A New Kind of Nightmare

Copyright 1994 by Michael Huck

Behind the Scenes 4

some black-and-white stills
Copyright 1994 by Michael Huck

Behind the Scenes 3

Behind the Sences 3
Here are some more stills in color.
Copyright 1994 by Michael Huck

Behind the Scenes 2

Behind the Scenes 1

Pre-Production
While looking actually for a cast for a crime story, I met Marlene Marlow and Kerstin Orf and had the idea to shoot a totally different project with them.
Many years ago in school I witnessed an interesting scene during a break between two lessons. One of the most beautiful girls of our school was sitting on a desk. She was very, very beautiful, used make-up like a Hollywood actress and dressed also more like a model. She wore tight skirts and leather boots in all colors. Most of the not so pretty girls were rather jealous.
During this break I noticed next to her on a chair one girl who stared at her body, her eyes wandering up and down. In her hands that girl held a shawl (it was winter). While she was staring at the beautiful girl her hands trembled and she did hold the shwal tighter and tighter. Suddely she jumped up, wrapped the shawl around the beautiful girls legs and shouted very excited: Now she is going to be tied up!
Immediately another girl jumped up shouting "Oh, yes! Let´s do it!"
It was only a short scene in a 5 minute break during two lessons and the shawl they used to tie her up was not really a perfect thing to tie her up. She struggled only a couple of moments and she was free. But I never forget the expression on the face of the two girls, it really showed how much they enjoyed to tie this beautiful girl up. They just loved to see her humiliated this way. I also remembered how the beautiful girl reacted when the other girl started to tie her up. She looked shocked and instantly shouted: No!!! I think she was pretty aware how much the other girls were jealous and how much they´d loved her to see tied up.

There is one still from "Die Schulfeindin" when Angela is helpless tied to the chair, with a gag in her mouth and Miriam and Karin are next to her, looking down to her, smirking, making fun of her helpless victim and really enjoy to have the beauty at her mercy. That´s exactly the expression I´ve seen on the face of those girls in school. Kerstin and Claudia did play their parts hiliarious while Marlene looked great in that scene.

Marlene´s part was very difficult. The running time of the first edited version was 60 minutes and for about 45 minutes Marlene is tied up and most of the time also gagged. There are fighting scenes, lots of scenes that involve Angela being tortured by the two evil girls, in one scene, Angela is tied to a chair and Karin lets her uncanny rat crawl all over Angela.
I do not like rats. This was the idea of the actresses. They came up with the idea and all three loved it. They even got us a rat as I did not really try to find one and when they realized I did not care much about the rat scene, Kerstin got us one from some guy who owned some rats. The rat looked horrible in my eyes, but as the animal was used to humans the rat behaved very good and never did bite one of us, just loved crawling over our actresses who had no fear at all.

Marlene had to find a way to play her part being angry but also vulnerable and in the end with so much hate she kills both other girls. When watching the editied scenes the first time, Marlene Marlow told me how frustrated it was to play the scene when she is captured for the second time. She alreay had freed herself, attacked Miriam and is about to beat her up, then Karin comes back and together they overpower Angela again. Angela already was safe and then A G A I N she is overpowered, she is gagged, she is tied up, A G A I N she is the helpless victim and now Miriam and Karin start the party. This really was one of the most frustrating moments for Angela and Marlene played the part absolutley perfect.

Here are some stills behind the scenes, showing also dress rehearsals.

Copyright 1994 by Michael Huck

Hate and Jealousy - Karin

The Characters 2: Karin - Life is not fair

Claudia Splitt plays Miriam´s friend Karin. She never has met Angela before but she has met kind of Angelas before. Like Miriam, Karin always was the ugly duckling while some other girl, more beautiful and more popular always was there. Karin like Miriam feels life is not fair and she is jealous and she hates Angela because Angela is beautiful and because she has money and because she has a beautiful life.
Karin enjoys to humiliate Angela whom she considers an arrogant beauty. Karin feels inferior and just likes the idea of having her bound and gagged. Karin actually likes to see Angela suffer.
Like Miriam, Claudia becomes a kind of monster without being supernatural. What both characters makes so dangerous is they are real. They are not fantasies out of a horror story they are "girls next door", very, very evil "girls next door".
Karin just loves the idea of watching the helpless bound and gagged Angela struggling when her rat crawls over her body. Karin really thinks Angela deserves to be treated this way because she has all and Karin has nothing. From Karin´s point of view, Angela deserves to suffer.
Claudia Splitt and Kerstin Orf played this sick kind of joy in a perfect way. Here are some stills showing how much Miriam and Karin enjoy to humilitate their helpless victim.
On the other hand Marlene played Angela not as just a victim. Even when she is bound and gagged she somehow manages to look beautiful and superior what makes Karin and Miriam of course even more angry.

