Nothing Bad Can Happen hits theaters June 27th from Drafthouse Films
For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. — 1 Corinthians 1:18
IMDb Synopsis by Director Katrin Gebbe
The young Tore seeks in Hamburg a new life among the religious group called The Jesus Freaks. When he by accident meets a family and helps them to repair their car, he believes that a heavenly wonder has helped him. He starts a friendship with the father of the family, Benno. Soon he moves in with them at their garden plot, not knowing what cruelty is there to come. True to his religious belief he stays with them although the increasing violence by Benno is torturing him. Tore is fighting the torment with his own weapons. So a dangerous struggle between libidinous actions and altruism begins. Inspired by true events.
Tore is meek; rail thin, waifish, with toussled blonde hair and brimming with earnestness. When we meet him he seems to have found a family (his only family?) among a small group of Christian punks who identify as part of the Jesus Freak movement. They live communally and Tore’s (Julius Feldmeier) faith is passionate. He is vocally evangelistic and prays out loud. When he and some fellow Jesus Freaks pray over a man’s broken down truck and, miraculously, the truck starts back up, he invites the man (Benno, Sascha Alexander Gersak) to attend one of their Christian punk rock shows. Benno shows up and appears to rescue Tore when he experiences an epileptic seizure which no one else at the concert seems to notice. Soon after Tore’s whole world is shaken when he learns his mentor and fellow Jesus Freak friend is sleeping with a girl out of wedlock. He looks to carve out a new family life with Benno and his wife and kids.
Benno seems like an alright guy. He takes Tore in and treats him as a friend. And yet slowly Benno’s abusive personality starts to shine through. Benno is okay with the meek Tore as long as he is serving the purposes he had in mind, such as someone to talk to and vent to about his family. But as Tore becomes a part of the family and begins to befriend Benno’s daughter Sanny (Swantje Kohlhof), it drives a wedge between them. Benno quickly begins to see Tore as THE problem, taking out much of his abusive rage and malevolence on a young man he perceives to be weak, in part due to his Christian faith, and in part do to his meek temperament.
Tore, however, perceives the world entirely differently than most of us do. As an epileptic, he experiences profound visions of Christ during his seizures which he attributes to the Holy Spirit. Even when his Jesus Freak family seems to have abandoned him and his safety in Benno’s family becomes increasingly threatened, Tore’s faith is tested and emboldened.
This young and lonely man is looking for a purpose. A noble cause. He is looking to live out God’s will for his life. And as he bonds with Benno’s children, most notably Sanny, he seems to know what God’s will is. He must protect Sanny from her father at any cost.
The film is patently unpleasant to watch. First time director/writer Katrin Gebbe makes it clear that she will shy away from nothing and tells an unflinching story which she adapted from a true story she read about in an article. The only real absolute in the film is that Benno is clearly a monster, although his character is fleshed out and human. He seems to genuinely hope to find change or redemption initially upon meeting Tore, but his demons conquer him quickly and his status as the film’s antagonist is secure. Tore is a tougher nut to crack, though, as a character. His meekness is so profound that even as an audience member you sometimes want to cradle him and sometimes want to throttle him. The depiction of his faith is equally complex.
That Tore believes unerringly in Jesus isn’t really a question in the film. As a character he wrestles with God, struggles to hear God’s voice, and even has to hold himself accountable when temptation rears its head, since he has no faith community to support him. But Nothing Bad Can Happen also goes out of its way to remind us of Tore’s isolation, his youthful idealism, and even occasionally visually depicts the spiritual visions he receives in his seizure-states. So while Tore’s own faith is firm, the film doesn’t need to take a stance on whether there is or isn’t a God, or whether Tore’s faith is “correct”. Many people would see his visions as delusion brought on by his epilepsy. And the film allows for that ambiguity.
Tore’s perspective, though, is as fascinating as it is frustrating. We repeatedly see him undergo abuses that caused me to feel far more uncomfortable than most anything I’ve seen in a horror film in years. His insistence on staying with the family and his espoused cause of rescuing Sanny results in horrifying scene after horrifying scene. And you just want it to stop. That is when the above verse from the Bible popped into my head, and I broke through to understanding Tore’s worldview. Tore suffers along with Christ. He sees his own potential martyrdom as the ultimate cause… the most radical way he could possibly follow Jesus. Does this course of action appear foolish to most of the audience, not to mention Benno? Absolutely. But in Tore’s myopic (or is it?) understanding of the nonviolent message of Christ, he sees the quest he was destined for.
As a believer myself, although a largely non-traditional one, I found Nothing Bad Can Happen to be a genuine and truth-filled narrative. As a young Christian I desperately sought a romanticized purpose or cause. Christian music was crucial to my identity at that time as it gave me a creative, pop culture outlet, but seemed to be steering me towards God, which was always important. I see a lot of Tore in young me. Idealistic, black and white, desperate for a romantic or heroic cause. As an older and wiser person, who sees faith as a far more communal endeavor than I did as an angsty teen, I want to reach out to Tore and suggest… “hey man, maybe Jesus just wants you to contact Child Protective Services”. But for Tore, he sees the righteous path he must take, and while I won’t spoil the ending, I will say the outcome of his chosen path, and the collision course between he and Benno, is grueling, harsh, surprisingly redemptive, and largely satisfying.
One imagines that the crucifiction of Christ felt like a total waste, a folly, to those believers who were present. The end. But his wholly non-traditional path, his teachings, his death, and the fact that the story didn’t end there, all add up to Jesus still being relevant today, regardless of whether one believes in him or not. And since Christianity is rarely explored in cinema outside of the Christian culture these days, Nothing Bad Can Happen becomes an important addition to the discussion. A grey depiction of a troubled faith in the midst of a truly complex world. Tore’s journey is hard to watch, and viewers from all kinds of creeds will be troubled and engaged by Katrin Gebbe’s debut feature. American audiences are rarely challenged by the cinema of their own country, and Christians are even more rarely challenged by the cinema created by and for evangelicals. Gebbe challenges her audience at most every turn and the impact is felt even weeks after watching. If you want to be affected by your cinema experiences, Nothing Bad Can Happen is a worthwhile destination.
And I’m Out.
H/T to Fangoria for the great collection of images used here.