This one goes out to all of the lonely recluses in the house. Though a romantic horror film is not something out of the ordinary, the approach taken by director Linus de Paoli with A Young Man With High Potential makes the film feel unique. This graphic German melodrama makes for a narrative that builds from a slow boil to shockingly violent, making for one crazy movie.

It is an understatement to say that A Young Man With High Potential is an uncomfortable watch that will elicit a reaction. At times, this film is downright beautiful in its cinematography and artsy in its delivery, but it is psychologically and physically gruesome. I knew nothing about the film going in, and by the midpoint, I was both intrigued and disgusted with the content as well as with myself for still wanting to see what comes next! At some point my worry about becoming desensitized to violence started to kick in — someone gets hacked to pieces but that is not even the worst of it. The film reminds me of current U.S. events surrounding a white male who was pretty much given a pass on the sexual assault that he committed simply based upon his “potential”, so it made me a little tense when I realized that I enjoyed this movie despite myself. A Young Man With High Potential employs interesting shots, characters whose backgrounds are barely explained yet through their dialogue and actions each one feels as though they have a lot of depth, near-silent musical accompaniment that forces the viewer to hear every nuance, and a narrative full of relevance and social commentary.

Piet (Adam Ild Rohweder) is a socially awkward, 20-something-year-old virgin who is a computer genius, studying Informatics at university. He is so averse to social contact that he gets his groceries delivered, only talks to webcam girls (besides his one friend), and is in the habit of waiting for the university halls to clear before going to class himself. One day, Klara (Paulina Galazka), a personable new student to his program, asks Piet if she can work with him on a class assignment. When Piet initially turns down her offer to avoid discomfort, Klara persists and eventually gets Piet to begrudgingly accept their partnership. The two grow closer as they work on the project together, and when Klara brings over a bag of weed one night they open up to each other even more. Elated at the prospect of a romantic relationship, Piet asks to have dinner with her, and Klara innocently invites him to her place. Instead of getting busy, the two get in a tizzy when Klara admits that she doesn’t think of him sexually, causing Piet to leave hurt and angry. Feeling guilty, Klara comes to his place to apologize and try to fix their friendship, but when she accidentally ingests some of Piet’s drugs, Piet proceeds to take advantage of her passed out state, which leads to life-changing consequences.

Piet makes for an interesting character; he is a stand-in for a growing population of men that is on the rise. Whereas villains, like the Joker, are celebrated as anti-heroes, having been rejected from the world and their subsequent toxic behavior seemingly understandable, Piet, on the other hand, while technically the protagonist is not presented as an antihero. Adam Ild Rohweder in the role of Piet was intense, playing him as a dead-eyed, weak, and disconnected introvert who wants to feel love and human connection yet just can’t seem to get over his extreme shyness. Rounding out the cast were mostly women — Paulina Galazka fills the roll of Klara and whose body acts as a canvas, painted with her own blood midway through the film. Laurence Roothooft plays the webcam girl Kylie, whose role as a sexual object is juxtaposed with her humanity as she brings her caring nature to the forefront despite Piet’s social ineptitude. Bringing up the crew of ladies is Amanda Plummer as Ketura, who plays a hard-nosed but cool detective hired by Klara’s family to investigate her disappearance. Her role is all too short, I would have appreciated better utilization of her, as a cat and mouse dynamic between Piet and Ketura would have made this more thrilling. The film is as dangerously calm for the social commentary and graphic gore that is on display — it is expected to be polarizing to audiences but quietly magnetic in its relatability, whether one is relating as victim or villain.

In our technological progression, we have become regressed in our ability to make the connections that make us human. Linus de Paoli does a wonderful job of showing the depressed state of maleness and the aftermath if it is not overcome, however, he sort of fails by not having any real consequences coming of it, which too would have added to the thrills this movie could have benefited from. Otherwise, it is a great character study of a movie, not quite a horror and low on thrills, but a melodramatic entry into the romantic thriller genre. A Young Man With High Potential was released to digital platforms April 8th, 2019.