Production
The film was primarily shot in Unterzögersdorf, Lower Austria, from March to November 2023.
| Solvent | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Johannes Grenzfurthner |
| Written by |
|
| Produced by |
|
| Starring |
|
| Cinematography | Florian Hofer |
| Edited by | Anton Paievski |
| Music by | Pieter de Graaf |
Production company | |
Release date |
|
Running time | 94 minutes |
| Country | Austria |
| Languages |
|
Solvent is an English-language Austrian horror film directed by Johannes Grenzfurthner and produced by art group monochrom. It stars Jon Gries, Aleksandra Cwen, Johannes Grenzfurthner, and Roland Gratzer. [1] [2]
American contractor Gunner S. Holbrook (Jon Gries), a former soldier and founder of a private recovery firm, is hired by Polish historian Dr. Krystyna Szczepanska (Aleksandra Cwen) to investigate an abandoned farmhouse in Egelsau, Austria. The property once belonged to Wolfgang Zinggl, a nonagenarian farmer and former SS officer who vanished in 2014 after becoming increasingly erratic—most notably obsessively bottling his own urine. During the war, Zinggl had been stationed at the Chełmno extermination camp, where the Nazis experimented with methods of mass murder.
Holbrook is joined by Szczepanska, local fixer Richie Fischvogt (Ronald von den Sternen), technician Kyle Edward Boll (Peter Plos/voice: Galen Howard), research assistant Cornelia Dunzinger (Jasmin Hagendorfer), and Zinggl’s grandson Ernst Bartholdi (Johannes Grenzfurthner), the owner of a PR company. Bartholdi does not speak kindly of his grandfather and shares some of his horrible beliefs. Zinggl had also been part of a network of ultra-right-wingers but became frustrated with their lack of will to fight and shifted his energy toward other pursuits, e.g., alternative medicine. Holbrook documents all this with a helmet camera, editing the footage into a video diary that blends his material with archival records.
While exploring the decaying farm, the group meets Fredi Weinhappl (Roland Gratzer), a conspiracy-minded neighbor who had long been close to Zinggl and observed his eccentric routines. Because of this familiarity, Weinhappl knows of a wine cellar near the property and leads the team there. Inside, they discover a tunnel and a metal pipe exhaling a faint draft. When Szczepanska touches the pipe, she suffers a psychotic episode and accidentally causes Dunzinger’s death. The mission collapses.
Wracked with guilt, Holbrook supports the suicidal Szczepanska, who—once stable enough—is brought to her home in Warsaw. There, he cares for her while facing lawsuits over Dunzinger’s death. Formerly a couple, they rekindle a fragile bond, but her instability and his deepening obsession drive them apart. Determined to uncover the truth, Holbrook eventually returns to Austria alone, camping in the wet forests near Egelsau in a car borrowed from Fischvogt.
Attempting to re-enter the cellar, Holbrook is caught by Weinhappl, who alerts Bartholdi. Enraged, Bartholdi bans him from the property, but Holbrook disobeys and secretly investigates the pipe with a borescope. To his horror, he discovers a living human eye in the darkness and underground caverns filled with a yellow, viscous liquid. After conducting tests—and already showing signs of erratic behavior—he begins drinking the substance despite Szczepanska’s pleas to stop. The fluid forges—or amplifies—a psychic link between him and Zinggl.
Holbrook becomes so consumed with the pipe that he ignores returning Fischvogt’s car, even mocking his generosity. This leads to Fischvogt physically attacking him and reclaiming his car keys. The attack leaves Holbrook knocked out on the floor of the cellar and triggers World War II hallucinations. When he awakens and leaves, he is cornered by Weinhappl, Bartholdi, and Bartholdi’s frustrated girlfriend (Bibiane Zimba). For the first time, Zinggl speaks through Holbrook in a German accent, accusing Bartholdi of having sold his Nazi relics to far-right collectors in Uruguay to finance his PR business. Zinggl blackmails Bartholdi into leaving them undisturbed. Weinhappl, somewhat impressed by this bold move, offers Holbrook his support.
Through his recordings, Holbrook observes his hallucinations and dissociative episodes—e.g., tattooing himself while semi-conscious. He also grows obsessed with the “cleansing” properties of urine. Weinhappl, increasingly alarmed by Holbrook’s behavior, remains his only local ally, supplying him with materials—and cookies from his wife.
Holbrook discovers documents—proof that Bartholdi really sold the Nazi relics to Uruguayan Nazis—and becomes even more convinced to stay and continue searching. He rambles about his former military life during Operation Desert Storm and the atrocities he witnessed and participated in as a mercenary in Bosnia.
A frustrated Bartholdi confronts Holbrook in the wine cellar after uncovering his past as a child-killing mercenary. He wants all the video footage to salvage the PR stunt he had planned to raise his reputation and win awards but which collapsed after Dunzinger’s death. He also intends to delete incriminating material against him. Holbrook, channeling Zinggl’s voice, mocks him and drives him away. He continues studying the pipe and learns that the pipe system also functions as a representation and extension of Zinggl. For example, Zinggl kills a mouse by emitting toxic gases from the pipe.
The longer Holbrook studies the pipe and maps its underground system, the more cynical and aggressive he becomes. But he also shows physical changes: he begins urinating black fluid and proudly shows off the swastika tattoo he has inked onto his forearm.
During a phone call with Szczepanska, Bartholdi breaks into her apartment in Warsaw, threatening and assaulting her to force Holbrook’s complicity. A distressed Szczepanska tells Holbrook she couldn’t endure the psychic connection to Zinggl, which drove her mad—but insists that he can withstand it. She urges him not to worry about her and to continue.
