Undergods 2021

The film opens with two homeless individuals, Z and K, foraging for corpses in a desolate, post-apocalyptic suburb. As they drive their van, they initiate a conversation about their unsettling dreams. Z shares a recurring nightmare he has involving “a room with a ghost inside.” This leads into the first of several intertwined narratives.

In this narrative, we meet a middle-aged couple, Ron (the “ghost”) and Ruth, who are the only inhabitants of a newly constructed apartment building. One evening, they are joined by Harry, who claims to have locked himself out of his apartment. Ron, ever the gracious host, allows Harry inside, but soon finds himself haunted by dreams of Ruth’s infidelity and his fears of abandonment. The tension escalates when Ruth and Harry indeed engage in an affair after a heated confrontation with Ron. Driven by jealousy and despair, Ron confronts Harry, brandishing a knife, and forces him to leave, but not before Harry hurls slanderous insults about Ruth. This confrontation intensifies when Ron follows him into the elevator, only to have the doors open, revealing his dead body to new tenants, Octavius and his young daughter, Horatia.

As the story progresses, Octavius tells Horatia a bedtime tale about Hans, a divorced merchant who crosses paths with an eccentric stranger, the “Foreigner” [Jan Bijvoet]. Hans, tempted by greed, plots to swindle the Foreigner out of an invention. That night, Hans’s estranged daughter Maria arrives with her new partner, Johann, who quickly alienates everyone with his self-importance. The situation worsens when the Foreigner discovers Hans’s treachery and kidnaps Maria, leaving behind a copy of E. T. A. Hoffmann’s “The Sandman” as a taunt. This brings us back to Octavius and Horatia, who has fallen asleep, marking the end of that narrative.

Hans decides to enlist Johann’s help in an effort to rescue Maria, leading them to the Foreigner’s lair. Their plans quickly disintegrate as they find themselves in the same desolate setting from the opening of the film. There, Z and K encounter Hans and ultimately kill him to sell his body “for meat,” while Johann is chained and sold to an unknown factory that holds many others in terrible conditions. Johann performs arduous labor for an indefinite period, ultimately succumbing to the filth of his surroundings. During this time, another imprisoned individual, designated #398, wins a lottery held by the guards and is granted release.

Transitioning back to the present, we meet senior engineer Dominic, who impresses his boss, Tim. Dominic and his wife Rachel receive an invitation to Tim’s upcoming birthday party. That evening, they experience an unsettling surprise: a silent intruder, #398, has returned. This figure is revealed to be Sam, Rachel’s former husband and Will’s father, who mysteriously vanished fifteen years ago. Rachel’s determination to cure Sam, who now exists in a catatonic state, strains her relationship with Dominic. Tensions rise as Dominic attends the party alone, becoming inebriated and embarrassing himself before returning home to confront Rachel about his feelings of displacement.

This culminates in a fierce argument about their home life, and the scene intensifies when Sam finally stands and breaks his silence, admonishing them for “talking too much.” In a sudden twist, Sam brutally murders Rachel, followed by Dominic. As the chaos unfolds, we find ourselves back with Z and K in their van, revealing that they were simply discussing their dreams all along. K then inquires about Sam’s son, Will, and Z describes a scenario where Will returns, blissfully unaware of the horror, contentedly watching birds flock on television alongside his father Sam. K seems puzzled by this notion, prompting Z to offer a series of hypothetical reflections. They both conclude with a somber toast “to families,” reflecting on the complexities of their narratives and the potential for different outcomes.