Vienna waits for you – Spitzendeckchen
2012 · 26m · Austria , Chile
Directed by Dominik Hartl
Genres: dark comedy, fantasy, horror
Tones: dark, darkly comic, surreal
After breaking up with Daniel, Anna retreats to her old Viennese flat and discovers too late that the apartment is a creature feeding on its residents' youth, waking as an old woman unless she finds a new victim.
Picked by Felix
The scouts
A breakup story that weaponizes domestic space itself—the apartment as a parasitic entity feeding on youth is exactly the kind of premise that makes people uncomfortable because it *works*, and most scouts would've filed it under 'too weird' and moved on.
Hartl's integration of Mitteleuropean gothic tradition with intimate relationship dissolution shows formal awareness; the film sits comfortably between Austro-Hungarian expressionism and contemporary horror, a lineage well-considered and executed with considered restraint.
The decision to keep the apartment's hunger ambiguous—whether it's truly sentient or Anna's psyche literalizing abandonment—hinges on a single recurring sound design choice that reframes every scene, and that's the filmmaking sleight of hand that elevates what could've been a one-note metaphor.