gets worse as it goes on. Amazing cinematography, surreal images and a hallucinatory feel. Herz has created a masterpiece that still remains undiscovered to many. Also the film was pretty groundbreaking for its time with its sexual content and macabre violence. So watch "The Cremator"; it's worth tracking down a copy.

littlesiddie1 This movie tries to be a delicious and outrageous black comedy, but fails miserably.In order to find this movie funny, you would have to be someone who finds the mere mention of funeral cremation to be delightfully wicked and naughty. I suppose such people exist, but I doubt they are in any great number.The thing that makes this film especially irritating, apart from all the black humor that falls flat, is that Rudolf Hrusínský, the actor who plays the lead Kopfrkingl character, is in one's face, one way or another during every second of the film. He is present either on screen or in voice over narration almost constantly. And he is far from a pleasant or charming person. This movie is a lot like being stuck at some family get together and having to listen to your obnoxious, over weight uncle try to be charming and funny for hours. For me, this movie was a real ordeal.On the upside, some of the outdoor camera shots were nice. The tableau that the crematorium and its grounds made was pleasantly creepy and other-worldly. But that's all.

Timothy Damon This film of Juraj Herj, like Morgiana, has a decidedly gothic feel. Karl Kopfrkingl, the owner of a modern crematorium gets creepier by the minute. At the beginning of the film at a family outing we see a snow leopard, peacock, tiger, snake, and a lion - Karl makes a comment that "cages are for mute persons." Later at a fair everyone else seems to be having a wonderful time; Karl looks quite glum. But when they enter a "chamber of horrors" exhibit, he's quite happy and intrigued while everyone else is shocked (it reminds me of one of Charles Addams' cartoons with everyone in a movie theatre crying, except for one man who seems positively overjoyed by the cinema situation).In a sense, Karl lives for dying - or at least lives to compassionately cremate as many people as he can, releasing and purifying their souls for another life. He seems to have a bit of an obsession with Tibetan Buddhism, carrying with him a tome on the Dalia Lama's palace and Buddhist customs.It doesn't take much flattery and cajoling by Nazi sympathizers to put Karl totally over the edge of sanity . . .Quite an incredible film, with good use of wide-angle lenses and closeups to indicate Karl's increasing derangement.