Exorcising the devil, the possessed who speak Latin, and in between the investigators who fight against the underworld with Old Testament convictions: in the episode “Gateway to Hell” death is a Viennese.
Instead of going to the Ferris wheel, the Viennese investigators Bibi Fellner (Adele Neuhauser) and Moritz Eisner (Harald Krassnitzer) go to the church.
Arch-Catholic Vienna has always been good for diabolical anecdotes, but in this case the Danube metropolis is kidding itself. The city presents itself as the devil’s control center. Logically actually, logically: The many rich churches must provoke the Antichrist; and the most spectacular, St. Stephen’s Cathedral, may even play a leading role this time.
The Archdiocese of Vienna, who is warmly thanked in the credits, generously supported this “crime scene”. One cannot claim that the priest actors would give her anything in return. But what the actor Lukas Watzl from the series “Vorstadtweiber” does in his role as Kaplan Raimund will not be forgotten so quickly. Whether he helps the good reputation of the church: rather less.
House style liberation theology
Not on the Steffl, but at the foot of a no less impressive sacred building, the first murder victim is found, befitting his status: Prelate Manfred, a Viennese liberation theologian. In his hand he is holding an upside-down pentagram, his employer’s calling card, so to speak, without Satan there is no God , alright. It is not clear: Who executed the dead man so hard-heartedly, who had earned his bread in the “liberation service” of the Catholic Church – he freed the possessed from demons? The deceased died in the night after an expulsion. There are no coincidences in the Bible either.
Investigating the murder is fun for Bibi Fellner (Adele Neuhauser) and Moritz Eisner (Harald Krassnitzer). Instead of going up the Ferris wheel, you go down into the underworld. Bibi soon becomes skeptical, but Moritz remains true to his conviction that black magic is nonsense. The destination of the two in the depths of the city has proven itself since Carol Reed’s “The Third Man”. The catacombs and sewers are compelling backdrops, and Thomas Roth’s writing and direction use them to great effect.
The prelate was also deep down in Vienna when he was looking for the “gate to hell”. Is it actually there, or rather on the banks of the Danube, where – and here the story of Roth coincides with the story of the city – the last witch was executed? Investigators follow the rumours, albeit always three paces behind the real hotshot, Dr. Modest: Sven-Eric Bechtolf plays him as a windy psychiatrist who officially certifies an obsession for those seeking help in exorcising the devil. Moritz Eisner once addresses him as “Doktor Strange”, it’s the only tired joke in a film rich in lively wit and irony.
Catholic zombies, have they ever lived?
But the underworld also pops up in a different way with Bibi Fellner. “What’s going on there?” she asks Moritz with wide, terrified eyes that you don’t usually see in her. Suddenly her apartment is haunted. An old pimp acquaintance (Roland Düringer) – «Hello, Bibi, you old liquor thrush!» – wants to know the reasons: They lie in Fellner’s childhood with an occult grandmother in Lower Austria. And anyway, Bibi is known to have a much too soft heart. Demons can’t stand good people to death.
And good actors can do the demonic so skillfully that soon Moritz Eisner also has to believe in paranormal phenomena: Düringer, a blessed cabaret artist before the Lord, plays himself as a conspiracy theorist and Satan-Spezl at the height of madness. There’s no going back from here, just the right ammo. The packaging says “For Zombies”.
Sunday, 8.05/8.15 p.m., SRF 1 / ARD.