If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

But I didn't get one. Instead, I get a debut film from gore master, Ittenbach, back when he was a teen. Yes, you heard folks, Ittenbach was at his teen years when this was made, and boy did he have a sick, twisted mind; and he does prove that by making the most god- awful of debuts, BLACK PAST, which wants to be the new EVIL DEAD (the movie that stars Bruce Campbell, that stunk too), because he drags scenes too long, like when Thommy (why is there even an H I will never know) kills his girlfriend, who was suddenly possessed by the devil of the mirror he stupidly took from a wooden box, that keeps coming back and we just wonder where we've seen this already. Now let's get to reviewing to this "video". The acting is terrible. Ittenbach might not have heard of a take, because these people cannot act. The story isn't even good, like really? A mirror with a dark past which is possessed by the devil by what? We never know because this movie lacks logic. There is tons of gore (like if you want to call it that) thrown over this movie you might want to be screwed over by it, but sadly I'm not one. The main character, Thommy is a whiny idiot. How's it going over there being a drama queen, you bad actor? What? You're not as good as Tom Savini?

The eighties was the time of the slashers and the goreflicks. Germany became know due to Buttgereit and Ittenbach. Buttgereit made some weird ones , Ittenbach the gory ones. This is his first one and appearing himself as the main character. The home made one starts of extreme slow and nothing happens, although the first minute was promising, a child killed by an axe. But when his girlfriend becomes possessed the movie really starts. Olaf had some weird dreams were his girlfriend reappears from the dead, again and again, just like Raimi's Evil Dead. That's where the movie becoming a real gore classic, amounts of blood is flowing, bodies are mutilated, a real mess. So that's why Olaf became a cultdirector, he made a lot of other classics like Burning Moon and House of Blood and of course the real gory one Premutos. A keeper

For all ultra-gore fans, "Black Past" its a "Z" home-made flick, the screenplay is ridiculous, but who cares, what we care, is the ultra gore and sadistic scenes.Its Olaf Ittenbach first flick, and i think thats is pretty good, for an ultra amateur movie. The special effects are superb, the acting is terrible, the footage too, but the all point of this flick is too shock with brutal graphic violence.If you like "Black Past", i recommend: "Burning Moon" and "Premutos" (two flicks from Olaf Ittenbach), "Evil Dead"(Sam Raimi), "VS3:Infantry of Doom"(Andrea Schnnas)

Among the other German homemade-splatter videos, Ittenbach's BLACK PAST is one of the best: very well done, especially if you consider all the limits of the video technology at that time. The same can be said about the special effects, entirely done by Ittenbach himself: they're quiet impressive and realistic, not like the red paint and cardboard used by Schnaas in his debut video (of the same year) VIOLENT SH*T. The cinematography and the acting are on a amateur level, but this is obvious and we can't blame it. The story is maybe a little bit slow at the beginning, but its short running time (something like 45 minutes) gives it a good rhythm and keeps it away from becoming boring.