Mors Omnia Solvit Movie Review

Currently residing in an undisclosed location to retain the purity of his research, Dr. Abner Mality is a former resident of Northern Illinois dedicated to unorthodox medical studies, loud heavy metal music...and horror. Certain misunderstandings regarding his work have forced him to lay low and adopt a pseudonym. Raised on Universal horror movies and Toho Godzilla flicks, he continues to delve into the darker realms of man's nature with particular attention to film. Some of his favorite cinematic influences include Val Lewton, James Whale, Terrence Fisher, Roger Corman, Edward D. Wood, Andy Milligan, Tobe Hooper, Inoshira Honda and Armando de Ossorio. He's also a fan of film noir, '70s police dramas, classic comedy, spaghetti Westerns, kung fu flicks and pretty much anything that does not fall under the heading of modern mainstream film.

There have been many extremely dark and disturbing films that have passed through the portals of Ravenous Monster over the years. I know, I’ve written about several of them myself, including most recently Pandemonium. That film was hardly a knee-slapping feelgood flick. Well, in comparison with Mors Omnia Solvit, it actually WAS a feelgood flick. Let the Good Doctor explain…

We live in dark and chaotic times, so it’s no surprise our media reflects that grim reality. This bizarre Italian film goes way beyond the usual “mainstream” nihilism and presents an artistic expression of death and madness triumphant. Do not look for jump scares or “lovable” killers dressed up like clowns here. This is 90 minutes of transgressive imagery that might make you gag, grimace and have bad dreams. It’s an overload of darkness that eventually cancels itself out and leaves you feeling like you need to take a shower. Much of this was intended, but the makers of Mors Omnia Solvit just lay it on too thick.

It should come as no surprise that the movie was created by people associated with the modern black metal underground. For the last 30 years, black metal has explored the most negative corridors of man’s mind and the supernatural. It’s a wide-ranging metal subgenre. It travels from melodic, almost shoegaze melancholy to grinding thermonuclear noise that dives deep into Satanism and Lovecraftian ideals. There has been a fascination with stark black and white imagery, surrealistic horror and the ruins of a pagan past almost from the start, which bands like Mayhem, Gorgoroth, Cradle of Filth and Dark Funeral have explored.

Mors Omnia Solvit is the creation of Italian black metal mastermind Samael Von Martin and a group of subversive artists called Congrega Esoterica Padovana. Von Martin was known for his involvement in the extremely underground black metal band Evol. He currently resides in an outfit called Mater A Clivis Imperat. When he and his buddies got tired of drinking Shirley Temples and playing Old Maid, they turned their energies towards this movie, which can best be described as a black metal video lasting 90 minutes with mostly dark ambient music instead of metal.

Be warned, this is not really a horror movie in the sense of a typical linear narrative. Nor is it even extreme horror in the style of The Devil’s Rejects or Martyrs. It is not designed to scare or even disgust. The closest film comparison can probably be made to the cult early ‘90s gory art film Begotten, with its grainy depictions of subhuman beings mutilating themselves. Another touchstone would be Buttgereit’s infamous Nekromantik, which dealt grossly with necrophilia. When those two films are some of your biggest inspirations, you’re not going to be creating kiddie horror for the multiplex.

The title itself reveals the movie’s intentions. The English translation of Mors Omnia Solvit would be “Death Solves Everything”. It lives up to that title, because the film is ultimately about the worship of death and how people achieve it. Within this film, which is justifiably rated X, you will find not just darkness and images of death, but suicide, self-mutilation, necrophilia, drug abuse and a relentless succession of images each more morbid than the last. In the end, it winds up being just too much.

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The film is not silent but there is no real dialogue. Sound plays an important part in it and I have to admit, the sound field for this movie is amazing. It’s a fascinating film to LISTEN to and I think a soundtrack to it would be fantastic. The movie is produced with the help of black metal label Dark Veins Records. Surprisingly, metal plays only a very small part in the soundtrack; most of it falls under the heading of “horror ambient”, darkwave and medieval inspired tones. Don’t expect Von Martin to break into croaking black metal rasps or for blast beats to manifest on the soundtrack.

The imagery is well captured and the editing on this is generally superb. A lot of it (the parts that don’t go overboard with sex and gore) is quite beautiful in its grim spookiness. Old ruins and churches, images of nature at its darkest and rituals featuring masked and hooded characters are strikingly realized, even though a lot of that imagery is overdone in the black metal world.

There is a kind of story being told here. Believe it or not, it is “boy meets girl”. In this case, the “boy” seems to be a morgue attendant who does horrible things to dead bodies, pulls his own eye out of its socket and, just for kicks, masturbates with a human skull. And NOTHING is left to the imagination here. So, what’s the perfect girl for a fun-loving guy like this? How about a miserable Goth chick with hair constantly draped over her face, a major heroin habit and a love for self-mutilation? No, this is not a rom com in the vein of There’s Something About Mary.

In doing research on the film, I discovered that the story is based on the Greek myth of Persephone’s journey into the underworld where she becomes Hades’ queen. I would never have figured it out from what’s in the actual film, which is set in modern times. Here, the love story is really about the love of death itself. The relationship starts out extreme and goes to levels of unfathomable morbidity and sickness. Throughout the “courtship” are interjected scenes of Satanic rituals conducted in hidden crypts and symbolism of the darkest kind.

It is one of the roughest watches I’ve had in over 60 years. What kills it is the length of the thing. Everything that Mors Omnia Solvit has to say could have been said in 15 minutes, tops. Even that would have been pushing it. It would have made an awesome black metal video. With a time approaching 90 minutes, it is way, WAY too much. By the end, you struggle to stay with it, and the darkness has become so overwhelming that it cancels out feeling. Is that what Von Martin and the C.E.P. wanted? I find that hard to believe, but maybe so.

There are admirable qualities here. Photography is often striking and sometimes even beautiful. The soundtrack to the movie is extremely well done. The editing is generally strong. It all seems to be in service of a movie very few of us would care to watch and even fewer enjoy. I’m sure there are some black metal edgelords and gloomy hipsters who will find something of worth here.