Alone, Holbrook’s conversations with Zinggl grow violent and self-destructive. Zinggl claims they are now one—“part of the water.” Holbrook rejects this. Zinggl tells him to examine the pipe with the borescope, and Holbrook experiences the device emerging from his own penis—an obscene sign of their union. In an act of defiance, he tries to seal the pipe with duct tape, but Zinggl is too powerful. He cuts the tattoo from his arm with a knife, incapacitating his right hand but symbolically reclaiming his agency. Accepting that he will not leave the cellar alive, Holbrook resolves to “make it count” and extract as much information as possible.
He records coordinates and names linked to undiscovered Chełmno mass graves in his black notebook and coerces Zinggl into revealing details about present-day neo-Nazi networks. He leaks the information to international authorities and to the extremists themselves, with an invitation to “check out the cool pipe.” One of the Nazi leaders, Haneke (Sky Elobar), immediately calls and threatens to kill him. Holbrook then releases a public statement containing videos exposing Bartholdi’s secrets. As he finishes, his body collapses and black fluid seeps from his penis and abdomen.
Szczepanska, who has escaped Warsaw after Bartholdi’s attack, returns to find Holbrook weak and fading. In his final moment, he hands her the black notebook before sinking into the earth.
The credits reveal Bartholdi’s suicide in his grandfather’s attic, followed by three neo-Nazis (Jello Biafra, Jörg Buttgereit, Chris Gore) arriving at the wine cellar—where a human eye emerges from the earth and looks up.
Horror and sound play an essential role in the film. [3] Grenzfurthner says that Solvent forms a trilogy with Masking Threshold and Razzennest . [4] [5] [6]
In an interview with VOD Club, Grenzfurthner explains that while the films in the trilogy don't share a narrative thread, they are linked by their examination of philosophical themes:
In Masking Threshold, it revolves around the ether, the vibrations, the ephemeral horror. In Razzennest, it's about the ground, the earth, what is hidden within it, what cannot let go. And in Solvent, as the name suggests, it will focus on the liquid; on the water that unerringly carves its path, serving as a metaphor for the indelible power of history. [7]
Grenzfurthner used the old farm of his maternal grandfather, Otto Zucker, as the location for the film and also incorporated old photographs of Zucker to depict the Nazi antagonist Wolfgang Zinggl. Grenzfurthner spoke at length about his desire to incorporate the reality of his family into this fictional exploration of Austria's Nazi past. [8] Zebrabutter calls this a cinematic "palimpsest." [9]
Grenzfurthner has shared in Q&A sessions and interviews that much of what the Nazi character Zinggl says are verbatim quotations—from conversations overheard on the street, posts on online forums, or remarks heard in real life. Especially for the Nazi character, he explains, it was necessary to root the monstrosity in realism. For example, a controversial remark about Zionism and the Nazis’ regret of “not having six more months” is actually quoted from a neo-Nazi recruiter on the streets of Vienna during an anti-vaxxer demonstration. [10]
The film combines a point-of-view style with experimental techniques, incorporating elements of both mystery and splatter films.
The film was primarily shot in Unterzögersdorf, Lower Austria, from March to November 2023.
The film premiered at Slash Filmfestival in Vienna in September 2024:
Johannes Grenzfurthner's reliably radical(ly humorous) fathoming of the Austrian psyche in stream-of-consciousness style is a witty and sometimes hilariously low-brow POV-horror grotesque. The director leads the viewer down to dank, damp cellars where yesteryear's gunk seeps unhindered into the present. And the result is a film as visionary as it is insane. [11]
Nightmares Film Festival hosted the U.S. premiere. [12] Dark Nights Film Festival in Sydney presented the Australian premiere. [13]
The film is scheduled for release by Film Movement in the United States and Canada on October 10, 2025. [14]
Critical response has been positive. The film holds a 93% approval rating on the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, with a weighted average of 7.7/10. [15] Bradley Gibson of Film Threat (8.5/10) says Solvent "takes us to the darkness of humanity's most wicked impulses flowing just beneath us, poisoning the water table. [...], creates and deepens a mood of growing spiritual decay. Lovecraft explored the notion that horror and madness could render physical changes, and this is delightfully pursued as well." [16] Critic Anton Patel remarks that "the film deals in serious issues – the most serious – about human nature and our capacity for both evil and good (mixed, as in a solvent). That tonal dissonance between comedy and horror only adds to the discomfort created in the viewer, who is confronted with the awfulness, whether merely petty or outright genocidal, coursing invisibly, and often absurdly, through all our veins." [17] Richard Propes (The Independent Critic) praise the performances of Gries, Cwen, and Grenzfurthner, and states: "Solvent isn't an easy film to watch and it's sure not for the timid, however, for those who prefer their cinema uncompromising and with integrity galore there may not be a more must-see film in 2024." [18] MovieWeb included the film in its list of "10 Best International Horror Movies That Are Too Disturbing for U.S. Audiences": "Director Johannes Grenzfurthner is one of the most unique creators working in the horror genre; Solvent is a wild, bizarre, and darkly humorous ride from start to finish. The ending is the most mind-boggling yet gleefully entertaining thing perhaps ever committed to the horror genre." [19] Rue Morgue states: "You could look at Solvent as the grossest, most festering, conspiratorial, hateful corners of the political landscape, Internet or our own primitive fear-and-control-wired minds physicalized and summoned into life." [20]
