Eckhart Schmidt, German Helmer Best Known for Cannibal Groupie Pic, ‘The Fan,’ Dies at 85

variety.com:

Steven Gaydos Executive VP of Content One of European cinema’s most distinctive, fearless and tireless narrative and documentary filmmakers, Eckhart Schmidt, died of natural causes at his home in Munich on Oct.

25, only a few days before his 86th birthday. His best-known film, the psychological horror thriller, “The Fan,” was graphic and shocking when it premiered in 1982, and its stomach-churning tale of a cannibalistic groupie was influential on a generation of horror filmmakers, but the film didn’t achieve mass commercial success upon its initial release.

Banned in several territories for its jarring, bloody portrait of a rock star-obsessed teenager, in the past decade the film has undergone a global rediscovery, popping up in sold-out screenings at film festivals (like Thessaloniki in 2019) and a social media obsession to match its heroine’s zeal (but thankfully not her savagery).

Before his multi-disciplinary career in the visual arts, Schmidt worked as a film critic for the newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung, for the monthly magazine Film and for the Bayerischer Rundfunk television channel.