Forklift Driver Klaus: The First Day on the Job (2001)

The best way to describe this 15-year-old short film is maybe as an educational slasher movie. We follow Klaus, a new recruit in the profession of forklift driving while a narrator explains us what to pay attention to in this particular field. It all starts off pretty harmless as one colleague manages to get out of the way in time before another falls of Klaus's forklift truck. And in the next minutes, it gets really bloody and people are severed everywhere you could think of. Even if it runs only for 10 minutes, I found this film slightly repetitive near the end already. The filmmaker team Prehn and Wagner did not really have a great career after this one here even if it has become a bit of a cult movie and won several awards. The funniest thing for me in this mockumentary was maybe the acting from the supporting players, i.e. the victims. So bad it was funny. Intendedly over-the-top probably. Actually, the actor who plays Klaus is enjoying a prolific career and has been in a whole lot of movies before and after this short one here. Most of these are hopefully better than Klaus' first day at work. Not recommended.

Well, on one hand it's kind of sad that this has to be the closest thing to a cult movie us Germans have produced during the last decades, but then again, it *is* funny as hell and raises more attention about the dangers of fork-lifts then all the Jaws-movie combined ever did about the dangers of shark-bites.Which is a good thing, I guess, since fork lifters are gruesome killing-machines disguised as everyday tools - especially the titular fork lifter shown in this film. Who would have thought?Another interesting trivia about this movie is the narrator, Egon Hoegen: For decades, this guy narrated the educational TV-show "Der siebte Sinn" ("The seventh sense") about the safety and regulations of everyday public driving. So, most Germans are familiar with his distinct voice, which makes his dry remarks after each brutal accident even more hilarious. This is not the first time, Hoegen used his distinct voice for the sake of comedy; he also narrated the propaganda-pieces in the German dub of "Starship Troopers", giving them an even crazier, authoritative feel.Given it's short length (about 10 minutes, including end credits), I really don't see a reason why you shouldn't give this film a chance. Maybe it will even receive a fan-dub one day, so English-speaking audiences will also benefit from the insightful informations provided here.I guess you can watch it online somewhere, but there once also was a really, really nice DVD of this movie, which compensated the relative short length of the main feature by a sheer abundance of bonus-features, easter eggs and background-information. And it was cheap as hell! Try to get that one!

Staplefaher Klaus is one of those short films that you just have to think "This is just plain wrong." However, it's just wrong in a Bad Santa sort of way. Our hero Klaus gets hired as a forklift driver and proceeds to go around a series of accidents. These range from decapitation, hands getting cut off, impalement, and limbs being severed. A lot of the action was pure hyperbole, and it was funny yet repulsive at the same time. I must say I never knew Germans had a delayed reaction in bleeding until I saw this film. I also never knew that throwing blood on a ringing school bell would cause it to fall to the ground either.

Even though I couldn't understand a word of what was being said, I really enjoyed this nice little movie. I had no idea what it was, but got it because someone said it was a splatter-movie. At first it looks like a sort of educational movie to demonstrate things a forklift driver should not do, but it quickly becomes obvious that it wasn't meant to be very serious when blood starts splattering all over the place.Although it's not really gory enough to classify as a splatter movie (and most certainly *NOT* a horror movie) it's a really good movie, almost as funny as Braindead. (but not as long)My favorite part was definitely the one with the chainsaw, where Klaus impales two co-workers on his forklift and gets his head chopped off :)This is a movie you should all see! It's certainly worth seeing, despite the fact that it's in german.