Review of Perfume: The Story of a Murderer (2006) by David S — 10 Sep 2013

Quite a stupid film about a weirdo who kills woman in order to retrieve and preserve their scent. No, I'm not kidding. It's a blend of Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde, Jack the Ripper, and Sweeny Todd, but now about a perfume afficionado.

As far as bad endings go, this one damn near tops the list. Okay, here's just an attempt at describing the absurd ending. The guy kills about a dozen women, bottling their scents to create the master of all perfumes.

He's found out, caught, and sentenced to death. As townsfolk did in those times, the whole town is on hand to watch his death. Before being brought out to be put to death, he dabs some of the perfume on himself (the magical dead girls' scent).

The crowd smells the scent and begins the largest orgy scene of any movie (pornos included). Don't believe me? Too absurd? Go see it for yourself. Even the town's priest gets in on the action.

The father of the last girl confronts him (he's the one who got the confession out of the perfumer), and bows down to his daughter's murderer. Everybody wakes up hung over from the perfume the next morning, wondering why they're laying there naked next to, well, everybody in town.

Oh, and they've repressed the memory of all the events (even the confession by Mr. Perfumer). So he's Scott free. They ultimately charge the man who owned the land where the women's hair and clothing had been buried and hang him (oh, I didn't mention that he was the one who found those items and basically the one who proved perfumer's guilt the first time).

Stupid enough ending, right? Well, it just gets even worse. Perfumer shows up to his birthplace, still carrying the damn magical perfume. He approaches a crowd of people and pours the perfume on himself.

The crowd approaches him, saying how much they love him, and proceed to tear his body apart (very zombie-esque like). And then the stupid movie ends.