Luz

Luz is a 2018 German horror thriller written and directed by Tilman Singer, in which a distressed young cabdriver named Luz begins a confession in a rundown police station that endangers everyone who crosses her path.¹ The film runs 70 minutes in its international sales version (German sources list 73 minutes), is shot in German and Spanish, and stars Luana Velis, Jan Bluthardt, Julia Riedler, Nadja Stübiger, Johannes Benecke, and Lilli Lorenz.^{1 • 2} It was Singer's first feature and his diploma project at the Academy of Media Arts Cologne (Kunsthochschule für Medien Köln, KHM).³

Production

Singer wrote and directed the film as his graduation project at the Academy of Media Arts Cologne, where he studied from 2011 to 2017, with a guest semester at the Universidad Nacional de Colombia in Bogotá in 2015/16.³ He worked with a recurring group he calls his "film family": Dario Méndez Acosta (production design and co-producer), Paul Faltz (cinematography), Simon Waskow (music), and Henning Hein (sound design).³ The film was produced by the KHM with Méndez Acosta and Singer as producers, Mario von Grumbkow and Luisa Stricker as executive producers, and was funded by the Film- und Medienstiftung NRW with 20,000 euros as a graduation film.^{3 • 4}

A fast, constrained shoot. The film was shot in Cologne in 18 days between 24 August and 13 September 2016, on Kodak 16 mm film with a DCP screening format and a CinemaScope aspect ratio.^{4 • 10} Singer described the schedule as very fast with few resources, and a mid-shoot water leak at the main set forced a three-day break while a different location was found.¹¹ Although the film could have been shot outdoors, Singer chose to keep the setting ambiguous to induce unease about when the story takes place, where it happens, and how long it lasts between the flashbacks and the main action.¹²

Style and sound

The film is shot and styled as a homage to Italian horror of the 1960s and 1970s: German criticism compares its cinematography, color, and actor direction to the giallo (Italian pulp-horror genre with stylized, colorful murder-mystery visuals) tradition of Mario Bava, and reviewers note a distinctly Argento-like feel.¹³ The film is full of deliberate anachronisms, from 1980s bar decor to 1990s clothing, that keep the time and place of the action from being pinned down.⁷

Sound carries much of the narrative. The film opens with a single shot lasting several minutes while noisy, ponderous synths build before exploding into cacophony, and the music of Simon Waskow and the sound design of Henning Hein become so intertwined that at times they are difficult to tell apart.¹⁴ German criticism describes the film's slow speech with many pauses, its distortion through reverb and speed modulation, and the slow camera movements as delivering the film in the manner of a hypnosis.⁷ Singer has said he researched interrogation techniques on official FBI websites, where he found that every piece of information given to a subject creates a kind of transreality, which became the basis of the film's hypnosis sequences.¹¹

Release and reception

Luz premiered on 20 February 2018 at the Berlin International Film Festival in the Perspektive Deutsches Kino section, then toured festivals worldwide, including Fantasia, the Neuchâtel International Fantastic Film Festival, and BAFICI.^{2 • 1} At Fantasia 2018 in Montreal it screened on 20 and 23 July and was described by Rue Morgue as the sleeper hit of that festival.^{8 • 9} The festival run brought awards for its experimental aesthetic and for Jan Bluthardt's lead performance, including the Jury Prize and Special Prize Best Horror Film at Fantastic Fest in Austin and the Aprile Award for Best Film at Film Festival Milano.^{2 • 15}

The festival success secured a German theatrical distributor, Bildstörung, which acquired exclusive rights for Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, as well as a US sales agent; the film opened in German cinemas nationwide on 21 March 2019 after a premiere on 6 March at the Lichtspiele Kalk in Cologne.^{3 • 2} World sales are handled by Yellow Veil Pictures.¹ Critics responded to its formal control: Variety called it "Strikingly controlled in every aspect", The Hollywood Reporter called it "A refreshing take on demonic possession", and RobertEbert.com described "A hypnotic offering of horror film and atmosphere".¹ German reviews praised it as an unusually assured genre debut, noting that the film goes so far as to let the image go completely black for several minutes while the story continues through sound alone.¹³

References

1. LUZ, Yellow Veil Pictures
2. Luz, filmportal.de
3. LUZ ab 21. März im Kino, KHM
4. Luz, Crew United
5. LUZ, Strasbourg European Fantastic Film Festival
6. Luz, FILMSTARTS.de
7. Luz, Kritik, critic.de
8. Fantasia 2018: Tilman Singer and Dario Mendez Acosta Reveal the Production of LUZ, Dread Central
9. Exclusive Interview: Filmmaker Tilman Singer sheds light on his acclaimed "LUZ", Rue Morgue
10. LUZ press kit (EPK), Yellow Veil Pictures
11. Interview With 'Luz' Director Tilman Singer, PopHorror
12. Luz Wins: Tilman Singer's Eerie, Retro Debut Finally Comes to Theaters, Boxoffice Pro
13. Luz (2018), cinema.de
14. A Slow-Building Haze of Chaos, Simon Waskow's Score to 'Luz', The Film Scorer
15. Luz, Kino.de

Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Horror films (individual works) › Religious and demonic horror films

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026

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