Bernadette will töten (internationally titled Bernadette Wants to Kill) is a German-language black comedy horror film directed by Robert Herzl and Oliver Paulus and written by Herzl. It is a Swiss-Austrian-Polish co-production by Motorfilm, Verein zur Neuinterpretation österreichischen Kulturgutes, and P49 Production. The film stars Julia Dorothee Brunsch, Isabelle von Stauffenberg, Dolores Winkler, and Markus Mössmer.
The film premiered in September 2024 at the Montevideo Fantástico festival in Uruguay and later became available on Play Suisse.
Plot
Bernadette is dissatisfied with everyday life, the artificiality of the internet, and the expectation that she should function as part of society. Online, she encounters the influencer couple Kitty and Peter, who are planning to murder the student Lotte in a livestream designed to cause a sensation. Bernadette joins their plan, but events develop differently than she imagined.
Cast
Julia Dorothee Brunsch as Bernadette Isabelle von Stauffenberg as Kitty Dolores Winkler as Lotte Markus Mössmer as Peter Tanja Golden Annamaria Kaszoni
Production The film was directed by Robert Herzl and Oliver Paulus, with Herzl also writing the screenplay. Herzl and Paulus served as producers. Cinematography was by Georg van der Weyden, and the film was edited by Paulus and André Bigoudi.
According to Swiss Films, the film is a co-production between Switzerland, Austria and Poland. The production companies are Motorfilm, Verein zur Neuinterpretation österreichischen Kulturgutes and P49 Production.
Filming took place in Vienna and Horneburg. After filming had begun in Vienna in December and a planned location there had fallen through for insurance reasons, lead actress Julia Dorothee Brunsch suggested Horneburg Castle as a filming location. Within a few weeks, the castle was converted into a film set. Herzl described the castle as the film's "fourth main character".
Release
Bernadette will töten had its world premiere in January 2025. It was screened at the Solothurn Film Festival in 2025. It was later made available on Play Suisse and was also listed for streaming by Apple TV.
In German-speaking home media and digital distribution, the film was announced for release by Donau Film on 26 March 2026.
The film was also shown at the Brugggore Horror Movie Festival, where Paulus and Herzl took part in a live Q&A.
Reception
Filmverstand described the film as a Swiss-Austrian co-production and called it an internet splatter satire, noting that it contained too much blood and gore for viewers seeking pure satire, but too much dialogue for viewers seeking pure splatter cinema.
A review on OFDb identified the film as a horror comedy and listed Robert Herzl and Oliver Paulus as directors.
Deadline – Das Filmmagazin #117 included an interview with Robert Herzl and Oliver Paulus about the film. The magazine writes: "Bernadette will töten is a darkly comic indie production somewhere between a killer comedy and a social-media takedown. [...] Rather than relying on exaggerated action or high-stakes drama, the film focuses on the awkward first steps of a killer-in-training with the lowest possible emotional stakes. [...] Julia Dorothea Brunsch enters the increasingly bloody story as a total refusal of everything to do with social media, self-optimization, and the end of humanity itself — a divinely nihilistic antiheroine."
References
External links
Bernadette will töten at Swiss Films Bernadette will töten at Play Suisse