Title: Nothing Bad Can Happen ( “Tore tanzt”)

Available: 10.14.14

Disclaimer: Thar be spoilers.

Inspired by true events. Tore (Julius Feldmeier) has recently joined a religious organization of punks called The Jesus Freaks.  After getting baptized, he and his friend Owl stop by a broken down van and a helpless family inside. Tore walks up to them and offers his help, by laying his hands on the hood and praying to Jesus to help start the engine. By some sort of miracle, the prayer works and the family can continue on their journey. Before they leave, Tore tells the father Benno (Sascha Alexander Gersak) about their church and they are welcome even if they don’t believe. Benno does show up to a church event where a punk band is playing and he happens to see Tore collapse during an epileptic seizure. He carries Tore to his car and back to his home; offers him food and a place to sleep for the night. The next day Tore meets the family: wife Astrid (Annika Kuhl), stepdaughter Sanny (Swantje Kohlhof) and stepson Dennis (Til-Niklas Theinert). They all spend the day at an amusement park with Tore and treat him as one of the family. Benno tells Tore that he is welcome in their home if he ever needs a place to stay.  Tore goes back to the Jesus Freaks commune where he is shocked to see Owl about to fornicate with a young woman. Heartbroken at his friend for breaking his vow of celibacy before marriage, Tore decides to go back to take Benno’s offer. They offer him a tent and he happily lives among the family and befriends a stray cat.  Benno treats Tore like a son at first, until Sanny’s 15th birthday. Her stepfather gets her a large stuffed kangaroo which obviously disappoints her. Tore offers her his used MP3 player which angers Benno for showing him up and he punches Tore in the face.  Benno apologizes, but his abuse of Tore soon gets worse.   Sanny and Tore sneak into a neighbor’s yard and go swimming in their pool. Sanny takes off her top and tries to make a move on Tore, but true to his faith he refuses, but still wants to be her friend and they jump on a trampoline together. When they get back, Benno starts to molest Sanny as she’s brushing her teeth; Tore walks in and stops him.  Angered, Benno picks up the cat and drowns it in a storm barrel, taunting Tore to pray to Jesus to save the cat. Instead, Tore has a seizure and wakes up to the dead cat beside him.  Benno orders Astrid to start padlocking the pantry and not feeding Tore.  He is left to eat leftovers on their plates and forging through the trash.  Benno finds a rotten chicken and claims Tore stole it from them. He and Astrid force Tore to eat the maggot infested meat until he gets food poisoning.  Benno refuses to take Tore to the hospital, even when Sanny begs him.  While the parents are distracted by some friends, Sanny helps Tore escape into town where she calls an ambulance for him; she begs him not to return to the house.  A nurse tells Tore he should go to the mental institution and claim he is a danger to himself just so that he will have a place to stay to recover; he refuses. He has a vision of Christ during a seizure and he believes Benno is a test and he must stay with the family to take the abuse in order to protect Sanny and Dennis. He returns and things surprisingly go back to normal. A couple comes to visit one night and while playing a game of charades, Benno again is angered by Tore for some trivial reason. He takes him to another room and dares Tore to put a pillow over his face. Tore does and Benno taunts him to do it more forcefully. Sanny walks in and tries to help Tore suffocate Benno, but Tore stops her. An angered Benno picks up Sanny’s electric keyboard and proceeds to beat Tore nearly to death.  The couples tell the children they are taking Tore to the hospital, and lock them inside the house.  Dennis tells Sanny he knows they’re not taking Tore to the hospital.  Sanny and Dennis pack their bags and escape out the bathroom window. Benno drags Tore’s body into a wooded area and asks him “Where is your god now?” Tore reaches up with a mangled hand and points to his heart saying, “Here.” Benno kicks Tore’s body down a small hill into a pond where he dies.

The Good:  The film is kind of preachy, but not overwhelmingly. It shows that not all religious people are nuts, some are very humble and kind.  Tore is a Pollyanna-ish martyr, but also a strong character. No matter how much he’s suffering, he knows it’s for a purpose.  If he dies for it, he knows in the end it was all for a good cause. The acting by all is amazing.  Benno is such a two faced piece of shit. He is the epitome of a sadistic abuser.
The Bad: It’s in German, so you’ll be readin’. I feel physically and mentally drained after watching this film. I kind of feel this is a big “F— You” to non-religious people, which is a little insulting. The filmmakers make it known that this story is based on true events and that’s very terrifying. I guess they had to show how truly evil Benno is, but why’d they have to kill the cat? It’s supposedly based on a true story, but I couldn’t find anything on this event. I only looked for 5 minutes, but even Google couldn’t find it. I want to know what happened to the kids.

You could play that Sarah McLaughlin song from those sad animal commercials throughout this film and it would work. It’s so heartbreaking-ly sad, but a powerful story.

Acting: A

Reviewed by: JM Willis