Copyright 1994 by Michael Huck

Acting Hate - Miriam and Angela

The Characters: Miriam and Angela

This movie is all about hate and the hate-relationship of Miriam and Angela. It was certainly not easy to play such charcters but both Kerstin Orf as the tormented Miriam and Marlene Marlow as the tortured beautiful Angela did a great job. It was important that Miriam acted out how insulted and hurt she felt when she and Angela were classmates and Miriam was the ugly duckling while Angela was what Miriam always wanted to be, "popular". So Kerstin had to play the part showing all the hate but also playing Miriam as someone who felt extremely hurt. Miriam never thinks of herself as a villainess, she sees herself as Angela´s victim who did steal her boyfriend. From Miriam´s point of view Angela is evil and Miriam punishes her, giving her what she deserves.

Playing the part of Angela certainly also was a difficult task. Angela is kind of a woman Grace Kelly or Veronica Lake used to play, beautiful, cool, beloved and always in control. But here everything is different. Angela is not anmoyre in control, she is now the victium while Miriam is now in control of everything. Angela is the helpless victim, bound and gagged, at Miriam´s mercy. But Angela is not used to be a victim, so even tied up she acts kind of arrogant, still feeling superior and still thinking of Miriam as a person inferior to her. Marlene Marlow played this part absolutely hilarious. Kerstin Orf and Marlene Marlow while shooting created two wonderful characters, Kerstin Orf made Miriam a really frightening character showing what kind of a monster a woman can be in real world, not in a fantasy world what makes this story so awful frightening. Noone is surprised to see evil and hate in a horror movie about horrible monsters but Kerstin Orf succeeded in turning a "normal" young woman in a horrible, frightening monster. Marlene Marlow on the other hand was just perfect playing the beautiful victim in a manner that still let her captor feel how superior she feels. Whenever Angela talks to Miriam she talks to her like a teacher talks to a child but not to anyone she considers her equal. On the other hand Miriam feels strong and totally in power whenever she gags Angela. Miriam enjoys to have Angela tied up but what really makes Angela helpless is when Miriam gags her. Then the beautiful, superior and arrogant Angela really is humiliated. As long as she can speak, Angela can still act brave but the moment she is not only bound but also gagged she really becomes Miriam´s victim. And right here the "normal" storylines change. Usually in most movies the beautiful heroine has all the good lines and the actress who plays a "supporting" role is only allowed to play her part the way to make the star look good. Here, Miriam´s part is not anymoere a "supporting" part but an equal star part and now Miriam has all the good lines while Angela is bound and gagged. However it is amazing how great Marlene Marlow handled this part, managing that even bound and gagged she still does not let Kerstin Orf dominate the scene alone, acting wonderful with her eyes and re-acting this way to Kerstin Orf´s long monologues. Both actresses are wonderful and very convincing in their parts making the many mistakes I made as a very young and inexperiecned producers not be noticed too easily.

Photos: Copyright 1994 by Michael Huck

A Story of Hate

Die Schulfeindin - Story

Die Schulfeindin is a story about Hate. It´s about two women who knew each other since school. Miriam who never could become the person she wanted to be and Angela, the most popular girl. Angela always was the most beautiful girl, from a wealthy family, always the girl every boy wanted to be together with and the girl all other girls wanted to be best friend with. Miriam never felt happy. She soon realized she never will be as pretty as Angela and painfully had to learn that Thomas, the most popular guy in class, fell in love with Angela and never cared about Miriam who had nothing and who always was - nothing. When Angela invited girls to her birthday party, Miriam was not invited and Angela and her pretty friends made fun of Miriam.
Miriam became possesed - hating Angela and thinking of horrible ways of how to torture and kill her. And some years later Miriam accidently meets Angela who is now a student on her way home from university. Miriam follows Angela and together with her friend Karin she takes Angela prisoner in her apartment.
Miriam and Karin tie Angela up and Miriam can´t almost believe she finally has the beautfiul Angela at her mercy. While Karin is more interested in stealing Angela´s money and car, Miriam just loves to see Angela suffer. She tortures Angela and tells her how much she always hated her.
For the beautiful Angela a nightmare starts. Angela always had been the one who told others what to do, she always was the one whom everyone loved. Now she is at Miriam´s mercy, a girl she always considered inferior and never cared much about not even knowing how much Miriam felt insulted when Angela did not invite her to her birthday party and not even knowing that Miriam was once in love with her boyfriend.
Now the beautiful and cool Angela is at Miriam´s mercy, helpless, bound and gagged and Miriam is the one who insults and tortures her. For Miriam a dream has come true.
The girl she always hated is now at her mercy and she can do with her whatever she wants. And Miriam is determined to punish Angela by killing her very, very slowly.


Photos: Copyright 1994 by Michael Huck

Die Schulfeindin (1994)

Die Schulfeindin (1994)

The featurette has been shot in 1994 starring Marlene Marlow, Kerstin Orf and Claudia Splitt.
The project has been shot in 1994 in Berlin.
The story is about Angela (Marlene Marlow) a young beautiful student who meets Miriam (Kerstin Orf) on her way home from University. Some years ago they had been classmates and Miriam always hated Angela. Miriam - together with her friend Karin (Claudia Splitt) follow Angela. They take her prinsoner and tie her up, steal her car and money and Miriam finally plans to kill Angela. Angela, bound and gagged, looks desperately for a way to escape her captors.